Marta Plana explains the BIHUB project to Stanford University graduates

FC Barcelona director Marta Plana held a lecture at the CaixaForum in front of a hundred graduates from Stanford University, to explain the Barça Innovation Hub project. These ex-students of the prestigious American university are now managers of companies from all over the world, and spent a few days in Barcelona.

The Barça Innovation Hub has created an ecosystem to promote knowledge and innovation, benefitting the club and society in general. The objective of this collaborative model is that the club can attract companies, research institutions and entrepreneurs to develop new and innovative technologies, helping to make FC Barcelona a focus for boosting talent, sports, technology and innovation.

As one of the largest sports laboratories in the world, FC Barcelona is in a unique position to become the a global reference in sports and innovation. With more than 2,000 athletes on their books, in five professional sports and nine more amateur sports, the Barça Innovation Hub has access to more than 120 teams. In addition, the club have more than 300 million fans around the world and 4.5 million visitors per year to the Camp Nou, creating an interesting, diverse and comprehensive testing bench for projects that include research and development programs, corporate innovation and vocational training.

During the conference at CaixaForum, two of the current Barça Innovation Hub projects were presented. Firstly, a collaboration with WIMU, a new company that specializes in Ultra Wide Band technology used to optimise athlete performance and prevent them from getting injured. Plana also talked about the collaboration between the Barça Foundation, the Éric Abidal Foundation and Awabot, to offer hospitalised children the opportunity to enjoy an unforgettable experience through the use of a robot. The BIHub also runs projects with intelligent facilities, fan engagement, team sports methodology, sports analytics, and health and wellbeing.