Carla Maté, responsible of the project valuation area of the Innovation Unit of Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), represented the organization and the biomedical-health sector in the third edition of Barcelona 2040. A total of 28 young people have participated in this program organized by Barcelona Global with the aim of training and connecting young talent and publicizing the city from all its sectors.

The young professionals have had the opportunity, during the nine months of the program, to get to know companies and institutions in-depth through their managers and to exchange ideas with the main players in the city: 42 business leaders, from the fields of science, culture, knowledge, industry, journalism, and politics.

As Carla Maté explains, "during the various sessions of the program, we learned about the challenges and opportunities of different sectors of the city that are drivers of change for its transformation and future leadership. After these meetings, we worked together with the consulting firm Imagine in the creation of proposals that would respond to the great challenges of the city using design thinking's methodology ".

The proposals were presented to the first deputy mayor, Jaume Collboni. Maté's group exhibited "the CAP-BOX, a pilot program to improve accessibility and management of the care in Primary Healthcare based on automatic examination booths for patients over 60 years of age." Maté wants to emphasize that his three years at VHIR have allowed her to have a great "knowledge of the healthcare environment and the strategic challenges in the optimization of healthcare that have been very relevant to be able to shape and ground this proposal." The proposal was congratulated by Mr. Collboni who recognized its aggregated value and viability.

Other projects presented were a network of goods collection centers to improve urban mobility and the creation of an app to connect the city's actors (artists, spaces, public and investors) and increase its cultural offer.

Barcelona 2040 has been consolidated with this third edition as a unique program on city leadership and talent.  A total of 73 young people have already participated in the initiative and, in the future, they will probably be the ones who will occupy positions of responsibility and leadership in companies and organizations in Barcelona and its metropolitan area. In this edition, the participants were introduced to nine sectors by 42 experts in their fields. These included culture, with the Joan Miró Foundation as the protagonist; industry (Estrella Damm), science (Institute of Photonic Sciences), health (with a visit to the San Juan de Dios Hospital), and entrepreneurship (Barcelona Activa).