What can Euskadi offer?

• Euskadi represents one of the largest industrial concentrationsin Spain and its quality levels place it at the forefront of Europe.
• The highly industrialised economy hosts more than 1,660 internationalised companies such as Iberdrola, CAF, Gamesa and Panda, plus over 5,000 national companies.
• It has fiscal autonomy; its own tax system granting regulatory and administrative powers.

The biotechnology sector relating to health is rapidly growing thanks to the favourable ecosystem of Euskadi:

• The Basque Government is fully committed to the health sector through its European smart specialization strategy RIS3. Additionally, investment in health has been one of the foundations of social policy.
• The Basque Health System—Osakidetza—ranks among the most important in Europe.
• Annual spending on public healthcare per inhabitant is among the highest in the world.
• The Basque Health Cluster is an association that brings together companies and public administrations related to health biosciences.
• The companies involved in the biotech field have experienced a fourfold increase in the last decade.
• There is a great potential to grow thanks to numerous SMEs that can diversify from traditional industries to more innovative ones such as biotechnology.
• It has a strong research and engineering background thanks to the Basque Universities: University of the Basque Country (UPV), University of Deusto and Mondragon Unibertsitatea.

What do we want to achieve?

• To strengthen the Basque ecosystem of health and technology and to offer opportunities for internationalization.
• To attract foreign investment for the development of Basque start-ups and products.
• To help the Basque industry broaden its client base by promoting international diversification to the health sector.
• To contribute to the alignment of the RIS3 strategy through more solid collaborations between the main Basque agents.

How are we going to achieve our goals?

In October this year, Bilbao will host the first Innovation Forum Euskadi event which will bring together the main Basque biotech companies, start-ups, investors and clinical and technological researchers aiming at boosting the health and technology field through stronger collaborations.

The event will host a start-up competition, a challenge competition, international well-known keynote speakers in the field and extensive networking.

Bilbao, the European city of the Year 2018 has plenty to offer aside from its cuisine, the Guggenheim Museum, the Athletic Football Club and its stadium. Just come and discover it for yourself!