Xartec Salut
technology transfer, health tech, Catalonia, innovation, UPC, IRIS, spin-off, medical devices
| Status | Active — 3rd renewal (2025–) |
| Reference | 2025 XARDI 00008 — XARTEC |
| Previous grants | 2021 XARDI 00021 · 2018 XARDI 00016 / IU68-013944 |
| Coordinator | Alexandre Perera Lluna |
| Host | IRIS-UPC, Barcelona |
| Active since | 2018 |
What is Xartec Salut?
Xartec Salut is a collaborative HealthTech transfer network coordinated by the Institute for Research and Innovation in Health (IRIS) at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). Founded in 2018, the network is now in its third consecutive funding period — a testament to its sustained impact on Catalonia’s health innovation ecosystem.
The network’s mission is to foster and accelerate the transfer of medical technologies from research to the market, with a patient-centric approach that prioritises real societal benefit over academic metrics alone.
B2SLab’s principal investigator, Prof. Alexandre Perera Lluna, serves as director and scientific coordinator of the network, connecting the computational research developed at B2SLab with clinical, industrial, and entrepreneurial partners across Catalonia.
“Xartec Salut is not just a funding instrument — it is a living ecosystem that transforms how academic research reaches patients.” — Alexandre Perera, Director
The Network
In its current form, Xartec Salut brings together a critical mass of Catalan health research:
The network spans universities, hospitals, research centers, and companies across Catalonia, creating a regional healthtech cluster that bridges biomedical discovery and clinical deployment.
Services and Support
Xartec Salut provides a portfolio of support services to its member groups:
HealthTech2030 — Annual Summit
The HealthTech2030 summit is the flagship event of Xartec Salut. Now in its 4th edition (2025), the annual event convenes top-level industry, academic, policy, and clinical stakeholders around a single question: what will health technology look like in 2030, and what must we do today to get there?
The event format includes:
- Inspirational talks from changemakers across industry, clinical practice, entrepreneurship, and policy
- Futurescaping workshops — structured futures-thinking sessions on specific healthcare challenges
- One-on-one connection sessions with investors, hospital decision-makers, and industry leaders
- The Open Innovation Challenge — a 3-day competition run as part of the summit (see below)
HealthTech2030 Open Innovation Challenge
The Open Innovation Challenge is a 3-day competition organised by Xartec Salut that brings together students, researchers, startups, professionals, companies, and hospitals to co-create bold solutions for real healthcare problems.
The 2025 edition took place in October 2025 and attracted participants from across Catalonia and beyond. No coding expertise is required — teams are deliberately mixed across disciplines. Participants work with mentors from industry and academia and receive direct feedback from leading health sector organisations. Challenges are defined by sponsor partners and address genuine unmet clinical or operational needs.
Other Key Activities
Beyond the annual summit and challenge, Xartec Salut maintains an active year-round programme:
- Share & Connect afterworks
- Informal networking sessions combining professional exchange with thematic presentations — past editions have focused on nursing innovation, women in science, and clinical entrepreneurship.
- From Failure to Founder
- A programme launched in 2026 as part of the BioRegion of Catalonia, sharing lessons from entrepreneurial failure as a strategic learning tool for early-stage innovators.
- White Book on Technology Transfer
- The network has published a reference document mapping the full Catalan HealthTech transfer pathway — from research ideation through to spin-off creation and market entry.
- Presence at 4YFN (Mobile World Congress)
- Xartec Salut has represented Catalan health innovation at the 4 Years From Now startup summit at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Annual group photo (2026 cohort)
B2SLab’s Role
B2SLab is the coordinating research group of Xartec Salut. This means we do not simply participate in the network — we design and operate it. Concretely:
- Scientific direction: Prof. Perera Lluna leads the network strategy, partner relationships, and scientific agenda.
- Technology incubation: B2SLab’s research outputs — in EHR deep learning, metabolomics, and chemosensors — are among the technologies that the network helps valorise and transfer.
- Training activities: B2SLab members contribute to the training programme and mentoring activities within the annual challenge.
- Cross-project synergies: Projects such as ClimaSalud-IA and industrial collaborations with hospitals are incubated within the Xartec Salut framework.
Relevant B2SLab publications developed in this context include foundational work on clinical AI, metabolomics, and biomedical signals — see our full publication list.
Grant History
| Period | Reference | Programme |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 — present | 2025 XARDI 00008 – XARTEC | XARXI — Xarxes de Transferència de Tecnologia, Generalitat de Catalunya / ERDF |
| 2021 — 2024 | 2021 XARDI 00021 | XARXI — 2nd renewal |
| 2018 — 2021 | 2018 XARDI 00016 / IU68-013944 | XARXI — founding grant |
All periods funded through the Xarxes de Transferència de Tecnologia (XARXI) programme, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Generalitat de Catalunya and managed by AGAUR.