ZUNIBAL SL

Their core work

ZUNIBAL is a Basque technology SME specializing in sensor-based monitoring and digital twin solutions for maritime environments. Their core competency sits at the intersection of smart sensor hardware, GNSS positioning, and structural health monitoring (SHM) algorithms — applied to marine assets that need continuous integrity tracking. In the fishing sector they contributed sensor and gear technology for compliance and environmental efficiency; in offshore energy they moved into mooring system digital twins designed to reduce OPEX for wind farm operators. The common thread across both domains is the ability to instrument physical marine infrastructure and extract actionable data from it.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

ZUNIBAL entered H2020 in 2018 through the fishing industry, contributing sensor and gear technology to make commercial fishing more compliant and environmentally sound — a relatively niche, regulation-driven application. By 2019 their focus shifted sharply toward offshore wind energy: digital twin modelling, SHM algorithms, GNSS integration, and OPEX reduction for mooring systems — a higher-value, faster-growing market. Both phases share the same underlying maritime sensor expertise, suggesting a deliberate move up the value chain rather than a sector pivot from scratch.

ZUNIBAL is heading toward digital twin and SHM solutions for offshore energy infrastructure, a direction well-aligned with EU investment in offshore wind O&M cost reduction — making them a plausible fit for Horizon Europe calls on offshore energy digitalisation.

How they like to work

ZUNIBAL participates exclusively as a consortium partner and has never taken a coordinator role, indicating they join projects to deliver a defined technical component rather than to lead strategy. Despite only two projects, they accumulated 28 distinct partners across 8 countries, which points to participation in large, multi-partner consortia — both SMARTFISH and MooringSense are multi-beneficiary IA/RIA grants. Working with them likely means engaging a focused technical contributor who brings sensor and monitoring expertise to a specific work package, rather than a generalist integration partner.

ZUNIBAL has built connections with 28 unique consortium partners spanning 8 countries from just two projects, reflecting the large multi-national consortia typical of RIA and IA calls. Their network is geographically European with a likely Basque-Iberian core given their location in Derio (Bilbao area), a region with strong offshore and maritime industry clusters.

What sets them apart

ZUNIBAL occupies a rare cross-sector position: a maritime SME with proven sensor technology in both commercial fishing and offshore wind energy, two industries that rarely share technology suppliers. Their practical experience with mooring digital twins and SHM algorithms — not just as a software integrator but as a sensor-hardware contributor — gives them a credibility that pure software firms lack. For a consortium building an offshore energy monitoring or smart fisheries project, they offer the kind of grounded maritime instrumentation expertise that is hard to find in a single small company.

Highlights from their portfolio

• MooringSense
  Their largest grant (€207,500) and most technically complex engagement, delivering a full digital twin and SHM architecture for offshore wind mooring systems — the project that defines their current profile.
• SMARTFISH
  Demonstrates cross-sector versatility: ZUNIBAL applied sensor technology to the fishing industry two years before pivoting to offshore energy, showing adaptability of their core maritime monitoring capability.