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BIE and Verkami give the go ahead to the #CrowdfundingUB campaign.
 29.02.2016

The University of Barcelona sets up a crowdfunding platform

The University of Barcelona (UB), through the Barcelona Institute of Entrepreneurship (BIE), has launched a crowdfunding platform to promote solidarity or research projects that do not receive public funding. The first call has been announced this month of February in collaboration with Verkami. Three projects will compete to achieve the financial resources that they need. The initiative is part of the strategic plan of the BIE– promoted by the UB and Bosch and Gimpera Foundation (FBG), from its headquarters offices at the PCB–with the aim of making tools and resources available to entrepreneurs within the framework of Group UB.

 

After a period of training and preparation, three projects will open the first stage of the platform: the first analyses psychological treatments effective against depression, the second one examines the social causes of obesity and the third one which focuses on urban gardens for the integration of young people at risk of social exclusion.. They will all have 40 days to try to raise the amounts required and convince potential investors  to collaborate and support their ideas.

More information on the day-to-day progress of each project is available on this Channel:

1. Support us against depression. A group of researchers from the Faculty of Psychology at the UB will try to find a more effective remedy for the treatment of a disease that causes the most disability. [+]

2.  Gardens for the Besòs-Barcelonès Nord city area. The  Fundació Solidaritat UB fights for social and labor integration through  urban agriculture. [+]

3. Collaborate with the School of Economics and Business Studies by funding a thesis on the causes of obesity  with the aim to guide the design and public policies addressed to fight this condition. [+]

BIE is an initiative of the University of Barcelona and the FBG (FBG) to promote and develop all activities in the field of entrepreneurship developed by the Group UB and that in this area Empren!UB takes up as a common identifier. This new crowdfunding initiative, as part of its strategic plan, “aims to promote projects from within the University of Barcelona by taking advantage of these alternative ways of funding,” explains the director of the BIE, Jaume Valls.The “Verkami” platform is one of the main crowdfunding portals in Spain and has one of the highest ratios of convertibility in the world, since almost 70% of the projects reach their goal. It was created as a private initiative of a father and two sons, all three graduates from the University of Barcelona.

La plataforma Verkami és un dels principals portals de crowdfunding a Espanya i presenta una de les ràtios de convertibilitat més altes del món, ja que gairebé un 70 % dels projectes assoleixen l’objectiu. Va néixer com una iniciativa privada d’un pare i dos fills, tots tres titulats a la Universitat de Barcelona.