Bilbao PortLab - Informative meeting

UniportBilbao, together with Bilbao PortLab, has carried out a digital conference to learn about the Ports 4.0 program and how to direct these funds to innovate in the sector.

Thirty representatives of the port community participated in the meeting. In the first part, Bilbao PortLab, promoted by the Port of Bilbao Authority and integrated into the Bilbao Port and River Foundation, explained the objective to develop an innovation ecosystem and identify ideas applicable to the needs and challenges of the sector.

“We are facilitators and we want the port of Bilbao to be a testing space, understood not only in terms of infrastructure but also applied within the companies themselves. The 4.0 fund makes it possible to actively promote and incorporate disruptive or incremental innovation as an element of competitiveness, efficiency, sustainability, security and protection”, commented the Bilbao PortLab coordinator, Nagore Ardanza.

Along these lines, Bilbao PortLab has already identified 364 different agents, including 40 companies from the port community, 220 innovative solutions and 94 other stakeholders. They work with all of them to facilitate, accompany and apply the strategic projects in the companies of the port of Bilbao, and its coordinator has remarked that "the companies of the port community can also be innovative companies and, therefore, access the funds Ports 4.0".

The conference included a practical example by the UniportBilbao member company Toro y Betolaza, represented by Patricia Betolaza, who recalled that "those who are not integrated into innovation will be left out of the market". Betolaza explained how they decided to become a facilitating agent and host various innovation projects, which allows them to improve their service and give their machinery a longer useful life.

The meeting was closed by the director of UniportBilbao, Inmaculada Ugarteche, encouraging the participants of the port community to take advantage of the opportunity of having the support of Bilbao PortLab and the funds of the Port 4.0 program for business projects.