This Alliance signals the start of a new era of collaboration between the public sector, private companies, entities, and academic institutions with the goal of making Sant Cugat a benchmark for innovation and entrepreneurship not only nationally but also on the global stage. The Alliance for Innovation of Sant Cugat was created with the support of the City Council, Sant Cugat Empresarial and about thirty companies and academic, technological and research institutions.

The Alliance is further strengthened by the support of numerous multinationals, including Hewlett Packard, Boehringer, GFT, Roche and Fluidra. Additionally, it is backed by six university centres (UAB, Esade, ETSAV-UPC, Gimbernat University Schools, La Salle and the University), the ALBA Synchrotron and a number of organisations, among them ACCIÓ and the Mobile World Capital Barcelona Foundation.

The aim of the Alliance is to jointly promote and drive actions and strategies aimed at cultivating talent, fostering innovative entrepreneurship, facilitating knowledge transfer, stimulating the innovation ecosystem, and promoting the city internationally.

Román Pérez, vice-rector for Research, Innovation and Knowledge Transfer at UIC Barcelona, attended the signing ceremony, which took place in the Plenary Room of the Sant Cugat City Council. The event was hosted by a virtual presenter created by the technology company GFT and included speeches by Josep Maria Vallès, Mayor of Sant Cugat; Albert Salarich, Councillor for Business, Innovation and Internationalisation; Eduard Torres, President of Sant Cugat Empresarial; and Josep Miquel Piqué, doctor in Innovation Ecosystems from Ramon Llull University. The 32 founding members signed the Alliance using a technology system, also provided by GFT, which allowed for real-time monitoring.

Sant Cugat is BIVA

Within the framework of this event, the councillor Albert Salarich provided context on how the Alliance came into being, detailing the steps that led to its creation. Furthermore, he outlined the next phases for the implementation of the pact and the first actions to be carried out, including the presentation of the candidacy for Sant Cugat to receive recognition as a European City of Innovation by the European Commission.

He also presented the name under which the alliance will be known nationally and internationally: Barcelona Innovation Valley Alliance (BIVA), with the motto "Sant Cugat is BIVA". The project already has the website biva.cat, which will be expanded soon.

On behalf of UIC Barcelona, Vice-Rector Román Pérez stressed that "UIC Barcelona is very proud to be part of this partnership for innovation promoted by the City of Sant Cugat. As a university, we want to contribute to promoting research and transferring this knowledge to society to generate a real social impact. The combination of the business fabric with the university environment will undoubtedly drive the creation of new social and technological challenges that can be addressed in conjunction with a cross-cutting perspective. We are certain that thanks to this alliance, Sant Cugat del Vallès will become even more recognised as one of the main cities in Catalonia with the greatest wealth of knowledge and capacity for innovation. With our membership, we place the University—with 8 faculties, 5 research institutes, 15 business chairs and 3 university clinics—at the service of the citizens of Sant Cugat".