The Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) celebrates this year the tenth anniversary of the creation of Nostrum Biodiscovery, the first spin-off emerged from the center. Since then, BSC has driven 14 new technology-based companies, reaching a total of 15 spin-offs in a decade and consolidating its position as one of the main benchmarks in the technology innovation ecosystem linked to supercomputing and artificial intelligence in Catalonia and Spain.
The commemoration of this tenth anniversary was celebrated this thursday at BSC headquarters with an event attended by the Minister of Research and Universities of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Núria Montserrat; alongside the founder and director of BSC, Mateo Valero; associate director, Cristian Canton; the head of Innovation and Business Development at BSC, Mariona Sanz; and representatives of the spin-offs created throughout this decade. The meeting served to highlight the impact achieved by these tech companies and the role of knowledge transfer as a driver of innovation, competitiveness, and economic growth.
More than €100 million raised and 45 technologies transferred
During these ten years, this commitment to technology transfer translated into more than 610 highly skilled jobs—most of them in Barcelona—, more than 100 million euros in private investment raised, and 45 technologies transferred from the research environment to the market.
Results reflect a vision that accompanied BSC since its inception: scientific research of excellence and the capacity to transform it into solutions with economic and social impact are part of the same mission. Innovation and technology transfer are not a complementary activity, but a central element of the center's institutional DNA.
“We always knew that BSC research had to reach society in the form of real technological solutions. Today, ten years after launching our first spin-off, we see that scientific excellence translates into innovation, wealth, and quality employment. Creating this ecosystem is what allows us to generate competitiveness in Europe to become technologically strong and autonomous,” stated Mateo Valero, director of BSC.
The trajectory of the spin-offs created from technologies developed at BSC demonstrates how advanced research can turn into companies capable of responding to some of the great challenges of our time. These companies work in strategic areas such as the discovery of new drugs using artificial intelligence, personalized medicine, climate risk management, quantum computing, precision agriculture, semiconductors, and generative artificial intelligence.
A strategic asset for Barcelona, Catalonia, and Spain
This model also became a strategic asset for Barcelona, Catalonia, and Spain by contributing to the creation of skilled employment, attracting international investment, and strengthening key technological capabilities for European competitiveness. The spin-offs driven by BSC attracted the interest of some of the leading national and international venture capital funds, as well as large industrial and technological corporations, validating the growth and scalability potential of the technologies developed at the center.
In the words of the Catalan Minister of Research and Universities, Núria Montserrat, “the sustained commitment of the Generalitat and the Spanish Government to BSC has been fundamental to turning it, over more than two decades, into an international benchmark in science and innovation. Today, we celebrate the impact of that commitment and the vision of scientific and management teams who knew how to anticipate the future. Our commitment is to continue strengthening this infrastructure to make it even more competitive, within the framework of European strategic autonomy and internationalization.”
Collaboration was also a fundamental element of this journey. Several companies emerging from the BSC ecosystem were launched jointly with leading scientific and academic institutions, including Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Universitat de Barcelona (UB), the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the Institute for High Energy Physics (IFAE), the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), ICREA, and Imperial College London.
In addition to transferring 45 technologies to the market, BSC promoted reverse transfer actions that allow incorporating technological developments generated by the spin-offs back into the research environment, thereby reinforcing the bidirectional connection between science, innovation, and business.
Technology transfer, a driver of innovation
“These spin-offs are the result of the effort of researchers who made the leap from the laboratory to the market. From the beginning, we accompanied them to transform pioneering technologies into business projects with a real impact on society. Ten years later, seeing such a mature and constantly growing ecosystem proves that technology transfer is one of the real drivers of disruptive innovation in our region,” noted Mariona Sanz, head of Innovation and Business Development at BSC.
Coinciding with this tenth anniversary, BSC reaffirms its commitment to technology transfer as a fundamental tool to maximize the impact of scientific research, encouraging researchers to consider entrepreneurship as another path in their professional careers.
The objective is to continue contributing to economic and social development by driving new business initiatives capable of transforming frontier knowledge into innovative solutions that reinforce the competitiveness, sustainability, and technological sovereignty of Catalonia, Spain, and Europe.
This article was first published on 9 July by BSC.
Receive the Funding Newswire [full access requires a subscription] each Tuesday, our Policy Bulletin each Thursday, and the fortnightly R&D Express, tracking reforms and investments in central and eastern Europe. 
A unique international forum for public research organisations and companies to connect their external engagement with strategic interests around their R&D system.