Source: Fuerteventura Island Council
March 23, 2023
Sergio Lloret leads the visit to the Technology Park, together with the President of the Government and the Regional Minister of Economy, to present the progress of the innovation initiatives underway.
The President of the Fuerteventura Island Council, Sergio Lloret, hosted today, Thursday March 23, the President of the Canary Islands Government, Ángel Víctor Torres, and the Minister of Economy, Knowledge and Employment of the Canary Islands Government, Elena Máñez, during the visit to the Fuerteventura Technology Park in order to monitor and share the progress of the Canarias Geo Innovation Program 2030.
With a total of almost 160 million euros of planned investment, the projects under development since October 3, 2022, within the innovation program aim to deploy innovative solutions in Fuerteventura, from data analysis, received from sensors on board aeronautical and aerospace platforms, with the aim of improving public services provided to citizens and businesses, diversify the island and regional economy, provide new opportunities for SMEs and businesses, generate quality employment, retain island talent and set on the island attractors for technology companies around the world.
President Lloret stressed that "15 years ago in Fuerteventura there was no talk of global technological innovation projects," stressing that it is necessary to "diversify the economic culture, an issue that some of us were already talking about a few years ago. If something showed the pandemic to this island, is that we have to bet strongly for these technological projects.
The Canary Islands Stratoport for HAPS-UAS, the construction of the multipurpose building for solutions and missions 'International Smart for Security, Emergencies & Biodiversity Center' (ISSEC), the RetechFor project, in collaboration with the Junta de Castilla-La Mancha, for the monitoring and prevention of forest fire risks; as well as the projects in collaboration with ENAIRE, ThalesAlenia and the Canary Islands Employment Service: U-elcome, Cielo Único Europeo, EuroHAPS and Canarias Geo Training Center, make up a whole program of projects which aim at "placing Fuerteventura on the map of technological and scientific research in the world". In addition, it is the largest Spanish regional initiative in the development of innovative solutions through UAS and HAPS platforms.
In its entirety, The Canarias Geo Innovation Program 2030, on whose planning work began in 2017, aims to turn Fuerteventura into an international benchmark in innovation and experimentation in aerospace technologies.
In that sense, President Lloret stressed that now it will be possible to "jump from Fuerteventura to the stratosphere" to be involved in global technology initiatives, and to cement the generation of opportunities for the business fabric of the island majorera and, above all, to the new generations. "We are fortunate to have in the Canary Islands and in Fuerteventura the most qualified generation of our history, to whom new possibilities open up with the actions we are developing," he said.
In the same vein, the President of the Canary Islands Government, Ángel Victor Torres, indicated that "we are committed to these projects because there is a sensitivity to having new economic sectors in the Canary Islands that go hand in hand with the traditional ones, such as trade and tourism, but which are the driving force behind the modernization of our land".
For her part, the regional councilor Elena Mánez thanked the "productive" presentation that "has shown all the potential and all the Capabilities that the Canary Islands have" when it comes to developing a strategic sector. "The space sector is part of the recently approved 'Extended RIS 3 Strategy', which, as you know, is an enabling factor for attracting funds. However, on the part of the Government of the Canary Islands, we want to go further, not only to comply with the RIS 3, but to have a present and future development strategy".
A promising future for Fuerteventura
With the laying of the first stone of the shared-use infrastructure of the stratoport (Canarias Stratoport for HAPS-UAS), which took place last October 3, the race for R&D, integration, operation, flight control, testing and maintenance of high-altitude pseudo-satellite platforms (HAPS), guided balloons and other unmanned aerial systems (UAS or drones) began.
Phase 1 of this initiative, which has cost 11 million euros, is already 50% completed and is expected to be completed in the summer of this year. In addition, this multipurpose project is included as Action 20 of the Spanish Government's Strategic Projects for Aerospace Recovery and Economic Transformation (PERTE).
The launch of high-altitude pseudo-satellites will make it possible to achieve a global vision of the earth, its evolution and biodiversity. This, in turn, will give the possibility of obtaining resources from the civil movement capable of providing response margin in the prevention of emergencies, as well as creating an unmanned vehicle control center for drone tracking and other advanced technologies.
This is the pre-commercial public procurement contract for the development of 'Innovative solutions in areas of biodiversity, security, emergencies and other public services through aeronautical and aerospace platforms and technologies' of the 'International Smart for Security, Emergencies & Biodiversity Center' (ISSEC) project.
ISSEC is also a center for the creation, development, validation, certification and operation of innovative solutions using Data Analytics from data obtained from sensors onboard satellite platforms, pseudo-satellites, HAPS and/or UAS (drones).
The 2,700-square-meter multi-purpose building to be constructed as part of this initiative will include flight control rooms and simulators, as well as spaces for training and instruction (Geo Training Center), mission and data analysis (GIC), communications and think tank (GeoLab).
This work, which began in October last year, has a completion date of January 2024, is 25% completed and has a budget of 10 million euros.
The second part of the ISSEC project, Innovative Solutions, aims at finding innovative solutions for biodiversity, security, emergency and other public services, developed from the analysis of data from sensors onboard aeronautical and aerospace platforms.
For this initiative, two major international groups - Airbus and the consortium formed by Babcock and Telspazzio - have submitted bids for the 27 million euro tender.
Canarias Geo Innovation Program 2030, www.canarias-geo-innovation.com, and its development projects are co-financed by the Cabildo of Fuerteventura, the European Union through its ERDF funds and the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, Spain Can, derived from the Next Generation EU fund, as well as the Ministry of Science and Innovation and the Government of the Canary Islands through the Canary Islands Agency for Research, Innovation and Information Society, ACIISI of the Ministry of Economy, Knowledge and Employment.