catalan companies to attend the bio it world fair in boston seeking business opportunities in digital health

Barcelona, april 5, 2016.- 10 catalan companies will be participating until friday in a trade mission to boston in the state of massachusetts in the united states to look for business opportunities in digital health and big data applied to life sciences. the mission is organised by the catalan government through catalonia trade & investment and biocat, the organisation that coordinates and promotes the life science and health sector in catalonia. 

the participating companies are fractalmed, mind the byte, mint labs, sequentia, made of genes, opentrends, dinamon, clinical document engineering, braingaze and healthapp. 

the mission is designed to coincide with one of the most important events in the united states in the ict applied health area – the bio it world fair – which brings together over 3,000 companies and professionals in boston wishing to discover the latest trends in the sector as well as network with other players. 

furthermore, with the fair as a backdrop, catalonia trade & investment agency has organised an event where the 10 catalan companies will present their projects to american investment funds in order to look for financing and find new commercial partners with the aim of internationalising their technology. this event is organised in collaboration with venture cafe, a foundation that acts a link between the different boston innovation ecosystem agents. some 50 bilateral meetings have also been arranged between the catalan companies and other american companies and organisations attending the fair. 

taking advantage of their stay in massachusetts, the catalan delegation will also visit the massachusetts institute of technology (mit), meeting with experts and researchers from one of the most important technological innovation centres of the world. they will also visit and meet up with representatives of one of the main accelerators in the united states, masschallange, an organisation which today hosts 1,600 start-ups from 50 countries. in fact, the catalan companies will be introduced to the digital health initiative programme, a major initiative from the state of massachusetts to promote the ict health sector and which is being developed in this accelerator. 

the massachusetts ecosystem 

the state of massachusetts is considered to be the region with one of the highest innovation rates in the united states, with one of the greatest spending levels in r+d and with an elevated concentration of leading universities such as the mit or harvard. for this reason, with the goal of encouraging collaboration between catalan and american companies in terms of r+d and innovation projects, the catalan government opened last year an office in boston, completing the network of 36 trade and investment offices that offer assistance in over 90 markets around the world.