Turning scientific discovery into real-world impact is not always straightforward. The CRG BioBusiness School 2026, organised by the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), is designed to help life-science researchers and managers to explore how to move their own ideas from lab to market, develop entrepreneurial thinking, assess whether their ideas could become start-ups and build a business plan step by step. The programme ends with a Pitch Event, where teams present their venture to invited experts and real entrepreneurs.
A business course by scientists, for scientists
The course is built around practice: teamwork, discussions, and pitching training, supported by the Mashauri learning platform. It is also a good networking opportunity, where participants from different countries and backgrounds meet.
The CRG BioBusiness School 2026 is tailored for researchers and management personnel working in life sciences. Even if you do not end up founding a company, the programme is designed to build an entrepreneurial skillset that can be useful across industry, NGOs and the public sector.
Programme dates and structure
The 11th edition will take place online via Zoom on:
- 20–23 April 2026 and 27 April 2026 (9.30am–5pm CET)
- Day 0 (technical session): 14 April 2026 (3pm–4pm CET)
- Registration deadline: 1st March, 2026
Across the week, participants move from problem definition and team formation, to customers and markets, intellectual property basics, business modelling, validation, financial planning, and final pitch preparation.
Facilitator, speakers and judges
The programme is facilitated by Simon Gifford (Mashauri), with a long background in strategy, entrepreneurship education and start-up coaching.
The CRG BioBusiness School also lists confirmed speakers and judges from the innovation ecosystem, including profiles from venture capital, biotech and technology transfer.
From CRG labs to start-ups: examples you can explore
The CRG BioBusiness School sits within a wider entrepreneurship and technology transfer ecosystem at CRG, supported by the Technology and Business Development Office (TBDO).
If you want a quick feel for the type of ventures that can grow out of CRG research, TBDO maintains a public list of start-ups it has helped establish:
- ALLOX, a biotechnology start-up translating laboratory research into practical tools and solutions with potential applications in healthcare and biomedical innovation.
- Orikine Bio, based on CRG’s Foldikine technology, developing optimised cytokines with an initial focus on inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.
- Omniscope, applying high-resolution omics and AI approaches to redesign diagnostic medicine and detect disease earlier.
- Pulmobiotics, developing a live biotherapeutic platform based on synthetic biology to address lung and respiratory diseases.
- Seqera Labs, built around the Nextflow technology, focused on deploying and managing complex data-analysis pipelines across infrastructures.
- Microomics, specialising in microbiome analysis and metagenomics solutions across sectors.
- qGenomics, developing genomic diagnostic services based on advanced sequencing technologies. This first spin-off from the UPF and CRG was acquired by Veritas Genetics in September, 2025.
A growing ecosystem for scientific entrepreneurship
According to the latest BioRegion of Catalonia Report by Biocat, the life sciences sector brings together more than 1,500 companies and entities, consolidating Catalonia as one of Southern Europe’s leading hubs in health and biomedical innovation.
Barcelona has become one of the main European cities for venture capital investment in health technologies. Health start-ups and scale-ups in Barcelona have attracted record levels of investment in recent years, with hundreds of millions of euros raised annually. In particular, the BioRegion Report highlights that CRG spin-offs have raised an investment of 80M€ between 2016 and 2025.
For researchers considering whether their idea could go beyond publication, the current investment landscape suggests that the pathway from lab to market is more structured and more viable than ever.
Practical info and how to apply
- Seats: 24 participants
- Fee: €250 (+21% VAT) for academia; €500 (+21% VAT) for industry; free for CRG staff.
- Application deadline: 1 March 2026 (selected applicants informed by mid-March)
