BIND, the initiative of the Department of Industry, Energy Transition and Sustainability of the Basque Government and SPRI, has opened its 11th call aimed at startups from around the world to develop innovation projects with disruptive technologies in the fields of smart industry, efficient organization, commercialization, energy and sustainability. The call will remain open until September 4, so startups can submit their applications and aim to develop real open-innovation projects alongside more than 100 partner companies participating in this edition of BIND.
The launch of this 11th edition was announced during BIND Demo Day 2026, the platform’s annual gathering held this morning, where the 30 projects developed in the tenth edition of the program were showcased. The event brought together startups, corporations, SMEs, public companies, investors, and players in the Basque innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, establishing itself as a reference event to learn about technological solutions already applied in the Basque productive fabric.
In the opening address, the Deputy Minister for Industrial Promotion, Andoitz Korta, highlighted that in the 10 years of this initiative the Basque Government “has driven more than 400 projects from over 275 startups that have been connected with Basque anchor companies, with mentors and investors and, most importantly, with real impact: BIND has mobilized more than €10 million in procurement between Basque companies and startups. In other words, we are talking about concrete projects, implemented solutions, and real transformation of industrial processes”
The Latest Open-Innovation Projects
During BIND Demo Day 2026, the latest 30 technological solutions developed in collaboration between startups and leading Basque companies and public entities were presented, with direct applications in areas such as energy, sustainability, artificial intelligence, new materials, industrial automation, and the inspection of critical infrastructure.
Among the standout projects is the one developed by the French startup, Alhomna Systems, which has worked with Repsol-Petronor on a solution for sludge treatment through evaporation powered by solar energy. Its modular SolarDry system reduces the volume of wet waste directly at the source, decreasing transportation needs, treatment costs, and CO₂ emissions.
In new materials applied to construction, the Basque startup Photokrete has presented together with Eika a project based on photonic technology and advanced microporous ceramic materials to achieve ultra thermal insulation in buildings. The company develops materials with autonomous radiative cooling capacity during the day, aimed at reducing surface temperatures and mitigating the impact of heat waves in urban environments.
Likewise, the Basque startup We Are Clickers has presented AI projects together with the SME Xardexka and the public entity Eustat. In the project with Xardexka, a company dedicated to the production and distribution of high-quality prepared meals, they applied AI to create new personalized menus for the supply chain. And, in collaboration with Eustat, the startup has worked on an automatic index-generation project.
With the opening of its 11th call, BIND seeks startups from all five continents with disruptive technology products and services, already on the market or at an advanced development stage, and capable of contributing value to the use cases proposed by corporations and SMEs. The selected startups will be able to develop real projects with reference clients, access market opportunities, validate their solutions in industrial settings, and be part of an open-innovation ecosystem with international reach.
Projects must contribute to advancing toward a more efficient, competitive, and sustainable industry, through technologies such as artificial intelligence, IoT, robotics, new materials, automation, advanced analytics, drones, clean energies or digital solutions applied to industrial processes, among others. And to do so, they must address at least one of the 11 thematic blocks in the areas of smart industry, efficient organization, commercialization and energy and sustainability.
