The Civil UAVs Initiative (www.civiluavsiniative.org ) is a strategic initiative of the Xunta de Galicia, which aims to improve public services through innovation, using as main instrument the Innovative Public Procurement.
As part of this assistance, Novadays assists the Xunta de Galicia in the strategic design, procurement, technical management and monitoring of twelve major contracts of Innovative Public Procurement worth more than 164 million euros. Novadays was the winner of a public tender subject to harmonized regulation to select a Technical Office capable of designing and implementing a wide range of actions.
It is a pioneer Strategic Initiative in Spain for several reasons ranging from its design as a coordinated action between different governments (XUNTA and the Spanish Government) and departments (all the Regional Ministries of the Xunta, the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness and the Ministry of Defense, through the National Institute of Aerospace Technology); to its complex design to develop a new high-tech sector -aerospace- using the most current instruments of innovation policies, such as pre-commercial public procurement, public procurement of innovative technology or the innovation partnership.
The development of an aeronautical industry in Galicia is an objective of the innovation and industry policies of the Xunta de Galicia and therefore launched the strategic initiative known as the Civil UAVs Initiative (CUI), aimed at improving efficiency and effectiveness in a wide number of services and activities carried out by the Galician public sector through the use of aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles.
Novadays' assistance covers all technical, legal and financial aspects necessary for the design, deployment and management of the set of programs that make up the Initiative, as well as strategic support advice in the overall management of the Initiative.
To date, this initiative consists of the following programs:
Joint R&D Programs Program: developed through partnership agreements between the Xunta de Galicia and large economic operators for the joint development of R&D programs that allow the creation of products, technologies and solutions in the aerospace sector based on pre-commercial public procurement models. These programs are aimed at having a high socio-economic impact on the territory. To date, GAIN has signed two partnership agreements with two industrial and technological partners: INDRA and BABCOCK, and a pre-commercial public procurement contract with BOEING.
R&D Solutions Program: developed through ten tenders for the purchase of solutions or pre-commercial public procurement for the development of solutions that can be operational for the Xunta within two years, responding to a wide range of public needs related to marine policies, rural development, land management, forestry, etc.
Infrastructure Program: consisting of four actions aimed at creating in Galicia the necessary infrastructures for the public and private development of the aerospace sector: (1) the transformation of the Rozas aerodrome (Lugo) as a facility dedicated to UAVs, (2) the creation of the INTA-XUNTA Mixed Center for Airborne Research, located at the aerodrome, (3) the creation of the Rozas industrial and business park to provide companies with land near the aerodrome and (4) the creation of the Lugo aeronautical business center, which will house the Aeronautics Business Factory in the future.
Scientific Program: consisting of investments by the Xunta de Galicia and the Spanish Government to promote aerospace science in Galicia. Among them is the aerial research platforms project, whose ground base will be located in Rozas (Lugo).
Business incubation and acceleration program: whose objective is to support the attraction, birth and development of small and medium-sized companies in the aerospace sector in Galicia. Its first and main activity is the Aeronautics Business Factory, whose launch is the subject of this agreement.
R&D Support Instruments Program: which makes the set of R&D financing instruments available to the Galician Innovation Agency (GAIN) available to the R&D system actors for the financing of their projects and investments related to aerospace R&D. It includes the financing of cooperative projects or the financing of mixed research units between companies and research or technological centers.
The Civil UAVs Initiative is an example of how innovation in industry and innovation public policies can respond to challenges of vital importance for governments, such as economic growth, talent attraction or job creation.