València (EFE).- The airports of Castellón and Seville will host two new space incubators, business incubation centers of the European Space Agency (ESA), ESABIC, in a project that, in the center of Castellón, will have a budget of 1 .5 million euros, one of them contributed by the Generalitat and half by ESA.
This was stated by the Minister of Science, Diana Morant, during the presentation of the new European Space Agency Business Incubator Center (ESABIC) at the Castellón airport.
The network of ESA business incubation centers is, as Diana Morant has stated, “a consolidated instrument that encourages entrepreneurship and technology transfer” and that allows entrepreneurial companies 2 to access financing and technical support from the THAT”.
“Now there are 20 centers in 60 cities and 27 countries, which incubate 200 companies each year”, commented the minister, who detailed that in Spain there are centers in Madrid, Barcelona and León, which jointly incubate 16 companies a year and generate a impact of 15 million euros annual turnover.
The Ministry opened in January 2023 a new competitive procedure to search for the three new headquarters that will jointly house 12 incubated companies per year.
With this, the aim was to expand the headquarters of these incubation programs from three to six, but in the process only two projects have received positive evaluations and Castellón and Seville have been chosen. The rest of the candidatures have 10 calendar days to present allegations.
Regarding Castellón’s candidacy, he stressed that it has been the best valued, and congratulated the airport because “through this instrument it will bring prosperity and unite our position for the future.”
Morant has applauded the collaboration between the public and private sectors, since of the total budget of 1.5 million euros, one will be provided by the Generalitat and the other by ESA.
The three venues, when a third is chosen, will mobilize a total of 3 million euros and each euro contributed to ESA will be multiplied by three.
Likewise, the minister highlighted the “great role played by universities in incorporating talent into the productive fabric of the country” and recalled that the aerospace PERTE is mobilizing just over 4,500 million euros.
New ESA space incubators
“We have created the Spanish State Agency, we have two new Spanish astronauts after 30 years and we want to be the first European country to launch microsatellites”, which gives “an image of a country that we have never had,” he listed.
He has detailed that Spain’s contribution to ESA has experienced a growth of 50%, from 200 to 300 million per year, making it the fourth state in the European Union in contribution to ESA, with an important return of opportunities for Spanish companies”.
“The space sector is a firm commitment of the Government of Spain in a strategic area that generates opportunities and quality employment. A true project for the country, which has already placed Spain as a European benchmark”, he highlighted.
In his opinion, “this priority area is essential for improving the living conditions of citizens through transversal and key fields such as telecommunications, the fight against climate change, navigation and monitoring of extreme phenomena”.
“Precisely this week we have experienced the serious territorial, social, economic and biodiversity consequences of one of these phenomena, the fires, which have hit the territory of Castellón and Teruel with great virulence”, he indicated.
