Ángel Rubio Appointed External Director of Max Planck Society's Fritz Haber Institute

As indicated and covered by numerous media, Angel Rubio a top researcher based at the University of the Basque Country has been appointed external director of Max Planck.

Professor Rubio is one of Europe's biggest HPC users accessing Petaflop resources across numerous world leading research institutions. His team is based in young and attractive city of San Sebastian where the team hosts numerous computing platforms and actively develop world class scientific code. And they are hiring!

Once again, congratulations Prof Rubio!

How is it to live in the Basque Country ? Vitoria-Gasteiz

Vitoria-Gasteiz is the capital of the Basque Country in southern Europe. The city includes major researchers and industry in high performance computing, particularly applied to aeronautics&space, automovile and energy.

Vitoria-Gasteiz is also the European Green Capital in 2012. Find out why,

50m€ Venture Capital for Energy Startups

Gamesa, a basque Wind energy firm, has recently launched a corporate venture capital fund.

The 6 key areas for this fund are:

• wave (converting tidal currents and waves into energy);
• next generation photovoltaic energy (converting the sun's photonic energy into electricity);
• energy storage designed to guarantee high-quality supply;
• green mobility (electric vehicles);
• energy efficiency (maximising energy use while minimising consumption);
• and off-grid (small renewable generation units that are not connected to power grids, for use in remote locations).

Further information, please contact Gamesa site.

Gamesa received the visits of president Obama in 2008 and recently in April 2011. Here is the white house video of the last visit:

Bilbao, the city -Why should your HPC project be in the Basque Country?

Today's video is Basque Country's biggest city: Bilbao



This video was played at the Shangai's Exhibition.

Mountain Bike and Outdoors - Why should your HPC project be in the Basque

The Basque country offers incredible MTB opportunities for everyone! Beautiful landscapes between the greenest mountains covered in Oak trees and other local varieties and the beautiful Cantabric sea. In the Basque you can cycle and have a swim on the sea after work and finish your day having an amazing dinner at the local towns.

The following video is from a local company suited for non spanish speakers which organizes MTB routes, hiking routes and cultural trips around the gorgeous Basque landscape. If your team is into outdoors activities, the Basque Country is the place!

More Mountain Biking Videos

via blog.aboutbc.info

The Basque Country Internationalization - Analysis

The report (in spanish) published by the ESADE business school's Spanish Multinational Corportarions Observatory (OEME), highlights the Basque Country amongst as the second most internationalize regions in Spain.

The sectors are: Energy, Banking, and highly specialized assets -as machinery, aeronautics and others-.

The report in Spanish here:

OEME Second Annual Report

Relocation Services: Video of Testimonies

The following is a video by Relocation Agency Bizkaia Xede, which helped north american scientist Scott Rapoport relocate to a Biotechnology Company in the Basque Country.

Follow the link here to hear his case.

Economic Analysis: Basque Country

Barcelona based catalan saving bank, laCaixa, has published an extremely report that explains, very clearly some key points of the Basque Economy.

The report, published only in Spanish, it is a very interesting one and it is worth reading if you are fluent in Spanish. It is a 132 pages that talks about key expertise.

Unfortunately this report does not cover some of the newest and most challenging basque initiativies, however it providers a very good background theory and interesting recommendations.

La Caixa Basque Country Economy: strategic analysis

Apartments and accomodation for Researchers

In San Sebastian, The Talent House aims to solve one of researchers' and their families' most common problems: accomodation. The House of Talent is an integrated space for researchers that relocate to Basque Country's San Sebastian-Donostia. It is about to be inaugurated.

Further information and applications here.

The video with more promotional details here:

Cambridge Judge Education and Google in the Basque Country

If you are planning to relocate your company or develop a career in business, the Basque Country can help you benefit from a perfect business education environment. Deusto Business School offers a program in Executive Business Innovation in conjunction with Cambridge Judge.
Deusto Business School is a renowned business school, and Google was visiting last week, to hire some of its graduates.

"In today´s global economy, where there is a continuous accelerating speed of change, there is no continuity without constant renewal. Innovation has become a key organizational capability for business success, through developing current businesses or creating new enterprises from existing ones.

The Executive Master in Business Innovation (MBI) from Deusto Business School has been specially designed to provide a unique experience that will boost you and your organisation´s creativity and enhance innovation capabilities. It will provide a space for reflection to reconsider the taken-for-granted managerial assumptions from traditional business programmes."

Surf and Ski/Snowboard - Why should your HPC project be with us?

The Basque Country is warm enough during summer, and it consists of 255 kilometers of coast to surf along this part of the Cantabric Sea -that is an Atlantic Climate. So you can expect good waves around. You will find more information here, or use Google Earth to find the spots in the map. The Basque Surfing federation web page is here. And some more info here.

If you are more sort of Ski or Snowboard person, you should know that the Basque Country, besides being an industrial hub, it is located at the beginning of the west Pirinees. Fantastic French and Spanish Ski resorts are just two hours drive from the Basque Country.

Learning from others (Data Centers)

This article about Google's last data center in Finland is really interesting. I have been suggesting, now for a year, that a similar thing could be done in the Basque Country. There are more examples over there. But ...

See the video from Finland here in English.

More updates on my side before end of the year!

Genetadi involved in a new international network seeking foetal abnormalities detecting biomarkers

The basque country company Genetadi participates in a new international research network looking for new non-invasive prenatal biomarkers for congenital anomalies. The project “Search for non-invasive biomarkers for the diagnosis of aneuploidies: integral study of the genome, proteome and metabolome" has been funded by the EU 7FP with one million euros.

Further read here.

Nanogune Cleanroom

A video of the nanogune installations in San Sebastian Donostia;

认识巴斯克自治区

了解为什么你的高性能计算项目，应在巴斯克地区。

下列文件已出版了地方当局。这页是一个个人博客，将帮助你找到就业机会，企业，科学，并使用高性能计算的工业项目。


认识巴斯克自治区

VideoGames industry education in the Basque

"The Bilbao Chamber of Comerse and DigipPen USA are honoured to present DigiPen Institute of Technology Europe-Bilbao, a project the goal of which is to boost a new strategic sector in Euskadi: Videogames and Virtual Reality. To this end, we will create high-performance training and research in videogame programming and design and which will open its doors in 2010."

Via BasqueResearch.com and Techflash.

Applications for fall 2011 now open. See their website and follow the European Hub on Facebook.

This is indeed a good reference for us. Well done!

Basque Competitiviness Performance: Why should your HPC project be in the Basque Country?

The following presentation -prepared by distinguished professor Michael E. Porter from Harvard Business School's Institute for Strategy and Competitiviness- will give provide you with some unvaluable insights. The professors used this material to give a talk in Bilbao in 2002, and describes the evolution of the Basque Region strategies and recommendations from 1988.

Basque competitive performance - Michael E. Porter

Why should your HPC project be in the Basque Country ? Space for your offices

Besides the scientific and technological parks located at the outskirts of Bilbao, San Sebastian, Vitoria and Mondragon, Bilbao is about to inaugurate the "Iberdrola Tower". Located in the center of Bilbao, you can request and find further information to start your business here.

Why should your HPC project be in the Basque Country ? Nature, Sports, Culture and Society

The following funny video, made by a person that leaves in the Basque Country, can give you a good idea about how the people and the countryside in the Basque Country area is. As his author describes his video took "21 months in the making, more than 100 places and many friends to dance in the Basque Country. Based on an idea by Matt Harding."

Why should your HPC project be in the Basque Country ? Economic Situation

In a video report published in its digital version, the WSJ describes Spain as a burden for Europe though it also says that Bilbao has "weathered" the economic situation well.
Further can be read here.