On Wednesday, 6 April 2022, the consortium promoting the High Technology Incubator in Bioeconomy and Circular Economy (IAT) has organised a Forum at the headquarters of the Cork, Wood and Charcoal Institute (ICMC-CICYTEX), in Mérida, to promote business projects likely to participate in the new incubation and acceleration process that will begin in the second half of 2022.

The IAT has been conceived to support business projects capable of generating new products and/or processes with high added value through biocompound extraction and purification techniques, as well as biotechnological processes applicable to the extraction, bioactivation and synthesis of compounds based on Extremadura’s wealth of natural resources, its crops, aromatic and medicinal plants, or the by-products, co-products and waste from agro-industry.

This session presented the infrastructures available to the IAT to promote the development of business initiatives based on extraction and purification processes and, where appropriate, assisted by biotechnological methods, to obtain new products with high added value. These laboratories and a pre-industrial pilot plant are key to the materialisation of the Research-Business binomial and the consolidation of new business and entrepreneurial niches in the food, pharmacological, cosmetic and chemical industries, among others.

In addition, during the session the new call for incubation and acceleration of the IAT was presented, which will be open from 23 March to 26 May 2022. This call aims to select business projects to join the incubation and acceleration process in the IAT, so that they can validate a prototype and promote the market launch of the product or process prototyped using the scientific, technological and business resources and services that the IAT itself and the associated entities are equipped with.

Finally, this Forum has also served for the beneficiaries of the IAT pre-acceleration programme and the potential beneficiaries of the incubation and acceleration programme to present their projects publicly and strengthen their relationship with potential customers, technology partners, corporate partners and investors within the Extremadura agri-food industry.