An institutional and business delegation from the French region of Aquitaine visited Euskadi, the Basque Country, between 4 and 6 November last on an institutional cooperation and business mission to seek ways of collaboration.

The French delegation was made up of more than twenty people, including representatives of the leading institutions in Aquitaine, managers of the chambers of commerce, enterprises, hospitals and universities. Acting as hosts, on behalf of the Basque Country, were institutional representatives of the Basque Government, SPRI, the Basque Bioregion and the Technology Parks.

The business mission focused on developing bilateral encounters between the members of the French delegation and a substantial group of Basque biocompanies, the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and the Basque healthcare network.

The purpose of the visit is to explore and initiate ways of collaboration in different fields related with biosciences, and particularly with applications in human health.

In addition to collaboration at a business level, where common interests and business opportunities have been identified and customer-supplier agreements established, work is also going ahead on matters such as biotechnology training and cooperative cross-border research.

The continuation of this initial contact will be a visit to Aquitaine during 2009 by a Basque delegation, within the international cooperation and expansion strategy of the Bioregion.