CaixaImpulse celebrates 10 years with a total of 232 health innovation projects

A total of 232 biomedical and technological research projects supported in Spain and Portugal, 50 spin-offs created, four innovation licences granted to companies and more than 19 clinical trials conducted – these are some of the achievements over the last decade of CaixaImpulse, the health innovation grants programme organised by the ”la Caixa” Foundation in collaboration with Criteria Bio Ventures. 

The support provided by CaixaImpulse has enabled numerous biomedical and technological research projects to make the leap from the laboratory to the patient, going beyond the academic sphere to become solutions that improve people’s lives.

Àngel Font, assistant general manager of Research and Fellowships at the ”la Caixa” Foundation, and Pablo Cironi, director of Criteria Bio Ventures, reviewed the results of these first 10 years today. The event, held at the Palau Macaya, also featured the participation of Alicia Martínez Piñeiro, CEO of Time is Brain; José Carlos Pulido, CEO of Inrobics, and Rubén Molina, CEO of Innitius – all CaixaImpulse beneficiaries – as well as Laura Sampietro-Colom, deputy director of Innovation at Hospital Clínic Barcelona and a mentor for the programme. 

The programme enables advances made in the academic world – whether in hospitals, universities or research centres – to be transformed into real solutions for patients. Since its launch in 2015, the ”la Caixa” Foundation has allocated 24.8 million euros to support the transfer of scientific knowledge to the market through CaixaImpulse. The programme supports health innovation projects from their earliest stages, providing them with resources and training to help them progress confidently through new phases of development, thereby helping to bridge the gap between science and society.

CaixaImpulse encourages projects to mature during their time in the programme so that they are later able to attract external funding and bring innovation from the laboratory to the patient. Since its inception, projects supported by CaixaImpulse have raised over 180 million euros in additional funding, seven times the amount invested by the ”la Caixa” Foundation in this field. These figures highlight the programme’s potential to strengthen the biomedical and health technology innovation ecosystem.

The projects selected by CaixaImpulse to date reflect a wide variety of thematic and business areas – proposals can include medical technologies, therapies, diagnostics and digital health. The selected projects address a broad range of health challenges, including oncology (62), neurosciences (37), infectious diseases (33), cardiovascular and metabolic diseases (15), and other areas (85), which include eye, kidney, autoimmune, intestinal and lung diseases, among others, as well as clinical diagnostic methodologies. 

This diversity not only aligns with current scientific priorities, but also reflects the programme’s commitment to driving transformative solutions that address unmet medical needs and improve patients’ quality of life.

The call for proposals is held in collaboration with Criteria Bio Ventures, CriteriaCaixa’s venture capital fund specialising in biotechnology and health sciences. Additionally, in Portugal – where 32 projects have been supported – the programme is run in partnership with the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), part of Portugal’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education.

Financial support, mentoring and training

Currently, selected projects can follow a funding pathway of up to three phases, with support lasting up to five years. Researchers can join the programme at any of these phases, depending on the maturity of their project; upon reaching specific development milestones and following evaluation by the review committee, they may progress to subsequent phases with increased funding. In total, a project can receive up to 700,000 euros if it completes the entire pathway. 

CaixaImpulse supports biomedical projects in the fields of innovation and knowledge transfer, helping researchers to validate their assets and define their exploitation and valorisation strategy, with the aim of bringing projects closer to the market. In addition to financial support, researchers also benefit from mentoring, consultancy and guidance from international experts across various areas of the innovation ecosystem. 

Funding decisions are based on scientific quality and the novelty of the assets, the medical need addressed by the project, the suitability of the team, the feasibility of implementation and the potential for social impact and business model.

Over its first 10 years, CaixaImpulse has consolidated a comprehensive support model for innovation. In addition to financial backing for projects, it has provided over 5,500 hours of personalised mentoring and more than 870 hours of specialised training to more than 300 entrepreneurs, including project leaders and other team members. 

The programme has a network of over 20 highly respected mentors, including Laura Sampietro, deputy director of Innovation at Hospital Clínic; Andrés G. Fernández, founder of AF Biopharma Consulting and CDO at Nanobots Therapeutics; José Luis Cabero, consultant at Symbiokraft, former CEO of AELIX Therapeutics, VP at AstraZeneca and advisory board member at BioAdvance Capital; Tamara Maes, founder of Oryzon Genomics, the first Spanish biotechnology company to go public; Raül Zurita, head of Innovation and Business Development at the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute; and Roger Gomis, group leader at IRB Barcelona and founder of Inbiomotion.

The mentoring team also includes entrepreneurial profiles, such as Alfonso Carnicero, CEO of ABLE Human Motion, which has democratised lightweight exoskeleton technology, and Beatriz Llamusí, chief scientific officer and co-founder of Arthex Biotech, which has developed an RNA-based therapy for myotonic dystrophy. Following their own experiences as scientist-entrepreneurs and having received support from CaixaImpulse, both now contribute as role models, supporting new projects.

In addition to the mentors, scientist-entrepreneurs have access to a network of over 600 experts across various areas of the innovation process – from intellectual property protection to scaling and production processes and market access strategy, among others – with whom they can collaborate to shape their projects. The support of this network and the training provided have been key to transforming ideas into real solutions, with four innovations already licensed to companies, demonstrating the programme’s ability to generate effective technology transfer.

El apoyo de esta red y la formación recibida han sido claves para transformar ideas en soluciones reales, con cuatro innovaciones ya licenciadas a empresas, lo que demuestra la capacidad del programa para generar transferencia tecnológica efectiva.

The impact of CaixaImpulse is also reflected in the creation of more than 285 skilled jobs and the direct improvement in the health of more than 3,180 patients treated as part of clinical trials driven by the supported projects. A total of 35 hospitals have participated in these studies, strengthening the connection between research and clinical practice – in other words, promoting innovative research that not only generates knowledge but also delivers social and economic value.