News

Eight start-ups and four spin-offs linked to the UPC community have been selected to participate in this year’s edition of Next Frontier Founders (NFF), the programme that connects technology with capital to bring innovative projects from the laboratory to the market. Promoted by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC), with the support of Fractus, the programme provides practical training on different areas of business development, participation in networking sessions and the opportunity to present the business idea at 4YFN 2027.

Anna Monsó Rodríguez, a student on the Bachelor’s Degree in Telecommunications Technologies and Services Engineering (Telematics Systems specialization), and Albert Sumalla Reñé, a student on the Bachelor’s Degree in Telecommunications Electronic Engineering, have received the Fractus awards for the best academic record and the best Bachelor’s Thesis (TFG), respectively.

On 3 July, a delegation with several companies and institutions that are part of the innovation ecosystem of Gwangju, South Korea, visited the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC). The aim of the visit was to learn more about the work and activities of the Fractus-UPC Deep Tech Hub and to explore possible areas of cooperation.

The Next Frontier Founders program opens a new call to promote the development, technological protection and financing of technology-based companies created, or in the process of being created, by entrepreneurs linked to the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC). Applications for this fourth edition are open from June 2 to July 15, and in September the selection of participants will be made public. Participants will receive training, mentoring and support from October 2026 until March 2027.

The Fractus-UPC Deep Tech Hub is launching the new executive program “Deep Tech to Market”, which will be delivered through UPC School starting on November 13. Registration is now open.

The team formed by students from UPC-ETSEIB and UPC-ETSETB presented the CAT18x on May 27, the vehicle with which they will compete in this year’s Formula Student (FS) competition, aiming to continue improving their results.

Rubén Bonet, co-founder and executive director of Fractus, delves into the relationships between business and university and their potential in the audiovisual series SME Voices – Driving Digital Innovation. An initiative promoted by the Master of Science in Smart, Secure and Interconnected Systems (MERIT), which is taught at the UPC-EPSEM and which seeks to connect the academic world with the industrial sector to promote digital transformation and advanced technological skills in Europe, especially in SMEs.

The UPC hosted this year’s National Cybersecurity Research Conference (JNIC), with the support of Fractus. Organized in collaboration with the Spanish National Cybersecurity Institute (INCIBE), the conference focused on the need to develop technological solutions to address increasingly sophisticated digital threats.

On 22 April, as part of the inauguration of LEIA UPC, the University’s flagship building for artificial intelligence, the awards ceremony for the first UPC AI Competition took place. The competition recognized the best projects related to UPC’s fields of study that addressed a challenge using artificial intelligence. The competition was sponsored by the Fractus-UPC Deep Tech Hub.

The Fractus UPC Deep Tech Hub welcomes the launch of 6GLabNet, UPC’s new experimental infrastructure for testing and validating 5G+ and 6G technologies with AI in real-world conditions. Presented by UPC on 8 April 2026, the platform is designed to serve research, education, public administration and industry, and stands out as a pioneering scientific infrastructure in Spain and a highly advanced facility in Europe.