THE high-tech incubator Córdoba Biotech It has just turned one year old and its driving partners and collaborators have already set themselves a goal expansion and increase its power as a “national reference” of biotechnology. This was revealed this Wednesday by the heads of the institutions participating in the project.
Córdoba Biotech was launched on October 3, 2023 with 33 biotechnology projects and companies signing their membership agreement. Half of the initiatives are established companies and the rest are biotechnology ideas and products developed by different research groups. Occupies the Orión building in Rabanales 21 which was reformulated for this initiative with the European funds collected.
The deputy mayor of the Treasury and president of Imdeec, Blanca Torrent, shared the opportunity to soon expand this incubator which “This is a project in which we want to change the lives of many people.” Torrent thanked the University of Córdoba, Imibic-Fibico, Caixabank and the Incyde Foundation for their collaboration, “thanks to which we can talk about this ecosystem.”
The director of Imibic and the Foundation for Biomedical Research of Cordoba (Fibico), Álvaro Granados, assured that ” lots of ideas in the labs “But we need to get them to patients. It’s a long, tedious and complicated process but we need to speed up the process.”
UCO researcher potential
From the Incyde Foundation, Natalia Vázaquez offered some information on the work carried out by this foundation of the Spanish Chambers of Commerce since its creation in 2000. She managed to channel the investment of 330 million euros in 25 years of European funds for the entrepreneurial spirit creating a network of 143 nurseries throughout Spain, 20 high-tech incubators like the one in Cordoba and 35 digital coworking spaces, also advising 190,000 people. In the 20 incubators alone with which it works, more than 2,800 companies have been incubated.
The rector of University of Cordoba (UCO), Manuel Torralbostressed that it is “a great source of pride for the University to participate in this knowledge ecosystem. What we are looking for is that our graduates and doctors have an ecosystem to create businesses technology-based that are not easy, with a high degree of uncertainty and the need for support. Torralbo recalled the potential that opens up with the Biotechnology degree studied in the third year at UCO and that the academic institution has at the level of research and the acquisition of external resources for this.
Finally the mayor of Cordoba, Jose Maria Bellidoemphasized that “the success is in the sum of efforts of all the agents and talent there is in Cordoba. He mentioned the achievements that some companies have obtained during this first year of activity with two ISO certifications and the selection in important forums in Spain of the best start-ups. “We are celebrating a great year through our commitment to technology companies,” he concluded.
