Niches of opportunity - Invest in Álava

RIS3, INTELLIGENT SPECIALISATION

Smart Industry, Cleaner Energy and Personalized Health, new niches of opportunity in Álava

The European Union’s RIS3 initiative for the specialisation of regions has led to the definition of three priorities in the Basque Country: smart industry, cleaner energies, and personalised health, in line with the three transitions proposed by the EU in respose to the situation caused by the pandemic: digital, green, and social.

Intelligent industry

The Centre of Advanced Automotive Manufacturing is enhancing its detailed design, and intends to tackle the electrification of transport, digitalisation of all processes along the value chain, and the decarbonisation of its productive activity.

The Basque Cybersecurity Centre is an organisation set up to cultivate digital security. One of its objectives is to turn the Basque Country into an international benchmark in the application of cybersecurity technologies in industry.

Robotekin, hub for the robotics and automation ecosystem at Álava Technology Park, aims to provide a meeting point for the ecosystem based on trust between companies and agents linked to the Robotics and Automation sectors to make Álava and the Basque Country an attractive destination for talent, investment and quality employment, with the ultimate goal of boosting the competitiveness of the economic fabric.

Cleaner energies

CIC energiGUNE is a leading centre of investigation in battery storage, as well as thermal and hydrogen energy solutions. It is considered by the European Union to be one of Europe’s “key actors in R&D” on the solid-state battery value chain.

Basquevolt, a project led by CIC energiGUNE, relies on this technology to develop its important plant at Álava Technology Park where it will produce solid state cells for a new generation of batteries.

Personalised health

The Centre of Advanced Pharmaceutical Therapies, APD (Advance Pharma Development), within the Lascaray Centre, is led by the Faculty of Pharmacy at the UPV/EHU University Campus in Álava and the Tecnalia Research Centre. The new centre aspires to boost joint research in the field of the 3D printing in medicine and bioprinting in the field of advanced pharmaceutical therapies.

This initiative is an addition to the already established Basque Pharma Lab (BPL) 4.0 project, located in the Álava Technology Park and also funded by the Tecnalia Research Centre and the  Faculty of Pharmacy at the Álava University Campus of the UPV-EHU, for the development of medicines.

Both projects, APD and BPL, supported by the Provincial Council of Álava, contribute to the development of a top-tier pharmaceutical hub in the territory to serve as a benchmark for Spain, and both form part of a diversification strategy based on biosciences, a field that is growing within the region and boasts a number of global key players.