Under the title ‘Ready for the Spain of tomorrow’, the event had the participation of top international speakers and the presence of the Minister of Science and Innovation, Pedro Duque.

AlgaEnergy was one of the three companies which, being a member of the Spanish Bioindustry Association (AseBio), was invited to participate on the 17^th of June in the presentation of its Annual Report, together with the multinationals Merck and Bayer. The biotech company, which heads the Industrial Transformation Commission of AseBio, was invited to the round table organized during the event, which is perhaps one of the most important for the biotechnology sector in Spain. Under the title 'Ready for the Spain of tomorrow', the event also had the presence of the Minister of Science and Innovation, Pedro Duque, as well as interventions by two characters of the highest international level: Nicholas Negroponte, Founder of the MIT Media Lab, and Carlos Moedas, former European Commissioner for Science, Research and Innovation at the EC.

The annual report was presented by Ion Arocena, CEO of AseBio, who released some data that helps to contextualize the evolution and the current situation of the Spanish biotechnology sector. In this way, he pointed out that “more than 70% of biotechnology investment in R&D corresponds to biotech companies; a figure that represents the commitment of the sector to science and innovation that now, with the health crisis as a backdrop, is more important than ever”. During the event it was also highlighted that Spain is the ninth world power in the biotechnology sector, in addition to the country with the highest percentage of scientific articles, and that biotechnology has established itself as the industrial sector that invests the most in R&D in Spain, with almost 770 million euros.

Subsequently, there was a round table discussion of highly relevant and interesting topics, in which Carlos Rodríguez-Villa, General Manager of AlgaEnergy, Isabel Sanchez Magro, Medical Director of Merck, and Carlos Vicente Alberto, Head of Public Relations, Science and Sustainability of Bayer Crop Science exchanged views. During his participation, Rodríguez-Villa presented the numerous properties and benefits of microalgae, a field of science in which the biotech company is a world leader. He also highlighted the immense potential of application of this raw material in very diverse sectors such as agriculture, nutrition, the fight against climate change or the protection of biodiversity, among others. In this sense, Rodríguez-Villa pointed out that microalgae can simultaneously contribute to alleviating the three great crises that our society faces: food supply, energy efficiency and environmental sustainability.

The event was closed by Ana Polanco, President of AseBio, together with Pedro Duque, Minister of Science and Innovation.