EATRIS Institute IDIBELL Sees Record Participation in the IV Health Innovation Awards

The call for the fourth edition of the XarSMART and Viladecans The Style Outlet awards receives 73 nominations from 34 institutions that confirm the growth potential of the Catalan biomedical ecosystem. With an endowment of 25 thousand euros, it is one of the most important public-private biomedical innovation awards in Catalonia and aims to promote the healthcare application of medical technologies developed by research teams from locally-based research centres and universities.

The XarSMART and Viladecans The Style Outlet Health Innovation Awards consolidate their commitment and confirm the good health of the Catalan biomedical research ecosystem. The fourth edition of the award has closed with record numbers of applications: 73 proposals from 34 research centres and university research groups from all over the territory interested in guaranteeing the transfer of the solutions developed. This notable increase in the number of applications is due, on the one hand, to the consolidation of the call – which is celebrating its fourth edition – and, on the other, to the growth and territorial expansion of the XarSMART network, which since 2023 has more than doubled the number of member entities and research groups.

The award will unveil the winning initiative on 15th December 2025. It is endowed with 25 thousand euros – 10 thousand in cash provided by Viladecans The Style Outlets and 15 thousand through XarSMART services – which will be used to guarantee the transition of innovation projects based on technologies from the academic environment to a healthcare and commercial development strategy that brings the results of research closer to patients and the market in the form of high-value solutions.

As Miguel Souto, Director of Business Development and Innovation at the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), the driving force behind XarSMART, analyses, the characteristics of the applications received show the particularities and strengths of the biomedical research ecosystem in Catalonia: “We have valuable research groups connected to each other, with candidacies promoted by various research centers in a choral way; we detected a trend towards decentralisation with high-potential proposals from Tarragona, Lleida, Girona and the coast, and there continues to be a significant weight in the oncology field, with projects that focus on new therapies and digital health solutions”. This edition also confirms the interest in the development of solutions in areas such as cardiology, pediatrics and women’s health.

María Jesús Montesinos, manager of Viladecans The Style Outlets, expressed her satisfaction with the transcendental momentum that the award has experienced: “We are deeply proud of the Health Innovation Awards. Seeing how our initiative has grown with a strategic ally like XarSMART and how it is consolidating itself as a benchmark in the Catalan biomedical ecosystem shows that public-private collaboration can generate a tangible impact. Supporting talent, knowledge transfer and the development of medical solutions that improve people’s lives is part of our commitment to the territory and to innovation with purpose.”

The complex path from lab to market

The applications received have already executed an experimental proof of concept, and have a complex way to go to consolidate themselves as attractive spin-offs to raise funds within the formal investment circuit or to be licensed to pharmaceutical or medtech companies that continue development to the clinical phase and the market.

To avoid the decrease that occurs between laboratory development and market launch, apart from the economic contribution, the award includes the support of the winning initiative by the XarSMART driving team. The objective is to guide the research team in such basic issues as the development of the business plan or market analysis, to other highly specific fields such as regulatory strategy, intellectual property or the search for investors or licensees. The team that will offer this advice is the same one involved in successful market launches of projects born at IDIBELL such as the spin-offs RemAb, which has already started clinical trials, Aptadel or AtG.

The objective of XarSMART is to increase the capacity to transfer innovative projects to the market, with fast development times, to achieve an immediate impact on the ecosystem and citizens. The initiative offers projects easy and fast access to experts in regulatory, eHealth, data science or precision medicine, without the need to hire consulting sessions for every need.

XarSMART is an initiative to promote the generation of medical technologies and new companies in the field of Personalized Precision Medicine for the Catalan life sciences and health ecosystem. Coordinated by IDIBELL’s Innovation and Business Development Area and with the financial support of AGAUR, XarSMART is made up of 30 institutions and 65 research groups, and focuses on three important areas: advanced therapies, medical devices and data science.

The Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) is a research centre created in 2004 and specialising in cancer, neuroscience, translational medicine and regenerative medicine. It has a team of more than 1,500 professionals who, from 73 research groups, publish more than 1,400 scientific articles a year. L’IDIBELL is participated by the Bellvitge University Hospital and the Viladecans Hospital of the Catalan Health Institute, the Catalan Institute of Oncology, the University of Barcelona and the City Council of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat.

IDIBELL is a member of the Campus d’Excelencia Internacional of the University of Barcelona HUBc and is part of the CERCA institution of the Generalitat de Catalunya. In 2009 it became one of the first five Spanish research centres accredited as a health research institute by the Carlos III Health Institute. In addition, it is part of the HR Excellence in Research program of the European Union and is a member of EATRIS and REGIC. Since 2018, IDIBELL has been an Accredited Centre of the AECC Scientific Foundation (FCAECC).

Viladecans The Style Outlets, the only outlet center in the Barcelona metropolitan area, is managed by NEINVER, a leading Spanish multinational in the European outlet sector. As part of its sustainability strategy, the center promotes various initiatives related to job creation, training, and innovation support, in collaboration with entities such as the Viladecans City Council, Innobaix, Netmentora Catalunya, and IND+i Viladecans.

In collaboration with XarSMART, it promotes the Viladecans The Style Outlets Health Innovation Award. The center is part of the Viladecans Climate Neutral City 2030 mission and holds certifications that endorse its responsible management, including BREEAM, Biosphere, AIS, ISO 14001, and Zero Waste.