We hosted our launch event last November 8th, at the Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao, under the subject: “Building Bridges between the clinical and technological worlds”.

It was a full day event, with more than 180 attendees and top-quality speakers, panelists, entrepreneurs and students, among others.

The day was opened with a traditional Basque dance, “aurresku” in order to share with all participants a taste of our culture. Right after, Dr. María Aguirre, Director of Research and Innovation in the Health Sector in the Basque Government, was welcomed on stage to explain the RIS3 strategy (Research and Innovation, Smart Specialisation Strategy). IF Euskadi goals are very much aligned to those of the Basque Government in the health and tech sector, so this event was a good forum to strengthen relationships with different institutions and create new opportunities of collaboration between both the Basque Country and the UK.

Dr. Marek Tyl, founder and CEO of the Innovation Forum Global network, did not want to miss the day either, and took the opportunity to introduce our purpose and work to our attendees, together with Dr. Lara Díaz de Greñu, President of the Euskadi branch.

We were extremely lucky to count on the best possible international speakers, directly coming from the UK: Prof. Chris Lowe and Prof. Alan Barrell from the University of Cambridge, Prof. Chas Bountra, Dr. Fred Kemp, from the University of Oxford and Prof. Ipsita Roy, from the University of Westminster, London.  Their wide experience in the scientific world, as well as in the investment, entrepreneurial and educational fields fully enriched the event. It was really inspiring listening to them share the network models for science and innovation implemented in Oxford and Cambridge Universities that could be brought to Euskadi, as well as raise the sense of urgency to stop competing and start collaborating closely together to promote a faster development in our region.

These keynotes were the perfect ice-breaker to very interesting discussions and conversations from our table of panelists. We organised a panel in Spanish, were topics like the difficulties of the death valley, the definition of success for a small start-up, the importance of receiving institutional support or the need for planting the entrepreneurial seed from school, were discussed; and a second one in English. Our British speakers, together with Dr. Ander Urruticoechea, discussed the existing innovation ecosystem in the UK by giving successful case studies and expressed their interest in exploring new avenues of collaboration with the Basque Country. In addition, in order to bring all these concepts closer to reality, three real initiatives were also presented: i) Newro Initiative, ii) Biopraxis – Keralty Test beds initiative and iii) Repositive, The Global exchange for Genomic data.

In parallel, a hundred of students from the four main universities in the Basque Country (University of Deusto, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, University of Mondragón and Tecnun) spent their day working in multidisciplinary groups, solving the real challenges brought by 3 key companies in the region: Osakidetza (agency of the Basque public health system), IMQ (a private health clinic network) and Athletic Club Football club medical services. The winning team of each case presented the solutions in front of the big audience. We must admit many were revolutionary solutions that students created by using the “Design Thinking” methodology. We learned that we need to deeply explore their great potential and create opportunities for young talents to innovate.

In parallel, a hundred of students from the four main universities in the Basque Country (University of Deusto, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, University of Mondragón and Tecnun) spent their day working in multidisciplinary groups, solving the real challenges brought by 3 key companies in the region: Osakidetza (agency of the Basque public health system), IMQ (a private health clinic network) and Athletic Club Football club medical services. The winning team of each case presented the solutions in front of the big audience. We must admit many were revolutionary solutions that students created by using the “Design Thinking” methodology. We learned that we need to deeply explore their great potential and create opportunities for young talents to innovate.

Furthermore, the local finals of IMAGINE IF!, our health and tech international star-tup competition, took place within this event. The 10 start-ups who had been previously selected, received both business and clinical mentoring for more than a month and had to present during the event their project in a 3-minute pitch format. Our fantastic jury had the tough task to help us choose the winner, who will be representing Euskadi branch in the global finals that will take place in Cambridge, next June. Although many good concepts were presented, we could only have a winner, who turned out to be, S-There Technologies, a company that has developed a smart device for the W.C., which will monitor your health through several parameters. The second place went to Cyber-surgery, a team that has developed a robotic assistant for dorsal spine surgery and MEPRO took third place, with their membrane that is able to select sperma as a way to fight against low levels of fertility.

It was a day full of emotion and learnings that was closed with a delightful cocktail organised by the British Embassy. It included a Q&A session where innovation and business opportunities in biotech in the UK were discussed with the British speakers of the day, Nick Greenwood, British Consul in Bilbao and facilitated by our special guest Chris Howe, the Life Sciences Specialist of the Department for International Trade at the Embassy, UK.

This event was only the first of many others to come. We hope that all attendees enjoyed it and learned something new, and that this forum served as an initiator for new ideas, best-practice sharing, partnerships and new relationships for collaboration.

To those of you who were part of the event this year, a BIG THANK YOU! We have put together a video summary for you to keep a visual memory of the day; and to those that missed it, we hope you enjoy the video so much that you decide to save the date for next year.