On 5 November 2015,  the “SME Instrument and Fast Track to Innovation” symposium, organised by SPRI, in conjunction with Innobasque, Beaz, CDTI and the Parques Tecnológicos de Euskadi, was held at the Bizkaia Science and Technology Park, Zamudio.

The aim of the event was to showcase how the SME instrument and Fast Track to Innovation, two new tools to fund innovation actions within the European Commission’s HORIZON 2020 programme, operate. Both instruments fund near-to-market activities that drive the fast-track launch of new products, services and processes internationally.

BIOLAN, as a beneficiary of the SME Instrument with the approval of the SO2SAFE project, was invited to showcase its successful experience of taking part in the funding programme.  Asier Albizu, the company’s Managing Director, outlined for the audience the track record and setting that led BIOLAN to prepare a first-rate proposal for the SME Instrument, the premises underpinning the approach and the so-called keys for success, thanks to which the proposal attained a very high score, very close to the maximum. 

From then onwards, the BIOLAN SO2SAFE project has become a Basque success story in terms of the SME Instrument, a funding programme that is awakening huge interest among European SMEs given the favourable conditions and advantages offered.