Representatives from Spanish giants FC Barcelona presented its ‘Barça Innovation Hub’ plans to a world audience on Wednesday.

Hosted by FC Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu, the launch featured figures from institutional, scientific, academic and business fields, and was broadcast globally via streaming services.

The auditorium had been given a makeover before the event, with technology taking the leading role in the form of a large curved screen serving as a backdrop behind the speakers: Dr. Jordi Monés, Commissioner of Barça Innovation Hub, and representatives of the five knowledge areas: Maurici López (Team Sports), Francesc Cos (Sports Performance), Gil Rodas (Health Services and Nutrition), Marc Subirà (Technology), Russell Stopford and William T. Manarelli (Social Sciences).

During his presentation, Josep Maria Bartomeu explained that Barça Innovation Hub is “a very exciting project for the club.”

He added: “We have been working on it for a year, and it is one of the pillars of the area of knowledge, along with Masia 360, an area to which the club is fully committed to in order to continue aligning ourselves with what we want to be: the most admired, loved and global institution”.

The president stressed the uniqueness of Barça and in its desire for “knowledge and innovation to form part of our identity.”

Dr. Jordi Monés then took the floor to outline the details of Barça Innovation Hub, which he described as “a very ambitious project and one that we firmly believe in, want and need.”

He continued: We are a very special club, we can say that we are a unique club, because we are local and global.

“We are committed to our values and all of our members have high expectations, so we are always obligated to be in a winning position, we always have to be first, and therefore we must always be reinventing ourselves, which means knowledge and innovation, and that is why we want this project and is also why we need it.

“We must accept that we are humble, that we do not know everything, and we must obtain knowledge from the best,” he said.

“If we do not find it, we must create it, and then we must explain it, and spread it to our members, agents and universities. Sometimes we do this for free and sometimes we will exploit it.

“And finally, we must transfer this knowledge in order to make it real, to turn it into things that are applicable to our daily lives.

“We are convinced that if we strengthen these four lines of action, the club will improve a lot. To take this project forward, we want to partner with institutions, companies, academics and all of the major players in the field of knowledge.”

To see the video of the broadcast please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvDE0_2sVao