Julio Ríos de la Rosa

Julio is an Investment Associate at Columbus Venture Partners, a Spanish VC firm specialising in life sciences and healthcare. His work focuses on early-stage technology transfer investments, identifying, evaluating and advancing opportunities emerging from Spanish universities, hospitals and research institutions, including technologies at pre-company formation stages, helping transform promising research into investable ventures.

Previously, Julio served as Managing Director of the Biomedical Research and Innovation Institute of Cádiz (INiBICA), where he led the institute's strategic development, strengthened its research and innovation capabilities, and successfully steered the institution towards its first official accreditation as a Health Research Institute by Spain's Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), under the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, in 2025.

Julio has extensive experience in knowledge transfer, intellectual property management, licensing, business development and strategic partnerships across the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medtech sectors. Throughout his career, he has worked with organisations including Cambridge Enterprise, Oxentia, Highlight Therapeutics and Manchester Innovation Factory. At Cambridge Enterprise, he managed the Research Tools portfolio, negotiating over 100 licensing and consultancy agreements and supporting the commercialisation of research outputs, such as antibodies, animal models, and software.

Julio holds a degree in Biotechnology from Pablo de Olavide University (Spain) Julio holds a degree in Biotechnology from Pablo de Olavide University (Spain) and a PhD in Nanomedicine from the University of Manchester, where his research was conducted in collaboration with AstraZeneca. He was awarded an Honorary Research Fellowship by the University of Manchester in 2018 and is a Registered Technology Transfer Professional (RTTP).

An active member of the European KT community, Julio serves on ASTP's Conference Programme Committee. He is particularly interested in bridging the gap between academic research and VC investment, and in developing investment models that enable promising scientific discoveries to reach commercial and societal impact.