UIC Barcelona is a partner in the European DigiCare Innovation project, an initiative aimed at transforming community care through the use of digital technologies applied to health. The project, approved under the EIT HEI Initiative call, will run for 25 months and began on 1 April. It is promoted by members of the European Educare 5.0 Alliance.

The main goal of the project is to strengthen the institutional capacity of universities to foster innovation, enhance collaboration between education, research and business. It also aims to build an entrepreneurial ecosystem that connects students, lecturers and industry to develop scalable and sustainable solutions. DigiCare Innovation focuses on 3 major challenges: oncology, mental health and comprehensive primary care, applying methodologies such as Living Labs, the use of digital platforms and the use of IoT devices.

UIC Barcelona is leading the work package WP2, which focuses on strengthening institutional capacities for innovation in the field of community healthcare. Key actions include the development of interdisciplinary test environments to co-create, trial and scale up digital solutions. The university is overseeing the mental health test environment, involving lecturers from the department of Psychology such as Maite Garolera and Bruno Porras.

WP2 also includes boosting technology transfer offices to facilitate commercialisation, improving student support services in entrepreneurship and innovation activities, and integrating innovation as a strategic focus within higher education institutions.

Through its involvement in DigiCare Innovation, UIC Barcelona reinforces its commitment to applied innovation, knowledge transfer and the social impact of health research.