The informative conference “How to participate in public funding programmes” was held February 26 in the auditorium of the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO). The conference was run by Rosa Mª Druguet, director of Europe Innova, and is the result of the collaboration of Biopol'H with other parks.

Rosa Mª Druguet is chemist and biochemist and has worked at the Business Innovation and Development Centre (CIDEM). She is currently the director of Europe Innova Consultancy, located in the UPC Park. The conference dealt mainly with five aspects: basic concepts of R&D, ideas to promote transfer, loans for innovation, tax incentives and proposals from the programmes of EU.

This initiative has been undertaken thanks to the collaboration with the Vallès Technology Park and it is an example of how competition and collaboration can be complementary concepts and enriching at the same time, of course - as Ramon Lopez, director of Biopol'H, said during the opening of the conference.

As a biomedical cluster, Consortium Biopol'H makes access to public and private financing easier for all the entities forming part of it. In 2010 Biopol'H got 3 million euro for projects that were already underway during that year as well as for other projects scheduled for 2011. The funds come from three different calls: the INNOVADORS Project - together with the city council of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat-, the INNPLANTA call and the INNOCAMPUS call, both coming from the Ministry of Science and Innovation.