The Association of Science and Technology Parks of Spain (APTE) and the Spanish Technology Platform for Disruptive Technologies (DISRUPTIVE) will participate in the sixth edition of the National Congress of Industry and SMEs organized by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism on October 2 and 3 at the Palacio de Ferias y Congresos de Málaga (FYCMA)
Under the slogan "Net Zero: the industry of the future," this edition not only explored Industry 4.0, but also the crucial challenges affecting industry in general and Spanish SMEs. These challenges include decarbonization, artificial intelligence, industrial and technological sovereignty, as well as talent attraction.
Spanish science and technology parks, including the University of Valencia Science Park (PCUV), participated in the panel of presentations on the first day of the congress in the vertical "Enabling Technologies Forum" with a round table moderated by Soledad Díaz, managing director of APTE and head of the technical secretariat of DISRUPTIVE, which addressed the role of parks in the adoption of enabling technologies for SMEs thanks to the experimentation and testing centers they have. The debate was attended by Felipe Romera, general manager of Málaga TechPark; Carmen Crespo, head of the Centre Bit Menorca of the Parque Balear de Innovación Tecnológica (ParcBit); Isaac Pola, deputy minister of Industry and Just Transition of the Principality of Asturias on behalf of the Parque Tecnológico de Asturias; and Itziar Epalza, general manager of Parque Tecnológico de Euskadi.
Felipe Romera began the round of speeches by explaining that Malaga TechPark, due to its size and characteristics similar to a city, has testing infrastructures for technologies that need these conditions, as is the case of the test track for Dekra's connected car. However, he also highlighted other infrastructures that are part of the ICTS network (Singular Scientific and Technological Infrastructures), specifically the Andalusian Center for Nanomedicine and Biotechnology (Bionand) belonging to the Integrated Infrastructure for the production and characterization of nanomaterials, biomaterials and systems in Biomedicine (NANBIOSIS) and the Picasso Node of the Spanish Supercomputing Network (RES).
Under the slogan "Net Zero: the industry of the future," this edition not only explored Industry 4.0, but also the crucial challenges affecting industry in general and Spanish SMEs. These challenges include decarbonization, artificial intelligence, industrial and technological sovereignty, as well as the attraction of talent
For her part, Itziar Epalza commented that the Euskadi Technology Park is home to the advanced manufacturing centers in aeronautics (CFAA), energy (EIC) and wind energy (WINDBOX) that address the challenges of the future in their respective sectors from their sites. In this sense, he specified that the CFAA promotes advanced manufacturing technologies at levels of development that can be quickly transferred to our industrial fabric oriented to this key sector of the economy. With respect to the EIC, he stressed that they aspire to make it a tool to boost competitiveness and contribute to the international leadership of companies in the energy sector in the Basque Country. Finally, with respect to the WINDBOX, he pointed out that it contributes to improve the technological and international competitive positioning of suppliers of subsystems and products for the wind energy sector.
In the case of the Asturias Technology Park, Isaac Pola explained that they focus on the field of energy transition models, and innovation and technology transfers linked to industrial value chains associated with renewable energies; thus, their main demonstration areas are those of efficient public lighting systems, monitoring of solar tracking systems for photovoltaic plants, installation of photovoltaic solar energy for recharging electric vehicles, installation of shared self-consumption, autonomous vehicle in open traffic, and two hubs: Asturias Mobility Innovation Hub (AsMIH), related to electric mobility, and Asturias Paradise Hub 4 Circularity (AsPH4C).
For the Balearic Islands it is an additional challenge, as they have an almost non-existent industry and from the Balearic Park of Technological Innovation and, specifically, from its headquarters in Menorca, Carmen Crespo, detailed how they are working to help start developing and evolving that industry. She explained that they are having the most success in the training field because they are working with vocational training schools to introduce these technologies in the students' subjects and they are also training trainers. He also explained that they are already starting to work on prototypes thanks to their FabLab.
During this round table, the importance of science and technology parks having experimentation and testing infrastructures that contribute to improving the quality and competitiveness of the products, services and technologies developed by their SMEs and that also facilitate the adoption of enabling and disruptive technologies by these companies was highlighted
During this round table, the importance of science and technology parks having experimentation and testing infrastructures that contribute to improving the quality and competitiveness of the products, services and technologies developed by their SMEs was highlighted, as well as facilitating the adoption of enabling and disruptive technologies by these companies. In this sense, the moderator highlighted that in the Spanish science and technology parks are present 58% of the distributed Singular Scientific and Technical Infrastructures (ICTS) that coexist with other demonstration centers, fablabs, laboratories, prototyping spaces, experimentation, testing and sandboxes that are contributing to the development of the industry of the future in our country.