From laboratory to patient: the ”la Caixa” Foundation promotes 29 biomedicine and health projects

The ”la Caixa” Foundation has concluded the 2024 call for the CaixaImpulse Innovation programme, through which it supports 29 new biomedical projects from research centres, hospitals and universities in Spain and Portugal. In total, the Foundation will allocate 3.4 million euros to this initiative, which aims to accelerate the arrival of these innovations to the market and bring them closer to the patients who may need them. Additionally, CaixaImpulse Innovation promotes the creation of new products, services and companies related to life sciences and health.

The winning projects – chosen from over 400 applications received – were evaluated by six panels of international experts and professionals in this field.

Among this year’s selected projects are those that aim to validate a tool to help predict the genetic risk of myocardial infarction and sudden death in young people; the development of a non-invasive method to detect endometrial cancer using urine samples, among many others.

By area of business, 12 fall within the field of therapies, nine are related to diagnostics, seven focus on medical devices and one is centred on digital health. In terms of funding, awardees receive from 50,000 to 500,000 euros, depending on the level of maturity of their project, to develop it over the following two years. In this call, 15 projects have been selected for stage 1 (up to 50,000 euros), 12 for stage 2 (up to 150,000 euros) and two for stage 3 (up to 500,000 euros). The programme also offers the possibility that, when projects reach specific development milestones and following evaluation by the relevant committee, they can progress to subsequent stages with increased funding.

Training and expert support for the projects

CaixaImpulse Innovation supports biomedical projects in the field of innovation and transfer by helping researchers validate their assets and define their exploitation and valorisation strategy to bring their projects to market. So in addition to financial resources, they will also have access to mentoring, consultancy and advice from international experts in different areas of the innovation ecosystem.

In addition, researchers leading projects in stage 2 will receive specialised training over a period of four weeks. These sessions will address such topics as technology transfer, intellectual property law, pitching to investors and closing commercial agreements.

In the words of Ignasi López, director of Relations with Research and Health Institutions at the ”la Caixa” Foundation: “The result of this call reflects not only the abundance, but also the exceptional quality of innovation projects in biomedicine and health in Spain and Portugal. We are proud to be able to support them, offering them both the necessary financial backing and the tools to reach the market with strength and confidence.” 

The call is being conducted in collaboration with Criteria Bio Ventures, CriteriaCaixa's venture capital investment fund specialised in biotechnology and health sciences. In Portugal, the call is made in partnership with the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), of the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, which in this edition funds one of the selected Portuguese projects in stage 1.

In 2015, the ”la Caixa” Foundation launched this programme to support innovation and technology transfer in biomedicine and health. Since then, the ”la Caixa” Foundation has allocated 24.7 million euros to support 231 projects, which have led to the creation of 44 spin-offs. These, in turn, have secured additional co-funding through other competitive calls or private investors amounting to more than 100 million euros.