Co-organized by ADEGI and nanoGUNE, and with the collaboration of the nanoBasque Agency, this workshop invites Basque companies to explore the opportunities offered by nanotechnology to increase their competitiveness. Four Basque companies – Graphenea, Maier, and GKN Driveline will participate in the workshop sharing the challenges they face to incorporate nanotechnology in their business.

NanoGUNE will host entrepreneur initiatives through the creation of an incubator of nanotechnology-based new companies. This nanoincubator has been launched in the framework of an agreement signed by nanoGUNE and Bic Gipuzkoa Berrilan, an instituton devoted to innovation and the creation of new companies in Gipuzkoa.

On 9 April 2010, a new start-up company (Graphenea) was launched as a joint venture of private investors and nanoGUNE. The new company, which is located at the nanoGUNE facilities, has been created with the mission of developing graphene-based process and product technology as well as conducting related research activities. Amaia Zurutuza, coming from Controlled Therapeutics Scotland (CTS) Ltd. in Glasgow, took on 9 April 2010 her new responsabilities as Scientific Director of Graphenea.

On 18 November 2009, a special mention by the jury of the ninth Manuel Laborde Werlinden prize went to the Graphenea initiative presented by Jose M. Pitarke (Director of nanoGUNE and Professor of Condensed Matter Physics at the University of the Basque Country) for his business initiative on graphene, a two-dimensional nanoscale material exhibiting extraordinary electrical and mechanical properties.