The Port Authority of the Bay of Algeciras has actively participated in the 12th edition of the European Forum Transfiere 2023, the main R&D&I meeting in Southern Europe.
This forum, which was held on February 15, 16 and 17, 2023 at the Trade Fairs and Congress Center of Malaga, is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Science and Innovation, the CDTI, the City of Malaga and the Andalusian Knowledge Agency, under the Andalusian Government, to share scientific and technological knowledge, promote innovation and connect the scientific community with the business ecosystem.
The APBA, through Jesús Medina, Head of the Technological Development Area, participated in a round table scheduled in the space Andalucía Knowledge Transfer, a space focused on the transfer of knowledge in Andalusia and the opportunities for collaboration with the agents of the Andalusian Knowledge System and companies.
The round table, moderated by María Jesús Mosquera, Vice Chancellor of Science and Technology Policy of the University of Cadiz, and entitled “Open Innovation and challenges in the Blue Economy”, allowed attendees to learn fromfirst-hand how the Port Authorities are facing the challenge of open innovation and what implications it has for the blue economy. For this, Medina was accompanied by Mafran Martinez, CTO of the Port Authority of Huelva and Elisa Oyonarte Gomez, Head of Innovation and European Funds Division of the Port Authority of Seville.
Throughout his speech, Medina highlighted the importance of working innovation from a holistic and systematic perspective, contemplating all the vertices that influence the innovation process and, above all, developing it in a sustained manner over time. In this sense, he pointed out that innovation activities must have their origin in the corporate strategy and that they must be supported by an Innovation Management System, in order to, in Medina’s own words, “give meaning to all the activities developed, from the transfer of knowledge to the development of culture or the execution of projects”.
To conclude, he described the roadmap that the APBA has been following in terms of innovation, where after an initial stage (2014-2018) of increasing digital and innovative maturity, atypical in the sector at that time, a stage began in which the aim is to maximize the impact and the generation of added value in the Port Community. This vision has allowed the APBA to obtain international recognition, as attested by the ESPO 2020 Award, but also to generate the necessary attraction to support more than 100 innovation projects and initiatives in the last 5 years in collaboration with research centers, start-ups, technology companies and universities, because according to Medina “we have the maturity that allows our partners to move quickly to achieve their goals”.
In total, Transfiere was attended by more than 420 experts who discussed topics of maximum interest for the innovation ecosystem in more than 80 panels.
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