Emilia-Romagna and the Basque Country: a mission to connect innovation and health

From 5 to 7 May 2025, Clust-ER Health took part in the institutional mission organised by ART-ER in the Basque Country, together with representatives from other Clust-ERs in Emilia-Romagna. The aim? To strengthen dialogue and cooperation between two regional ecosystems that share a common vision of innovation as a lever for sustainable, inclusive transformation focused on people’s well-being.

An advanced ecosystem, a strategic partner

In recent years, the Basque Country has established itself as one of Europe’s most advanced hubs in the fields of smart industry, digital health, biotechnology and energy transition. Local institutions, in particular SPRI and Basque Trade & Investment, have built a solid strategy for industrial development and international cooperation, based on the enhancement of sectoral clusters, digitalisation and pioneering programmes such as Bind 4.0.

For Clust-ER Health, this mission represented an important opportunity to engage with the Basque Health Cluster (BHC), as well as other players in the Basque ecosystem interested in health, personalised medicine, advanced diagnostics and enabling technologies.

Strategic visits: where innovation applied to health is born

Among the most significant moments of the mission were visits to three centres of excellence:

🔬 Tecnalia – One of Europe’s leading applied research centres, with a division dedicated to health and agri-food. Tecnalia works on technologies for personalised medicine, artificial intelligence in the clinical field and sustainable nutrition. Its approach is strongly oriented towards technology transfer and the creation of industrial value, in line with the mission of our Clust-ER.

🧪 Biolan Health & Biolan Microbiosensores – A Zamudio-based company that develops rapid, reliable and user-friendly biosensors. Biolan Health focuses on point-of-care diagnostics and preventive medicine, while Biolan Microbiosensores provides quality control solutions for the agri-food sector. Two concrete examples of how biotechnology, electronics and digitalisation can be integrated to improve health and safety.

🧬 Cocoon Bioscience – An innovative start-up specialising in the sustainable production of recombinant proteins using insect cocoons as natural bioreactors. A cutting-edge biotech solution with applications ranging from health to agriculture, in line with the principles of the circular economy and the bioeconomy.

Building bridges for joint innovation

In addition to one-to-one meetings with local clusters and institutional presentations, the mission highlighted the value of informal and cross-sectoral relationships that develop through this type of experience. Visiting physical places of innovation, comparing other models of governance, seeing concrete projects up close: all this allows us to imagine new paths of collaboration, not only bilateral but also multilateral at the European level.

The participation of Clust-ER Health also made it possible to showcase the vitality and expertise of the Emilia-Romagna regional ecosystem, highlighting the potential for synergy in key sectors such as digital health, biotechnology, the pharmaceutical industry and agritech.

This mission represents a first concrete step towards a structured dialogue between the two regions, based on shared values: collaboration, sustainability, people-centredness and open innovation.

Clust-ER Health will continue to work to activate transnational partnerships that can generate real value for businesses, research centres and citizens. Because the health of the future is built today, together.