The META-BRAIN project is a European research initiative aimed at advancing non-invasive, high-precision methods for brain modulation, particularly through innovative technologies like magnetoelectric nanostructures and ultrasound. The initiative explores these technologies to achieve targeted, spatiotemporal control of brain activity, aiming to address neurological conditions such as epilepsy, stroke, depression, Parkinson’s disease, and traumatic brain injuries. META-BRAIN’s approach integrates various advanced components, including graphene microtransistors, closed-loop systems for real-time monitoring, and ultrasound devices to support controlled brain stimulation.
Building a collaborative team of experts in neuroengineering, microelectronics, and nanotechnology was essential to cover the scientific part of the project. However, for other non-scientific tasks that are key to its success, META-BRAIN relies on the expertise of project partner Zabala Innovation.
Founded in Spain in 1986, Zabala Innovation is a consulting firm involved in large European consortia in programs such as Horizon Europe and other EU initiatives. These include many health projects like DREAMS, RBDCOV, SPIOMET4HEALTH, or DocTIS, and Pathfinder projects such as VES4US or BOW, where it serves as a partner to help translate innovative ideas into real-world solutions.
In European projects, Zabala Innovation plays different key roles:
- Project Management: It is responsible for the operational and administrative management of the project, ensuring activities are carried out according to the timeline, objectives, and budget. This includes coordinating tasks, managing finances, preparing financial reports, and ensuring compliance with European regulations.
- Exploitation of Results: Zabala Innovation helps maximize the impact of the project’s outcomes by developing strategies for commercialization, protecting intellectual property, and creating exploitation agreements, while also evaluating the social and economic impact of the project’s results.
- Dissemination and Communication: It ensures effective communication of project results to key stakeholders. This includes designing dissemination plans, organizing events, publishing reports, managing digital channels, social media, newsletters, and handling public relations, ensuring the project gains visibility and media coverage through strategic messaging and promotional materials.
- Social Innovation: Zabala Innovation guides and supports the development, implementation, and scaling of innovative solutions that address societal challenges in European projects to ensure they achieve lasting impact and are aligned with EU priorities. These challenges include issues like social inclusion, environmental sustainability, poverty, education, and healthcare.
- Management of Cascade Funding: it oversees the distribution of financial resources for innovation projects. This includes evaluating and selecting the most suitable proposals from SMEs, startups, or organizations based on alignment with funding program objectives. Additionally, Zabala Innovation ensures compliance with legal and financial procedures related to funding allocation, reporting, and overall project management.
The company employs an international team of over 500 professionals across its 13 offices, including Madrid, Brussels, Paris, Barcelona, Lisbon, Valencia, Bordeaux, and Seville.
ZABALA INNOVATION’S ROLE IN META-BRAIN
Zabala Innovation’s main responsibilities in META-BRAIN include leading the Communication, Dissemination, and Exploitation work package, as well as supporting the consortium with management and other tasks. With a wide experience in EU-funded projects, Zabala Innovation helps maximize META-BRAIN’s impact by designing communication strategies tailored to different audiences, creating a dissemination plan to share the project outcomes, and facilitating public engagement. Zabala also leads the exploitation efforts by identifying promising project results, supporting intellectual property strategies, and advising on the definition of the exploitation strategy roadmap to ensure the project’s long-term success and relevance.
The Zabala Innovation team at META-BRAIN includes:
- Biomedical Engineer Javier Uranga and PhD in Biology Carlos Alfaro, who lead the exploitation responsibilities.
- Journalists Mónica Pérez and Mariano Echávarri, who handle communication and dissemination activities.
- And team leader Blanca Rodríguez, who brings over 15 years of experience in European R&D&I project management.
By disseminating META-BRAIN’s results to academic, scientific, and industrial communities, as well as broader audiences, and by managing intellectual property and facilitating a market driven research, Zabala Innovation plays a pivotal role in transforming META-BRAIN’s breakthroughs into real-world solutions that could revolutionize brain health technology.
