This week Murcia has become a national meeting point for investors, startups and researchers in the fields of food, health and sports (startups, representatives of investment vehicles and business angels, heads of research groups and representatives of innovation areas of companies), who participated in the LifeTech Summit technology forum, organised by the Instituto de Fomento de la Región de Murcia in collaboration with the Universidad Católica de Murcia, with funding from NextGenerationEU. Josefina García, UCAM Rector; Joaquín Gómez, INFO Director; and José María Párraga, Deputy General Director of the Incyde Foundation, opened the event on Thursday. The Bootcamp UCAM Flow HiTech programme preceded the event and has been running since the beginning of the week.

The high-tech incubator in health, sport and food UCAM HiTech has hosted the LifeTech Summit, an event that included round tables, one-to-one talks, investor and successful entrepreneurs pitches, meet & greets between investors, startups and researchers as well as networking sessions. All this allowed for an analysis of the current situation in these sectors, investment possibilities and the prospects for open innovation and growth offered by these three groups.

Talent magnet

This technological forum established the Region of Murcia as a talent magnet. ‘The fact that foreign investors came here is an example of the investment opportunities, and it highlights the value of the knowledge we generate and the knowledge we are able to attract, which in the end results in job creation,’ said Joaquín Gómez, who highlighted the importance of public-private collaboration, ‘in which UCAM HiTech is not only a national but also an international benchmark, as we can see on a daily basis’.

‘Companies and businesses need immediate answers to their needs, and those can be found here, and can be put into practice’

This high-tech incubator ‘was the dream of our president, José Luis Mendoza, and it is now embraced by the new president, María Dolores García’, said Josefina García, UCAM Rector. ‘Companies and businesses need immediate answers to their needs, and those can be found here, and can be put into practice’, for which she gave the high participation in the LifeTech Summit as an example.

Meanwhile, José María Párraga, Deputy General Director of the Incyde Foundation, recalled the important collaboration that this entity has maintained with UCAM for years: ‘We haven't stopped doing things together, things that have been done very well, which are really bearing fruit’, noting that the Incyde Foundation is present in four continents ‘and we have a fifth one pending with the UCAM, a project that was conceived in the Vatican to create entrepreneurship centres for people who live on a dollar a day’.

Awards for Bioprocesia and FixToe

Today, Friday, the LifeTech Summit hosted an investor pitch competition. The awards went to Bioprocesia, represented by its CEO Guiomar Sánchez, for being the most impactful startup, and to FixToe, represented by its CEO David Lucas, as the most investable startup.