The Cluster Tecnolóxico Empresarial das Ciencias da Vida, who will be the captain of the initiative, presented said initiative in the SCIEB of the Biopolo Sionlla in which 12 other entities Porguguese and Spanish entities participated
IberoBio, backed by the Interreg Program VI-A POCTEP 2021-2027, will provide services to more than 60 biotech SMEs, and it will work to strengthen and internationalize the Iberian cross-border ecosystem trough a 2 M€  investment until 2025.

Santiago. December 11th, 2023. The  Clúster Tecnolóxico Empresarial das Ciencas da Vida (Bioga), the Galician entity that represents its own biotech sector, will lead IbeoBio, a project that counts on the backing of the EU, and which has the goal of creating and propelling the Polo Iberico Transfronterizo de Biotecnología. Bioga organized this morning, in the Centro de Servicios Innovadores para Empresas Biotecnológicas (CSIEB) of the Biopolo Sionlla, in Santiago de Compostela, the meeting about “the biotech sector in the Iberian cross border territory”, which served as a launch point for IberoBio, an iniciative which, in order to reach its goal, will invest two million euros until 2025.

“IberoBio is an ambitious project which bets on the consolitation, positioning and internationalization of the Iberian cross-border biotech sector”, highlights José Manuel López Vilariño, president of Bioga, who points out that Galicia and their biotech sector, represented trough the Cluster Tecnolóxico Empresarial das Ciencias da Vida, will lead a project who’s geographic reach both sides of the border, expanding 1.200km of border between Spain and Portugal, from Galicia and Portugal’s north, all the way to Andalucía and the Algarve, going trough Castilla y León, Extremadura, middle Portugal and Alentejo. “We believe in strategic collaboration, innovation and collective growth”, assured Loli Pereiro, Bioga‘s cluster manager, in this project’s presentation.

Europe’s backing

The IberoBio project, which will be executed between 2023 and 2025, will count on the backing of the European Union trough the Interreg Program VI-A POCTEP 2021-2027, and it represents a step forward in consolidation, positioning and internacionalization of the biotech sector in the Iberian Peninsula. In 2017, it set in motion the Cluster Transfronterizo de Biotecnología in the Portuguese Galicia-Norte Euroregion, which can be seen in the CTBio and Capitaliza CTBio projects, financed by the Interreg Program V-A POCTEP and promoted by the Universidade de Santiago, Bioga, the Consorcio de la Zona Franca de Vigo, the Universidade do Miño, the Laboratorio Ibérico Internacional de Nanotecnología (ILN), and the Associação Portuguesa de Bioindústria (P-Bio). Now, the new program will give continuity to the experiences developed in the Portuguese Galicia-Norte Euroregion. “We’re increasing the geographic reach into the totality of the Spanish-Portuguese border with the creation and developement of the Iberian Cross-Border Biotechnology Pole”, highlighted Julio Martínez, project manager at Bioga, who added that the iniciative “will favor the growth and international expansion of the biotech ecosystem”.

IberoBio will count on a web of strategic associates that will bridge acacemic institutions, business organizations and research centers. These are 13 entities: Bioga, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Consorcio de la Zona Franca de Vigo, Universidade do Minho, Laboratorio Ibérico Internacional de Nanotecnología, Fundación FUNDECYT de Extremadura, Zona Franca de Cádiz, Ayuntamiento de Salamanca, Associação Colab4Food, Sociedad para la Promoción de Iniciativas Empresariales Innovadoras, Instituto Galego de Promoción Económica (Igape), GreenColab-Associação Océano Verde and the Associação Portuguesa de Bioindústria.

The Polo Ibérico Transfronterizo de Biotecnología provides SMEs and entrepeneurs of the cross-border Iberian territory with a series of services based on talent, collaboration, innovation, access to financing and promotion. It will bet, definitively, on creating and consolidating an innovative ecosystem of support for competitive improvement and the reinforcement of the potential for internationalization. “More than 60 SMEs from the biotech sector, and from other strategic sectors in the Iberian cross-border space will benefit from advanced services, which will make them more competitive and will give them access guarantees to outside markets”, according to the Loli Pereiro, manager of Bioga.

Presentation session

The institutional welcome of the session “El sector biotech en el territorio ibérico transfronterizo”, celebrated today in the Centro de Servicios Innovadores para Empresas Biotecnológicas, took place with the presence of the manager of Bioga, Loli Pereiro; the rector’s delegate of Transferencia de Conocimiento from the USC, Luis Otero; the director of the Área de Competitividad from Igape, Norberto Penedo; the State Delegation speaker from the Consorcio de la Zona Franca de Vigo, Ana Mejías Sacaluga, and the concelleira de Dereitos e Servizos Sociais, Promoción Económica e Xuventude del Ayuntamiento de Santiago, María Rozas. After this, Loli Pereiro and Julio Martínez were the ones in charge of presenting the IberoBio Project. They explained the background for this project, such as the Cluster CTBio, which are the goals and predicted activities, who are the participating associates and what services will be available for SMEs.

The responsible for Estadística e Inteligencia del Área de Análisis y Estrategia from the Asociación Española de Bioempresas (Asebio), Raquel Álvarez, gave a talk with the title “Giving life to biotechnology”. A round table about directive capabilities and professionalization of biotalent served as closure to the meeting. This was moderated by the Interim Management director and Servitalent founder, Pío Iglesias Carrera. In it, we had participants such as the director of the Área de Transferencia from the USC, José Luis Villaverde; the CEO of i-Grape Laboratory, Juan Verdes, and the Interim Manager, biotech entrepeneur and CEO of BlueMarineOil, Tomás de la Calzada.

More information:
Bioga’s communications cabinet: 679.486.961.

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