Bizkaia Talent is a non-profit organisation sponsored by the Department for Economic Development of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia/Bizkaiko Foru Aldundia (D.F.B./B.F.A.), with the cooperation of some of the leading companies, universities and research and technology centres in the Basque Country. It is aimed at facilitating and encouraging the conditions of the recruitment, engagement and retention of highly qualified people in knowledge and innovation processes in Bizkaia. Bizkaia Talent has several partners: Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa (BBK), BEAZ, CIC bioGUNE, Iberdrola, Idom, IK4, Industria de Turbo Propulsores (ITP), Sener, Tecnalia, University of Deusto, University of the Basque Country/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea and the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, to whose Department for Economic Development it belongs.

Bizkaia Talent’s efforts are focused on people. This means working together with all the actors involved in business development and innovation in the identification and support of innovative projects and persons. The changes that are about to take place in the fields of education and research at the European level, coupled with those that have already occurred and those envisaged in business (traditional sectors in Bizkaia with a medium-high to high level of knowledge and technology: automotive industry, electronic materials, metal mechanics, transport and logistics; emerging sectors in Bizkaia: biotechnology, aerospace industry, biomedicine, pharmaceutical industry and health sector, alternative energies, environment), call for the establishment of an organisation to lay the foundations to fight the danger of intellectual undercapitalisation faced by many countries in the region. Within an increasingly globalised competitive framework in terms of both social and economic aspects, it has become necessary to work together with other government agencies in the Department for Economic Development and Innovation (DIPE) of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, with Basque and European public institutions, and with other actors. Cooperation is key, for the success of an individual actor or organisation depends on the success of others. Thus, cooperation is the key to success, and one of the tools to face one of Bizkaia’s main challenges: the creation of wealth and stable jobs.

All the services and programmes offered by Bizkaia Talent are free, except for special activities like networking with professionals outside the Basque Country (in which organisations must pay for travel and accommodation expenses) or recreational activities for social integration (museums, tours, and so on).

Bizkaia Talent complies with Organic Law 15/1999 of 13 December, on Personal Data Protection, in data management. All the personal information entered on our website (the main communication channel between Bizkaia Talent and applicants) will be stored in the organisation’s database, which is duly registered with the Personal Data Protection General Registry under the security measures established in Royal Decree 994/1999, of 11 June. Several departments in my organisation could be interested in the services offered by bizkaia talent. Can we create several users? Yes, you can. Each organisation can have as many user profiles as necessary. To create a new user in your Bizkaia Talent account, you must go to ‘Organisation registration’. When you enter your TIN, the system will identify it as belonging to an existing organisation and ask you to enter the new user’s information: name and surname, position, department and email address. If all the information is correct, we will activate the new user profile, giving it its own ID and password. All the users in the organisation can access the different services offered by Bizkaia Talent and the full account record online.

No, it is not. On the one hand, Bizkaia Talent is an intermediary between companies, universities, technology centres, clusters, R&D units and centres, providing services to identify, contact and recruit highly qualified people living abroad or not, and to facilitate the transfer to and adaptation in Bizkaia of researchers and professionals coming from abroad. On the other hand, Bizkaia Talent enters professional profiles in our database and sends the information on matching profiles to the relevant actors.

Bizkaia Talent’s vision and mission are related to the creation of the circumstances required to recruit and retain highly qualify people in knowledge and innovation processes. It can be said that talent and human capital management in Bizkaia should focus on two closely related areas: individuals and projects. Individuals:The aim is to identify talent in innovation, research and entrepreneurship in response to technology-based and knowledge-generating projects. Bizkaia Talent actively encourages the recruitment of identified talented individuals, and this means designing and coordinating a personalised offer meeting the personal and professional needs of the talents identified and fulfilling Bizkaia’s development prospects. Projects: The goal is to turn Bizkaia into an attractive region for the development of stable personal, professional and business projects tapping the potential of innovative talent with other public or private organisations.

At present, Bizkaia Talent runs an aid programme for researchers, aimed at enhancing innovation capabilities in the Historical Territory by encouraging researcher recruitment, engagement, development and/or training.