Xavier Testar is the Director of the Barcelona, Research & Innovation Programme of the Barcelona City Council. He is Professor in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Barcelona (UB) and co-author of more than 80 refereed articles in international journals. He was a member of the UB Governing Board and Vice-dean of the Faculty of Biology (1991-96). From 1997 to 2004, he was Director of the Innovation Centre from the Bosch i Gimpera Foundation, the Technology Transfer and Spin-off promotion unit of the UB. He was Head of Strategic Programmes at the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation (FCRI) (2004-08) and member of the Steering Committee for the Development of the Catalan RITTS Programme (Regional Innovation and Technology Transfer Infrastructures and Strategies) that developed the basis for the first Catalan Innovation Plan (2001-04). He was a member of the committee that designed and developed the Research and Innovation Plan for Catalonia (PRI-Cat) in 2005-08. He was also a member of the commission to set up the BioRegion of Catalonia (BioCat) and represented the FCRI in the board of the Cluster for Innovation Association. Since 2006, he has been a member of the Board of Barcelona Activa, the City Council Agency devoted to economic development, entrepreneurship promotion and start-up incubation. He has recently been appointed a member of the Steering Committee for Singular Scientific and Technological Infrastructures (CAIS) of the Spanish Ministry for Science & Innovation (MICINN).