The session, held as part of Barcelona Health Innovation Week and linked to the European Health Cities project, took place in the auditorium of the Hospital Universitari General de Catalunya, a centre affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at UIC Barcelona. The programme brought together key stakeholders from across the region and explored how effective collaboration between hospitals, universities and industry can accelerate knowledge transfer and transform innovation into tangible benefits for society and for the healthcare system as a whole.

The institutional opening featured contributions from Dr Joan Izquierdo, managing director of the Hospital Universitari General de Catalunya and lecturer in the Department of Medicine, Albert Salarich, councillor for Business, Innovation and Internationalisation at Sant Cugat City Council, and Núria Martí, director of Innovation and Business Development at BIOCAT. They pointed to the value of creating local spaces that bring together research, healthcare and business to promote transformative projects.

Dr Juan X. Comella, director of the Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute and moderator of the session, delivered the opening lecture. His presentation focused on the challenges and opportunities of the Catalan health ecosystem and emphasised the need to align communication, timelines and objectives across healthcare, research and industry to ensure that innovation leads to real improvements for patients. 

After his lecture, Dr Comella chaired a round-table discussion featuring Dr Xavier Mate, territorial director for Barcelona–Vallès at Quirónsalud, Dr Carlos Garcia Forero, researcher and lecturer in the Department of Medicine at UIC Barcelona, and Óscar Pérez Albet, director of Scientific and Business Development at Ferrer.

The panel examined how to establish long-term models of collaboration between hospitals, universities and industry, moving beyond isolated initiatives. The speakers also addressed the challenge of knowledge transfer and the difficulties of ensuring that research generated in academic and clinical environments reaches the market or becomes integrated into the healthcare system. Key obstacles included the lack of incentives for collaboration, the gap between research and clinical needs, regulatory complexity and the challenges associated with scaling innovative solutions developed inside hospitals.

The final part of the discussion focused on inequalities within Catalonia’s health ecosystem. Participants stressed the crucial role of hospitals as hubs connecting research, industry and the public, and highlighted the importance of more active engagement from local councils and public administrations to ensure more equitable innovation.

In their concluding remarks, the speakers agreed that the future of health ecosystems depends on coordinated collaboration among all stakeholders, supported by a shared understanding of each sector’s priorities, working rhythms and needs. This alignment is essential for addressing the major challenges facing the health sector. They also emphasised that sharing knowledge, along with the risks inherent in innovation, is key to building a stable, competitive and impactful model of collaboration. They concluded by stressing that effective knowledge transfer, directed at improving people’s quality of life, requires research that is open, collaborative and sustainable over time. Strengthening long-term alliances between academia, healthcare and industry will be essential for positioning the region as a leader in health innovation.