The University of Barcelona is part of two of the RIS3CAT communities

The first five accredited RIS3Cat communities have been made public by the Generalitat de Catalunya via ACCIÓ. Over the next three years, these communities will aim to transform Catalan economy through collaborative high-impact projects carried out between companies and agents in the Catalan R&D&I system.

The University of Barcelona and the Bosch i Gimpera are part of two of these communities: 'Healthy and Safe Food' and 'Digital Applications in Biotechnology and Health Therapies'. The projects in the 'Healthy and Safe Food' sector that have been selected are: Authentication, Traceability, and Safety (AutenFood), led by the Foundation of Agricultural Cooperatives of Catalonia, which includes the Torribera Nutrition Campus, and Dr. Soler from the Faculty of Geology of the University of Barcelona; and project Gen(eat)ics, led by Dr. Andreu Ferran from the University of Barcelona. As for the 'Digital Applications in Biotechnology and Health Therapies' sector, Dr. Canals, from the University of Barcelona, leads the project Advancecat.

The five accredited communities focus on some of the sectoral areas that the Generalitat de Catalunya has defined as leading, and in which Catalonia has competitive advantages: Digital Applications in Biotechnology and Health Therapies (coordinated by Biocat); Sustainable and Efficient Energy (coordinated by the IREC); Healthy and Safe Food (coordinated by the IRTA); Green Mobility (coordinated by FICOSA); and Big Data Aplied to Health (coordinated by Leitat). The projects of the five RIS3Cat Communities will be implemented until 2020 by 138 companies, 64 Catalan technological and research agents, and other organizations—such as clusters or business support entities—which will invest 43.8 million euros in order to develop them.