Eva Ortega-Paíno has attended the Biotech space of the Blue Zone Forum-Innovazul 2024, where the activities carried out in Andalusia within the framework of the Iberobio Project in which Zona Franca participates through Incubazul have been presented.
The rector of the UCA and the delegate of the Free Zone have received the representative of the central government at the entrance to the Congress Palace
The Blue Zone Forum-Innovazul 2024 has had a preferential space for biotechnology and has served as a forum for the promotion of the IberoBio project, an Iberian pole financed by the European Union within the framework of the Interreg Poctep program, to consolidate, position and internationalize the sector cross-border biotech.
In this context, the Secretary General of Research of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, Eva Ortega-Paíno, attended the Blue Zona Forum-Innovazul 2024 and took the opportunity to learn about the biotech space, where the presentation and promotion took place. of the Iberian pole in Andalusia and where the activities that are going to be developed within the framework of the IberoBio project have been exposed, paying special attention to the support service for companies and entrepreneurial projects in the biotechnology and blue economy focused on offering them everything they may need to facilitate their internationalization and thereby contribute to their rapid growth.
Eva Ortega-Paíno, who was received at the entrance to the Conference Center by the rector of the UCA, Casimiro Mantel, and the delegate of the Free Trade Zone, Fran González, pointed out that women's leadership is essential in all areas. areas and give visibility and promote equal opportunities. He has also highlighted the importance of strengthening research in the Blue Economy as has been done by the Ministry of Science, Research and Universities.
In the afternoon, a working meeting was held between the Free Zone and the representatives of the project who attended the event, in which the State delegate in the Free Zone of Cádiz, Fran González, participated. The meeting served to make an interim assessment of the project, confirming the progress and good results obtained to date.
The Cádiz Free Trade Zone's determined commitment to the blue economy is also manifested in the promotion of biotechnology as a complementary and synergistic sector to blue activities such as aquaculture or the mitigation of the impact of climate change on marine biodiversity.
In this way, during the first day held yesterday, two workshops were also held, one on internationalization and the other on blue biotechnology. These workshops have made it possible to identify opportunities for collaboration between projects and to carry out matchmaking between participants, an evaluation system to search for similar profiles.
The participation of Zona Franca in this Iberian pole recognizes the positioning of Cadiz as a strategic territory in the blue economy, favoring the attraction of other complementary sectors such as biotechnology.
It must be remembered that the Free Trade Zone is part of the 0041_IBERO_BIO_6_E project, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund FEDER within the framework of the Interreg VI A Spain – Portugal (POCTEP) 2021-2027 program. to which it has joined together with eleven other Spanish-Portuguese entities – among which is also the Vigo Free Trade Zone – as a promoter of the Blue Economy technology incubator Incubazul and with the main objective of consolidating, positioning and promoting the internationalization of the sector cross-border Iberian biotech.
The Iberobio project allows startups and projects incubated in the Incubazul acceleration program to benefit with activity related to biotechnology, favoring their international expansion thanks to the expansion of the so-called “Cross-border Biotechnology Cluster” for the creation and development of the “Iberian Pole”. Cross-Border Biotechnology”.
