i2cat
i2CAT is a CERCA research and innovation centre based in Barcelona which specializes in advanced digital technologies. Since 2003, i2CAT has been committed to designing and building the future digital society by leveraging the knowledge gained from cutting-edge European and local R&D projects in 5G/6G, IoT, immersive and interactive technologies, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, blockchain, space communications and digital social technologies. The centre partners with companies, public administration, academia, and end-users to leverage this knowledge to meet real social and business challenges.
i2CAT also operates in the Digital Social Innovation (DSI) area, which is in charge of i2CAT’s definition of the Quadruple Helix model and strategy, promoting the Living Lab and DSI approach across the R&D areas of the organisation, as well as designing, testing and evaluating new labs in Catalonia. The area is also generating its own research projects around the vision of co-laboratories as universal innovation ecosystems, based on networks of open research and open innovation labs. Thus, the Digital Social Innovation is the path to make technology work for the citizen and solve the problems and issues we face as a society.
team members
Rafael Nualart Barba
Senior Innovation Project Manager
Industrial Designer for the Escola Massana in Barcelona, he is part of Fundació i2Cat since early 2018 as Senior Innovation Project Manager within the DIMO (Digital Innovation Management Office) department. With more than 20 years of experience mainly in Europe and Asia in areas such as consulting, industry, medical devices and retail, he has led teams, R&D innovation projects in different sectors and markets being an expert in opportunities identification, conception, design, development and implementation of products and services. He has worked from the initial analysis and knowledge of the needs and desires of users, identifying what motivates consumers and, at the same time, evaluating new business opportunities in collaboration with potential technology partners. In his professional career, he has defined and created several products patented by both industrial and consumer companies. Nowadays he is part of the DST (Digital Social Technologies) Area at i2Cat Foundation.
Artur Serra
Director of the Digital Society Technologies Research Team
Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Barcelona with a thesis based on ethnography from the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, developing a first definition of techno-anthropology as a new research area. Founder of the Catalan Chapter of the Internet Society (1995). Researcher at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), where he founded the Internet Applications Center and the i2cat project, Internet2 in Catalonia, in 1999. This project gave way to the foundation of the same name created in 2003 by the government of the Generalitat and which is deputy director. In the year 2000 he organized the First World Congress of Citizen Networks and, after this initiative, the design and construction of Citilab, the first European citizen laboratory (2007), a center of which he has been research director until 2019. Founding member of the European Network of Living Lab since 2006, he is also a member of the European Institute for Social Innovation. His current research focuses on the cultural and social design of collaboratives, open digital social innovation structures and universal innovation systems. He currently directs the DST, Digital Society Technologies, research team at the i2cat Foundation and the Col.laboratoris de Catalunya innovation program. Learn more about Artur Serra at: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8979-772X.
Marta Martorell Camps
Director of the Digital Social Technologies area
Marta Martorell Camps is a leader in participatory process innovation at the local, regional and national levels. She is currently the director of the Digital Social Technologies area of the i2CAT Foundation. She works on different research lines focused on the impact of digital technologies on citizens, on implementing techniques and methodologies to facilitate the adoption of new technologies aligned with healthy lifestyles and cultural values, and on the design and implementation of innovation policies and strategies for social and digital transformation.
Fàtima Canseco-López
Senior Social Innovation Researcher
Fàtima Canseco-López holds a PhD in Diffusion of Social Innovation from La Salle-Universitat Ramon Llull (URL) (Barcelona) and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Bircham International University (BIU) (Madrid). She is currently working as a Senior Social Innovation Researcher at the i2CAT Foundation. Moreover, her professional experience consists of teaching and research at URL and the Department of Electrical Engineering of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Barcelona, as well as Head of the Traffic Control Center of Catalonia at the Department of Interior of Catalonia (Spain). In addition, she holds a Master's degree in Engineering Management (MEng), an MBA, and a Bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering minor in Electronics (BEng) from the UPC.
Mària Sanchez
Project Manager
She worked in Paris, some African countries, Madrid and, lastly, Barcelona, where she started in 2006 as an Operational Manager in a 45-person research group at UPF and financial coordinator of a 17 M€ FP6 European project. During the past fifteen years, she has collaborated with the data centre of the IFAE (UAB), Barcelona Digital’s PMO, the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (IS Global), where she was Project Manager for Euroleish-net H2020 ITN MSCA, the Institute Guttmann for a short collaboration as Project manager of the BBHI study under the scientific direction of Dr. Pascual-Leone from Harvard, and the IDIBAPS giving support at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, in the coordination of several projects focusing on health-risk assessment tools. In 2020, she joined the Project Management Office of i2CAT, working on the legal, financial and administrative management of European, Spanish and Catalan-funded projects, specialised in project coordination, giving also support in reporting and legal tasks of i2CAT’s researchers and staff, maintaining communication when necessary with consortia and partners, donors and funding institutions.