The award ceremony took place within the framework of the prestigious BlueInvest Day event, organized by the European Commission, and delivered by Virginijus Sinkevičius, Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries of the European Commission.

AlgaEnergy adds another success to its long list of awards. The biotechnology company specialized in the microalgae sector, a field of science in which it is an international benchmark, has been awarded the BlueInvest Award in the ‘People’s Choice’ category. The winner's choice in this category was the responsibility of the audience attending the event, both in person and via streaming, and in that context the vote could be made to any of the 20 finalist companies that participated in that act. The award ceremony took place on the 4^th of February, in Brussels, in the framework of the BlueInvest Day event. Carlos Rodríguez-Villa, General Manager of AlgaEnergy, was in charge of collecting the award from Virginijus Sinkevičius, Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries of the European Commission.

BlueInvest Day is an annual event organized by the European Agency for Small and Medium Enterprises (EASME), an entity dependent on the European Commission, which brings together innovative entrepreneurs, investors and other agents from both from the public and private sectors, all of them linked to the so-called Blue Economy.

Felix Leinemann, Head of the Blue Economy Sectors Unit of DG Mare, recently stressed that “more ‘blue’ is needed in the Bioeconomy Strategy. For his part, Marco Weydert of DG Research and Innovation, said that the European Commission sees “enormous potential in marine biotechnology” although he admitted that “bringing innovation to the market remains a challenge”. In this sense, the BlueInvest Day, which this year brought together about 600 participants -political representatives and institutional, investors and entrepreneurs-, is part of the initiatives promoted by the EC to value the Blue Economy, as a great opportunity for the European Union to create employment and generate sustainable growth.

In this sense, the BlueInvest Awards has become a unique opportunity to recognize companies and their most innovative and disruptive solutions, in line with the Blue Economy. Twenty of the main SMEs in Europe with activity in this area, which were selected as finalists among hundreds of nominations submitted, were eligible for one of the four prize categories. AlgaEnergy was preferred by the public, by being awarded in the ‘People’s Choice’ category for obtaining the majority of the votes.

Carlos Rodríguez-Villa, General Manager of AlgaEnergy, has pointed out that “it is undoubtedly a magnificent distinction for our company. The fact that this award is delivered by the public and within the framework of an event organized by the European Commission, is a real pride for the entire human team of AlgaEnergy”. “This recognition only emphasizes our task in favor of a more sustainable development and an economy in which the importance of the seas and oceans as engine of the economy is recognized, for their great potential to generate quality employment and growth, based on innovation”, he adds.