The Basque Foundation for Health Innovation and Research, BIOEF, coordinated the fourth meeting for groups in charge of clinical, hospital and biohealth research, which was held in Sondika (Bizkaia) on 15 June. This is a network which includes foundations, institutes and other organisations specialising in the management of biomedical research with the short-term objective of finding new methods to transfer and manage knowledge in the field of healthcare.

Over the next few months, these bodies plan to create internal working groups to focus on the main difficulties that arise from the management of research in this area: hiring of staff, research degrees, justification of grants, audits, invoicing for services and many other topics.

Amongst others, one of the main questions discussed during the meeting was the analysis of the technical and legal aspects related with planning technology transfer, as well as the modernisation which will result from the future constitution of the network into an association as a legal entity in itself, which is to take place towards the end of October.

Today this network includes more than thirty centres and is particularly involved in speeding up and aiding the conversion of research results into applications used in clinical practice. To this end, as well as setting up a discussion forum, it is working on support areas, whether for training or for guidelines, and in coordination and cooperation with the various health-care and legislative systems.

The final objective is to provide the population with the best health-care, within a sustainable economic model, and for some years now this means putting a value on hospitals’ own assets and the research carried out in them. In the Basque Country, the creation of the BIOEF and, more recently, the creation of the BioBank or the backing for the health-care institutes (BioDonostia and BioCruces) are examples of this evolution towards a service for society.

In technology transfer, the BIO Foundation has acquired the legal capacity to process the rights and use the results of patents and intellectual property rights of the staff of Osakidetza, the Basque Health Service, and has taken part in the management of the results of over ten research projects, mostly in collaboration with the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), technology centres and biotech companies in the Basque Country.