Madrid bets on 'R&D&I as a hallmark' with the future Innovation Campus

With the aim of turning the capital of Spain into "a nerve center of open innovation", in the words of its mayor, Ana Bottle, Madrid Innovation Campus began yesterday with the signing of the collaboration protocol between companies in the private and public sectors the way to become a "pioneering center open to all those who want to develop research and dissemination activities related to innovation".

The former Boetticher elevator factory, located in the Madrid district of Villaverde, has returned -twelve years after a complex and extensive process of rehabilitation of this architectural classic of industrial engineering initiated in 2003 by the then mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz Gallardón-, to be placed in the political spotlight, economic and social under the name of Madrid Campus of Innovation (formerly known as the 'Cathedral of New Technologies').

the Madrid City Council, with its mayor Ana Botella, to the front, signed yesterday the general protocol of collaboration with companies in the public and private sector (mostly) to start this project in the short term with the aim of creating "a pioneering center of open innovation and support for entrepreneurship in the capital", as he stressed.

This initiative, in which more than 30 million euros without having information on the item dedicated to each area and projects, has the collaboration of technology companies such as culm, Indra, Intel, Microsoft and Telephone, with contributions from Philips E IBM, as well as with the Secretary of State for Telecommunications; Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) and Ferrovial Services, in addition to the Madrid consistory.

During his speech, Botella stressed that "Madrid is the region that invests the most and dedicates the most staff to R&D in Spain. The investment effort in 2013 was from 3.434 millions of euros, which is equivalent to 26,4% of the national total, using 47.609 people, which in turn suppose the 23,4% of the total of Spain".

According to the data provided by the councilor, investment in R&D is located in the 2,45% of Madrid's GDP, "which places us above the average of the European Union, which is equivalent to 2,07% of its GDP", while highlighting the work of all the agents involved: "in our city the companies responsible for a 56,7% of that investment; administrations, who contribute to the 25,1%; and universities, which contribute 18.1%".

Both Ana Botella, as the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and the Information Society, Victor Calvo-Sotelo, and the rector of the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM), Carlos Conde, have placed special emphasis in their interventions on the fact that "Madrid Campus of Innovation is a project open to all. To the citizens, who should collaborate with their contributions and suggestions; to students and universities, who must contribute their capabilities, their ideas and their transformative spirit. To SMEs, that will have on campus an ideal platform in which to expose their solutions. To large companies, that will provide sufficient technical and economic means for the advancement of initiatives and projects, their capacity for training and mentoring".

The signing of the protocol of this project has materialized with Ana Botella, together with Carlos Conde; the CEO of Cisco Spain, Jose Manuel Petisco; the CEO of Ferrovial Services, Santiago Olivares; the CEO of Indra, Emma Fernandez; the CEO of Intel Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Israel, Norberto Mateos; the director of public sector of Microsoft Ibérica, Gonzalo Díe Partners, and the managing director of Telefónica Open Future, Ana Segurado.

12.000 square meters to undertake

The former industrial warehouse of Boetticher, built in 1944 by engineer Eduardo Torroja, that will host Madrid Innovation Campus has more than 12.000 square meters of surface that are structured in three bodies, as a basilica and with large concrete vaults to let in light, so it is popularly known as 'the industrial cathedral' or 'Torroja cathedral'’ and why in the project initiated by Ruíz Gallardón it was the 'Cathedral of new technologies'.

The campus has five different spaces, lack of furniture and technological endowment, to develop the different activities, such as the pavilion or main area (of 5.977 m2) formed by the three naves in which exhibitions will be developed; the tower, a newly built building distributed in a lobby and five floors; classrooms, distributed in five rooms of 200 to 40 m2 for training; the auditorium, with capacity for more than six hundred people, and so-called containers, composed of twenty-six small modular offices for entrepreneurs.

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