Madrid is committed to '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 Botella, Madrid Campus of Innovation began yesterday with the signing of the collaboration protocol between private and public sector companies on the path to becoming a “pioneer 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 lengthy process of rehabilitation of this architectural classic of industrial engineering begun in 2003 by the then mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruíz Gallardón-, to be in the political spotlight, economic and social under the name of Madrid Campus of Innovation (formerly known as the 'Cathedral of New Technologies').

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

This initiative, in which more than 30 million euros without having information about the amount dedicated to each area and projects, has the collaboration of technology companies such as Cisco, Indra, Intel, Microsoft y Telefónica, with contributions from Philips e IBM, as well as with the Secretary of State for Telecommunications; Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) y Ferrovial Services, in addition to the Madrid town hall.

During his intervention, Botella has stressed that “Madrid is the region that invests the most and most personnel dedicates to R&D in Spain.”. The investment effort in 2013 was from 3.434 million euros, which is equivalent to 26,4% of the national total, employing for this 47.609 personas, which in turn represent the 23,4% of the total of Spain”.

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

Both Ana Botella, as the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and 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 must collaborate with their contributions and suggestions; to students and universities, who must contribute their capabilities, his ideas and his transformative spirit. To SMEs, who will have an ideal platform on campus to present 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 for this project has materialized with Ana Botella, together with Carlos Conde; the general director of Cisco Spain, José Manuel Petisco; the CEO of Ferrovial Services, Santiago Olivares; the general director of Indra, Emma Fernandez; the general director of Intel Spain, Portugal, Italia, Greece and Israel, Norberto Mateos; the public sector director of Microsoft Ibérica, Gonzalo Díe Partners, and the managing director of Telefónica Open Future, Ana Segurado.

12.000 square meters to undertake

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

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