Imatge
Imatge
Barcelona de Serveis Municipals (B:SM), the project’s promoter, together with Barcelona Activa and the Barcelona Sports Institute (IBE), will this month begin the procedures for awarding management of the incubator
The venue will be able to host up to 14 start-ups and will offer acceleration programmes, training and pilot tests as well as organising events to boost the sector
The incubator will feature a large co-working area, interconnected work modules and rooms for communal use, and also a 400 m2 green zone for holding meetings
Work on remodelling the 1,100 m2 space that will house the facility has been progressing at a good pace since the summer
The Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium is on the home straight with regard to setting up the city's first incubator for sport and technology projects. It will be all set to take in the first start-ups from spring 2023. The aim is to promote and support the creation of innovative enterprises in the field of sport, favouring their growth and facilitating their positioning in the city’s business fabric.
Barcelona de Serveis Municipals (B:SM), which is promoting the project in collaboration with Barcelona Activa and the Barcelona Sports Institute, will launch the public tender in November to award the contract for managing and promoting this pioneering space. The company that wins the contract will be responsible for attracting target enterprises, managing the day-to-day activity and promoting the space to secure investment and capture talent from the sector.
The incubator should be able to house up to 14 start-ups linked to the world of sport, innovation and technology. It is also hoped that it will have the support of small, medium-sized and big companies.
The enterprises and entrepreneurs housed in the incubator will have access to support and acceleration programmes, run by strategic partners from the sport and new technologies sector. Moreover, the incubator will be able to offer training to the general public and the sector, organise activities as well as dissemination and networking events, and facilitate test beds, concept testing and sports experiments, both in the incubator itself and in other facilities within the Olympic Ring.
In the opinion of Jaume Collboni, the First Deputy Mayor and Chair of B:SM, “by starting up this incubator, Barcelona is once again an example of how Olympic infrastructures can continue to generate social and economic return, by being the spearhead of a city strategy that aims to promote the development of an emerging sector based on local talent and public-private collaboration”.
David Escudé, the Councillor for Sport, recalled the importance of this incubator in the larger umbrella project it is part of: “with the creation of this incubator, where the most innovative technological projects will be promoted, we are taking the first big step towards our new hub, a pioneering initiative that will position Barcelona on the world map as a centre for technological innovation applied to sport”
A space for promoting and creating enterprises in the sport and technology sector
The work to adapt the spaces that will house the incubator began in the summer and is scheduled to finish in March 2023. It consists of a 1,100 m2 space located in the former office area at the south side of the Stadium. It will also have a 400 m2 outdoor area, just in front of the former office space.
The works, with a budget of €2.8 million, will provide the city with some unique, high quality facilities at what was once the epicentre of the sports universe for the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games.
The new space will be specially adapted to host an entrepreneurial ecosystem closely linked to technology and sport. The incubator will have a large coworking area and 14 interconnected work modules. There will also be two meeting rooms and other communal spaces for use by the enterprises and entrepreneurs housed there.
The incubator will have its own dedicated entrance and there will be parking spaces for cars, motorcycles and bicycles. All the rooms will have natural light, thanks to the opening-up of the façade, which will enable the interior and exterior of the incubator to be connected.
The outside space will have a green area with urban furniture designed to encourage synergies between the different enterprises, enabling the organisation of meetings and co-creation activities outdoors. It will also have direct access to Montjuïc Park, one of the city's main green lungs, and also home to important sports institutions such as the National Physical Education Institute of Catalonia (INEFC), the Olympic Museum, the Palau Sant Jordi and the Picornell Swimming Pools, among others.
The Olympic Ring offers a strategic environment linked to the practice of sport at a local, national and international level. The companies installed in the incubator will be able to learn and work alongside the sports events that take place at this privileged location.
First step towards configuring the Barcelona Sports Hub
The Olympic Ring sport and technological project incubator will be the first facility to form part of the Barcelona Sports Hub. The Barcelona Sports Hub is a joint Barcelona Institute of Sports and Barcelona City Council initiative, which aims to provide support for sport as a key area for innovation and one of the city's emerging economic sectors.
The general aim of the project is to make Barcelona an international benchmark for the exchange of knowledge, talent, resources and innovation capacities in technology and sport. The Barcelona Sports Hub will be made up of big companies, institutions, start-ups and other technological stakeholders that develop projects to transform and improve the management and practice of sport, including projects related to eSports. With a total budget of €3 million, the hub will be maintained on a digital platform, although, in the future, it will have physical head offices at the Palau Municipal d’Esports.
In line with this new hub, Barcelona Activa and private collaborators from the sport and innovation sector will be promoting the B-Step programme, which is already under way, offering mentoring and support for start-ups and encouraging new projects to enter the city's sports ecosystem.