Over two intensive days in Bilbao, Contactica took part in BIOSPAIN 2026 with a clear objective: to strengthen connections, explore new collaboration opportunities and bring European project exploitation closer to the people and organisations capable of turning research results into real-world impact.
Our colleagues Lucía García and Tomás Baragaño represented the company throughout the event, focusing on networking, business development and the identification of potential partnerships across the biotechnology and innovation ecosystem. On the second day, they were joined by Contactica’s CEO Manuel Román, reinforcing the company’s presence and creating additional opportunities to connect with companies, researchers, investors and technology-transfer professionals.
Alongside these business development activities, the team also supported the BlueTools Project, in which Contactica participates as a partner, during a dedicated session exploring how marine microbiome research can contribute to new sustainable products, processes and ecosystem services.
For Contactica, BIOSPAIN was therefore much more than an industry event. It was a space where networking, business development and European project exploitation came together around a common objective: transforming innovation into opportunities for collaboration and impact.
Two days focused on building meaningful connections
Events such as BIOSPAIN offer an important opportunity to move beyond digital exchanges and establish direct conversations with organisations working across research, industry and innovation.
Throughout the two days, Contactica’s team focused on identifying areas of common interest, understanding emerging needs within the biotechnology sector and exploring potential partnerships that could lead to future projects or business collaborations.
These conversations are an essential part of Contactica’s approach to business development. New opportunities often emerge when complementary expertise meets around a shared challenge. Conferences provide the environment to identify those connections, exchange ideas and begin discussions that can later evolve into structured collaborations.
For Contactica, this networking activity is also closely connected to European project exploitation. The relationships created around research and innovation projects can become the starting point for new validation activities, commercial opportunities, technology transfer or future proposals.
Strengthening Contactica’s presence in the biotechnology ecosystem
The participation of Lucía García, Tomás Baragaño and Manuel Román also provided an opportunity to strengthen Contactica’s visibility within the biotechnology ecosystem.
Contactica works across different sectors where sustainability, innovation, research and market uptake increasingly intersect. Biotechnology is one of these areas, bringing together scientific development, industrial applications and significant opportunities for collaboration.
Being present at BIOSPAIN allows the company to better understand the priorities of organisations operating in the sector while presenting Contactica’s own capabilities in project development, sustainability, exploitation, communication and management.
This type of direct engagement is particularly valuable when identifying future partnerships. Successful innovation projects depend on finding organisations with complementary expertise and aligning scientific potential with technical, commercial and societal needs.
In this sense, European project exploitation does not begin only once a project is approaching its final stages. Building the right networks throughout the innovation process can create additional pathways for results to continue developing beyond their original project framework.
Supporting BlueTools at BIOSPAIN 2026
Contactica’s participation also included support for the BlueTools Project during the session “Blue Meets Green: Innovations for the Circular Bioeconomy from EU-funded Research on Marine Microbiomes.”
The session brought together the Horizon Europe projects BlueTools and BlueRemediomics to examine the potential of marine microbiomes as a source of enzymes, bioactive compounds, microorganisms and genes with possible applications across biotechnology and the circular bioeconomy.
Marine microbiome research presents enormous scientific potential, but transforming discoveries into usable applications involves significant challenges. Cultivation difficulties, complex datasets, screening requirements and the resources needed for traditional biodiscovery can make the path from research to application particularly demanding.
BlueTools and BlueRemediomics address these challenges through complementary expertise including sampling, cultivation, metagenomics, bioinformatics, high-throughput screening, product discovery and sustainability.
However, scientific advances alone do not guarantee impact. European project exploitation becomes critical when determining how promising results can connect with companies, investors, technology-transfer professionals and future research partners.
From research results to exploitation opportunities
A central part of the BlueTools session focused on the potential application of project results and on the pathways that can help research move closer to industry.
The discussion addressed areas such as industrial uptake, joint validation, licensing and research collaboration. Each represents a different route through which scientific results may continue developing after or alongside the research project itself.
This is precisely where European project exploitation becomes strategically important.
A promising technology may require further validation before industrial adoption. A research result may need a suitable licensing partner. An emerging application may benefit from collaboration with an organisation that brings complementary infrastructure, technical knowledge or market access.
Identifying these pathways requires both an understanding of the research and the ability to connect it with external stakeholders.
For Contactica, supporting these processes is part of a broader vision of project impact. Exploitation is not an isolated activity at the end of a project. It requires continuous interaction between research, industry, innovation ecosystems and potential users.
Where networking meets business development
The combination of BlueTools activities and Contactica’s wider participation at BIOSPAIN illustrates how European project exploitation and business development can reinforce each other.
Project results can generate new conversations with companies. Networking can uncover potential applications that were not initially considered. Industry feedback can help researchers understand what additional validation may be needed. And relationships established during conferences can develop into partnerships for new research or innovation activities.
This makes events such as BIOSPAIN valuable environments for both existing projects and future opportunities.
For Contactica, the objective is not simply to increase the number of contacts made during an event. The real value lies in identifying meaningful connections: organisations whose capabilities, needs or strategic objectives could align with our work or with the projects in which we participate.
This approach helps turn networking into structured business development and European project exploitation into a continuous process of identifying opportunities.
Turning connections into future opportunities
After two days in Bilbao, BIOSPAIN 2026 provided Contactica with new conversations, potential partnerships and a deeper connection with the biotechnology ecosystem.
The event also offered an opportunity to support BlueTools in presenting its research and exploring how project results could move towards further validation, licensing, industrial uptake and future collaboration.
These two dimensions are closely connected.
At Contactica, we see networking, business development and European project exploitation as complementary parts of turning research and innovation into lasting impact. Building strong projects is important, but so is creating the relationships and strategies that allow their results to continue growing beyond the consortium.
Our participation at BIOSPAIN reflects this approach: connecting people, identifying opportunities and helping create bridges between European research, industry and future collaboration.
