The “IBMCP-EMPRESAS: Technology at the service of agriculture” Conference was successfully held

More of 280 professionals from the agri-food business sector, researchers from the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology of Plants (IBMCP), and experts in R&D management from public and private entities met last Tuesday, May 7 in Valencia to share the main advances in biotechnology and its possibilities of application to maximize production and increase the quality of agri-food products. The “IBMCP-Companies: technology at the service of agriculture” conference, which was held in the Blue Cube assembly hall of the Polytechnic City of Innovation, was organized by the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology of Plants (IBMCP), Grupo Cooperativo Cajamar and the Technological Platform for Plant Biotechnology (BIOVEGEN).

The director of the IBMCP, Pablo Vera, the coordinator of BIOVEGEN, Gonzaga Ruiz de Gauna, and the territorial director of Cajamar, Eduardo Holgado, inaugurated the meeting in which the need for exploit scientific excellence more effectively of the IBMCP in the area of Biotechnology and Plant Genomics, with special relevance in the agri-food sector, in order to efficiently promote the technology transfer in the sector. The leading international positions that Spain, and in particular the IBMCP, occupies in terms of scientific contribution of excellence are not in tune with the practical use that is made of this knowledge, nor with the scarce subsequent development of technological applications, or the commercial exploitation of these technologies.

In this sense, Pablo Vera pointed out that “We are aware that the ability to generate knowledge and discover novel and outstanding aspects regarding vegetable crops has not been accompanied by an effective technological transfer to the productive sectors most closely related to the exploitation and commercialization of our technologies; nor of a better use of our scientific achievements, of our services and facilities and of our know-how and research excellence.” Therefore, he stressed that “The objective of the IBMCP, which for 25 years has been demonstrating an enormous capacity to generate knowledge of extraordinary quality, is to offer our technological offer as well as all our support to promote fruitful collaborations between our researchers and agri-food companies and, with this, strengthen among all the development of the Bioeconomy as a source of growth and wealth generation for our country.”

For his part, Eduardo Holgado explained that the day “joins the different actions that Grupo Cooperativo Cajamar develops to promote the culture of innovation and cooperation between companies and researchers in order to adapt the most recent technological developments to the reality of our field, promoting the generation of value, increasing productivity through sustainable practices and the efficient use of the resources within our reach”.

In his speech, Gonzaga Ruiz de Gauna stated that “We are witnessing a paradigm shift in the R&D&i system. It is no longer just about generating a scientific contribution of international quality, of which the IBMCP as a reference research center at an international level is a clear example, but about making this science profitable and part of it reverting to society, improving the economy. through companies, providing them with more and better technology, making them more competitive and generating more jobs”.

The day, sponsored by Bayer Crop Science, Idai Nature, Syntech Research, Valgenetics, Caudal Extruline Systems, Fisher Scientific, Uvat Bio, Kaudal, Probelte, Durviz and Eurofins, had two IBMCP-Company sessions dedicated to presenting the wide technological offer of the Valencian research center and the technological demand of 10 companies in the agri-food sector. Additionally, a R&D management and financing session aimed at presenting the public and private financing possibilities existing in the R&D ecosystem and government support towards this type of initiatives aimed at promoting technology transfer and Science-Business collaboration as a key mechanism for competitive improvement.

Likewise, there were held more than 160 bilateral meetings between IBMCP researchers and companies in the sector, to analyze collaboration possibilities and R&D projects.

Gallery

Program and presentations of the day

10:00 a.m. Welcome and Introduction of the Day

Pablo Vera. IBMCP
Eduardo Holgado. CAJAMAR COOPERATIVE GROUP
Gonzaga Ruiz de Gauna. BIOVEGEN