Campus Iberus presents the 6th edition of the Entrepreneurship awards sponsored by the CLH Group

• The proposals submitted by Geoimpulsa Natur and BEOnChip are the winners in the categories of Business ideas and Innovative company

The proposals submitted by Geoimpulsa Natur, in the "Business Ideas" category, and the company BEOnChip, in the “Innovative Company” category, are the winners of the sixth edition of the Iberus Emprende awards, sponsored by the CLH Group.

The awards were handed out at a ceremony held in the conference hall of the Polytechnic Building of the University of La Rioja, after the finalists presented their projects to the panel. A total of 20 proposals were submitted in this edition, covering a wide range of sectors, such as healthcare, hospitality, agriculture or the environment.

During the awards ceremony, the Chairman of the CLH Group, José Luis López de Silanes, thanked the participants and encouraged them to continue their efforts in materialising their projects. In his speech, he also took the opportunity to "ask the rectors to continue providing spaces at universities to foster the development of entrepreneurship and innovation".

In addition to López de Silanes, the event was attended by the rector of the University of La Rioja and current president of the Campus Iberus Consortium, Julio Rubio; the rector of the Public University of Navarra, Ramón Gonzalo; the vice rector of Technology Transfer and Innovation of the University of Zaragoza, Pilar Zaragoza; and the vice rector of Infrastructures of the University of Lleida, Narciso Pastor Sáenz.

The president of the Campus Iberus Consortium highlighted that "these awards show that there is healthy cooperation between universities and companies, as well as a strong drive for creating new projects that have an impact on improving people lives".

In his words, "innovation is not exclusive to traditional industries but rather, support is increasingly given to initiatives that promote sustainability and the bioeconomy, which are fields where universities in general and Campus Iberus in particular have much to contribute". In this regard, he expressly thanked the CLH Group for sponsoring and promoting these awards.

The CLH Group and Campus Iberus have been cooperating, as part of the Group's entrepreneurship support policy, for six years now in this programme, which is aimed at contributing to the development of innovative projects and the promotion of new business and job creation in the communities where the company is present.

The CLH Group has signed similar agreements with other organisations to foster entrepreneurship, such as the Institute for Business Competitiveness of Castilla y León (ICE) and the Promotion Institute of the Region of Murcia.

Projects awarded

The winner of the “Business ideas” category is the project submitted by Geoimpulsa Nature, presented by the University of Zaragoza, which proposes using waste from alabaster quarries as a potentially useful material for the retention of a wide variety of pollutants, notably reducing their concentration in polluted waters. 

This category aims to promote the entrepreneurial spirit by favouring the creation of new businesses by students and graduates of the universities belonging to Campus Iberus. Participants are entrepreneurs that have yet to create their business but have developed a business idea. The winner in this category will receive 5,000 euros.

Under the “Innovative company” category, the awarded project is BEOnChip, a company comprised of professionals from the University of Zaragoza which develops microfluidic chips for cell culture in biomimetic environments. With these disposable devices, cell culture experiments that were impossible before can be performed, increasing the success of a specific research line. 

This category aims to promote the entrepreneurial spirit by contributing to the recognition and strengthening of companies incorporated within the previous 48 months, regardless of their legal form and purpose, in the regions where they are based. The winner in this category will receive 7,000 euros.