In the third and final stage of a 10-day trip to Spain, the rector of Unicamp, Antonio José de Almeida Meirelles, visited innovation centers in Barcelona and said that projects already consolidated in the city can serve as inspiration for the implementation of HIDS (Hub International Sustainable Development) — the smart district under development in the Unicamp area and around the Barão Geraldo campus.
Before Barcelona, the rector attended a meeting of rectors in Valencia and signed a cooperation agreement at the University of Alicante. (Access the article on the subject)
As part of a delegation that included the mayor of Campinas, Dario Saadi, the municipal secretaries Adriana Flosi and Carolina Baracat, the team from the Innovation Agency - Inova Unicamp, Ana Frattini, Mariana Inglez and Eduardo Gurgel, and the dean of PUC- Campinas, professor Germano Rigacci, Meirelles visited the Barcelona Science Park, the StarUB entrepreneurship unit! and the @22Barcelona District — a space created in 2000, after a broad revitalization process that the city underwent to host the 1992 Olympic Games.
@22 was installed in an area in the Poblenou neighborhood, a region that, in the 19th century, was home to large textile conglomerates that were replaced by companies linked to the industrial sector, especially energy, at the turn of the century. From the 1980s onwards, however, the area went into decline and reached the 1990s in clear decline and deterioration. With the revitalization process, the degraded district was transformed into a space for innovation. Today, at @22, technology companies are concentrated in sectors such as biomedicine, information technology, communication, energy, digital media, among others, as well as companies linked to the health sector, the creative industry and entrepreneurship.
The district is innovative because it also has residential areas, with wide streets, sidewalks at least five meters wide, spaces reserved for bicycle circulation and priority for non-polluting transport, housing projects of social interest, buildings with, at most , 10 floors, and large leisure areas.
The rector also met with Josep Piqué, executive president of the Innovation and Startup Acceleration Park Technova Barcelona, at La Salle University, and one of the creators of @22. Piqué gave a detailed presentation of the bases that guided the creation of the innovation district and the methodology used to implement it, highlighting the role of public authorities and universities, as well as the importance of involving the local community. Furthermore, Piqué accompanied the delegation on a tour of the main innovation facilities, public areas and houses recovered and/or built at @22.
Piqué was in Campinas in March and discussed an innovation model for the city. He worked on the implementation of the innovation ecosystem in Barcelona, Medellín, Colombia and Florianópolis and is a consultant for the revitalization of the historic center of Porto Alegre.
The dean of Unicamp said he was enthusiastic about the initiatives already implemented in the city, especially with the smart district @22. “This is, without a doubt, an inspiration for HIDS, but I believe that we are in conditions, in terms of the starting point, even better than those found in Barcelona”, assesses the rector.
“First, we have a much larger area. We also have an innovation structure already in place. Finally, we have special conditions regarding the environment. We have many more green areas. This all leads us to project a highly promising future for our HIDS and its ability to align innovation, environmental sustainability and inclusion,” he explains. “In fact, HIDS, as an innovation district, is developed around the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals”, he guarantees.
University of Barcelona
The Brazilian delegation met with the rector of the University of Barcelona (UB), Joan Guadiá, and presented innovation projects, such as HIDS, and internationalization programs, suggesting cooperation between the institutions. The group met with representatives from StartUB, the body at the University of Barcelona responsible for the startups HumanITCare and Flomics, both linked to the healthcare sector.
The first developed a broad and flexible platform, highly adaptable to public and private healthcare structures, focusing on monitoring patients' health in real time. The second (Flomics) develops RNA-based early cancer diagnosis procedures (liquid biopsy).
According to the model presented, UB's support for startups provides for the possibility of the University of Barcelona being a partner in these companies and receiving part of the resources obtained if they are negotiated.
The group also visited the Barcelona Science Park, associated with the University of Barcelona. The park focuses on innovation and entrepreneurship related to the health sector and a broad support infrastructure for the companies that stay there.
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