Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Digital Enabling Technologies (DETs) increasingly represent strategic sectors for competitiveness and knowledge-based business development. To respond to this challenge and boost Industry 4.0, the University of Valencia Science Park is expanding its transfer and innovation facilities with the incorporation of the High Technology Incubator in Artificial Intelligence and Digital Enabling Technologies, the result of collaboration between the University of Valencia and the University of Valencia Science Park Foundation (FPCUV), whose foundations for its creation have been approved in final resolution by the INCYDE Foundation (Cameral Institute for the Creation and Development of Enterprise) in the framework of the first call for Infrastructures for High Technology Incubators in strategic emerging sectors in Europe - Valencian Community of the Multiregional Program of Spain ERDF 2021-2027.
The project, which will have a total funding of more than 1,600,000 euros, aims to generate an innovation ecosystem involving R&D groups, entrepreneurs and companies, especially SMEs, which will act as a driving force for the digital transition of the economy at regional, national and international level.
“The IAT aspires to become a national benchmark for business innovation in the field of development and implementation of THD, contributing to the transformation of the productive sector of the Valencian Community and its migration to a more effective and efficient Industry 4.0 economy, optimizing the management of resources and being able to respond to the needs of today's society by promoting a competitive national industrial sector in the THD, which assumes a necessary leadership and driving agent of the digital transformation processes in the different productive sectors, and to contribute to accelerate the transformation processes in the less digitally mature sectors of the economy, with greater inertia and complexity, or that present barriers of greater impact, cooperating with the competent and leading sectoral agents,” says Rosa Donat, Vice Rector for Transfer and Innovation at the University of Valencia.
IATecUV is born with the vocation to lead the disruptive change in an inclusive and sustainable way, focusing digitalization efforts in key economic sectors. The THD contemplated by the IAT will correspond to AI and computing, big data and data analytics, machine learning, cloud solutions; virtual, augmented, mixed and 3D reality; blockchain, biometrics and digital identity, cybersecurity, Internet of Things IoT and additive manufacturing (3D printing).
The IAT aspires to become a national benchmark for business innovation in the field of development and implementation of THD, contributing to the transformation of the productive sector of the Valencian Community and its migration to a more effective and efficient Industry 4.0 economy
The actions to be developed by IATecUV will take the form of fostering innovation by providing an environment for startups to develop and test new ideas and technologies in AI and THD; supporting priority sectors, from healthcare to advanced manufacturing; developing talent and capabilities, defined by an offer of resources and support programs that will help companies grow and succeed through access to mentors, networking, funding and training programs; and collaboration between local companies and international partners.
“We conceive IATecU as an instrument to help achieve the objectives. The research and transfer potential of the University and of the companies that will be developed during the incubator's life cycle can act on most of the strategic pillars defined by the EU (ecological and sustainable transition, digital transformation and social and territorial cohesion) and also on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that reflect the main economic, social and environmental challenges of the next decade. The continuity over time of both the scientific-technological production of the UV and the operation of the business environment associated with the PCUV, with more than fifteen years of operation in continuous growth, support the continuity of IATecUV beyond the period corresponding to the operational program,” says Pedro Carrasco, director of the Science Park.
The competitive advantage of the IATecUV lies in the access to advanced technological infrastructure such as the Spanish supercomputing network, cloud computing platforms, software development tools and datasets for training AI algorithms. This will help reduce initial costs for startups and accelerate the product development process
The new incubator is aligned with the Regional Smart Specialization Strategy of the Valencian Community, which seeks to promote regional economic development by identifying and exploiting the capabilities and competitive advantages of the Valencian territory, and with the key development of both local competitiveness, promoting policies on quality of life, innovative product and advanced manufacturing, as well as transversal in terms of sustainability and new opportunities, in which AI and THD are one of the basic pillars to promote future technological specialization areas such as advanced materials and nanotechnology, advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, micro and nanoelectronics, photonics, energy and environmental technologies and logistics.
“The competitive advantage of the IATecUV lies in the access to advanced technological infrastructure such as the Spanish supercomputing network, cloud computing platforms, software development tools and datasets for training AI algorithms. This will help reduce initial costs for startups and accelerate the product development process. In addition, the incubator will provide access to specialized knowledge, experts in these areas, including researchers, software engineers and data scientists. This specialized knowledge will help drive initiatives that seek to develop products or services based on advanced technologies, providing added value in facilitating the fourth industrial revolution, fostering R&D&I in the sector and improving the channels that facilitate applied research and knowledge transfer between research centers and companies in the sector,” highlights Fernando M.ª Zárraga, manager of the FPCUV.
Spain's Multiregional FEDER Program 2021-2027
The FEDER funds earmarked for Spain through the Multiregional Program of Spain FEDER 2021-2027 aim to concentrate resources oriented towards innovative, intelligent and digital transformation, conceived as a complement to state and regional funds from a territorial cohesion perspective that seeks to favor the convergence of all of them towards the European Union average, concentrating support on the least developed regions, through objectives related to competitiveness and innovative and intelligent economic transformation, regional ICT connectivity, zero net carbon and resilient economy, clean and equitable energy transition, mobility, inclusion and social rights, sustainability and proximity to citizens.
Within the program, the INCYDE Foundation participates with the initiative “Infrastructures for High Technology Incubators in strategic emerging sectors in Europe” to respond to the priority of promoting a digital and intelligent transition from the strengthening of sustainable growth and competitiveness of SMEs and job creation through productive investments. The initiative is aimed at promoting a modernization of the productive fabric of each of the regions, in which the Incubators are created as tractor instruments, conceived and designed in a concept of globalization, so that each of the incubators will allow the promotion of interregional cooperation, as well as collaboration between public and business sector agents at national and international level. For this reason, the improvement of the competitiveness of companies, the transfer of technology, the promotion of the internationalization of R&D&I activities, and the results derived from all these actions, will be one of the fundamental actions of the infrastructure's own sense.
With the support of