Eight years ago, I started my new role as researcher in nanomedicine, nano enabled medical technologies at Biopraxis, a small association of companies in an also small village in Europe, Vitoria-Gasteiz.

We were –have I already said it?- small, but we started a logical pathway based on cooperation, national and EU projects development, and integration into the European “nanomedicine community”.

We were invited to make a talk at the ETPN general assembly in Donostia, in 2014. It looked like everybody knew each other, while I was that shy guy alone in the corner of the party (not really shy, but you know…). But after the presentation, people started to be interested in our approach and open innovation model, so we changed from the “shy guys” to the “popular ones”, being able to build several research projects in this field at the EU level (Berenice, Smart4Fabry, Nocanther, REFINE…).

But with the success in development we also found some pains… Mainly, the gap between research results in nanotechnology for Health and the translation to patients. Unfortunately, we cannot cure people by sticking research papers or patents to the walls of the Hospital rooms.

Then, the OITB concept entered in our lives, mainly due to our connection with CDTI, Spanish NCPs. We identified this concept as the ideal tool to boost translation to markets and patients, and, in the middle of Christmas 2017, we decided to build the most powerful innovation platform for nano-enabled medical technologies in Europe. That meant a not-so-happy-Christmas, but with the inestimable cooperation of some of our friends from ETPN and previous research projects, we were able to submit a really good first stage proposal in January, and subsequently, an excellent proposal for stage two in July 2018.

We used some of our best tricks and superstitions, like the usual preparation meeting at the Basque Country delegation in Brussels (100% success in 2nd stage proposals). Other important aspect where my son’s chess lessons… Aingeru plays chess, and he received lessons on Friday afternoon. So, while he was there, I put on my headphones, took my laptop, and wrote, re-wrote, and fine-tuned the proposal. Not the best way to spend Friday afternoons, but it looked like a fruitful one!

We trusted a lot in our proposal, but you never know… And, suddenly, in October 2018 I received the best possible news: We were going to be funded! This was a mix of feelings: proud, responsibility and a considerable amount of vertigo… We had the biggest project ever, with 18 million euros and 27 partners. To make it “easier” we also had partners from South America and China (I used to say that the consortium can work 24 hours a day, starting in Colombia and ending in China!).

After the hard work until the contract sign (Thanks Unai!), now we have an outstanding opportunity to build a useful tool to deploy innovation in medical technologies to patients.

If we are able to improve Health and Quality of Life even for one single citizen, all the effort is worth it!

Angel del Pozo
SAFE-N-MEDTECH Scientific and Technical Manager