Darwin Bioprospecting Excellence wins the QIA award as one of the most innovative companies in the world

The Valencian biotechnology company receives the Quality Innovation Award (QIA Award) in Kazakhstan accompanied by the IVACE and thus positions itself as one of the most innovative SMEs worldwide

 

Valencia (24.02.23). – The Valencian biotechnology company, Darwin Bioprospecting Excellence, has been awarded the QIA award (Quality Innovation Awards) as one of the most innovative SMEs in the world for its search for microorganisms with various industrial applications.

The award ceremony took place in Kazakhstan, attended by the company’s CEO, Manuel Porcar, and Jordi Sebastiá, Director of External Relations at the Valencian Institute of Business Competitiveness (IVACE), which has accompanied and advised the company throughout all phases of this award.

 

This year, the QIA awards, in collaboration with the Association of Promoting Centers of Excellence of Spain, including IVACE, celebrated its sixteenth edition with a total of 728 registered candidates, of which only 24 were awarded worldwide, with Darwin Bioprospecting Excellence, a spin-off of the University of Valencia (UV), being the only representative from the Valencian Community.

 

Manuel Porcar, CEO of DARWIN, explains that “it is a recognition of a business model which, in the case of this company, consists of developing new products for the industry based on microorganisms and in close collaboration with each of the clients“. Beyond probiotics, microbial diversity offers endless possibilities: there are microorganisms capable of degrading plastic, producing biogas, or decontaminating sulfate-rich waters, among others.

 

Jordi Sebastià, Director of External Relations at IVACE, expressed his satisfaction that the Valencian Community continues to be on the world map of innovation thanks to the efforts and work of leading companies like Darwin Bioprospecting Excellence, while highlighting IVACE and the Ministry of Sustainable Economy’s commitment to innovation as a growth engine.

 


Jordi Sebastià (IVACE) and Manuel Porcar (CEO of the company) with the DARWIN rollup at the QIA Awards ceremony in Kazakhstan.

 

Cutting-edge technology and tailored solutions

 

Darwin Bioprospecting Excellence is located in the Scientific Park of the UV and offers ‘tailored’ microbial solutions. The company has its own technology that allows it to cultivate the uncultivable and grow microorganisms in the laboratory that other companies are unable to cultivate.

 

This innovative technology has led the biotech company to receive one of the three awards in the category of SME business innovation at the 2023 QIA Awards. Manuel Porcar ensures that “this recognition is a boost to a business model based on the most cutting-edge R&D.”

 

Jordi Sebastià also noted that DARWIN is one of the 50 companies that have participated in the European business growth program ScaleUp since 2018, supported by the European Commission and internationally awarded, where it was awarded in the 2020 edition. This European program is coordinated by IVACE in collaboration with the SEIMED network and the European Center for Business and Innovation (CEEI) of Valencia.

 

Spain, the country with the most awardees

 

The various participating innovations came from Botswana, China, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, India, Israel, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Rwanda, Russia, South Africa, Serbia, Spain, Swaziland, Sweden, and Zimbabwe. Of all these, Spain has had the highest number of awarded innovations in the 2023 QIA Awards. The criteria used to evaluate the different candidates were based on novelty, usability, learning, customer orientation, and effectiveness.