The Minister of Economy and Knowledge of the Government of Catalonia, Andreu Mas-Colell, presented yesterday the Knowledge Industry Programme sponsored by the Government to encourage the development of new science-based companies. The presentation ceremony also featured the participation of the Secretary for Universities and Research, Antoni Castellá, and the Minister-delegate of the ICF (Catalan Institute of Finances), Josep Ramon Sanromà. Other participants included entrepreneurs Ernest Mendoza from Goldemar Solutions –based at the Parc Cientific de Barcelona–, and Jaume Amat from Bioemprèn, who explained their experience in creating a company based on science and technology. Special emphasis was placed on how such a program can help speed up and professionalize processes.

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Ernest Mendoza holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Barcelona (UB). He has worked in top research institutions of Catalonia such as the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) and now, as an aggregate professor, in the Center for Research in Nanoengineering (CRnE) of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC). He has also been a researcher at the University of Surrey (UK), the Centre de Recherche sur les Très Basses Températures (Grenoble) and at Chalmers University (Gothenburg).

Ernest took the leap from public research into the business world in 2011 with the founding of Goldemar, a spin-off of the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), the result of the culmination of his research in the field of catalysis, started in 2006. The biotech specializes in the development of advanced materials for applications in the field of air purification and removal of toxic contaminating emissions harmful to health that encompass multiple industries such as automotive, food, defense and aerospace, and home appliances.

Throughout his career, he has won the Ecoentrepreneur XXI Award and the Sustainable Mobility from the Altran Foundation and has participated in the Innova Programme of the UPC and in the Ecoentrepreneur programme, organized by Barcelona Activa, La Caixa, Gamesa, the Catalan Institute Energy and the Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona. This October Ernest Mendoza was selected to participate in the touring exhibition ‘ Ahir, avui, demà: Catalunya Emprèn ‘ (‘Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: Catalonia Entrepreneur’).

Transfer technology and knowledge to the business sector

The aim of the programme is to stimulate the creation of spin-off companies that have been created from the research undertaken at a university or research centre. Therefore, the program will mobilize in the next five years up to 30 million euros, 6.2 each year, of which 4.7 million will be public capital and 1.5 private capital, which will be invested in these new startups. The idea is to create a funding and support framework, which, depending on the maturity of the project, will make it easier for entrepreneurs to set up and work for their own business.

This is one of the first programmes to benefit from the ERDF (2014-2020) funding period. Thus, the Government follows the indications of the European Union to transfer the allocation of this funding in the field of knowledge (From bricks to brains).

The date for application to the new programme will be 18 November, when the subsidies will be made available to allocate 20 seeding and 7-8 prototype programmes. In the primary evaluation phase the subsidy programme includes a training and mentoring phase coordinated by the UC Berkeley as part of the agreements subscribed to by the Catalan Government and the universities of California. UC Berkeley is in charge of coordinating the training programme for entrepreneurial scientists on the West Coast, which has been run by the National Science Foundation in the USA since 2011.