“One of my priorities, and my main challenges, is to improve people’s lives through science and innovation. The next vaccine that cures our diseases will not arise from inspiration or chance. In science, ideas do not fall from the sky, but from a budget and policies aimed at revolutionizing the productive system of our country with investment and concrete measures.”
With these words this Thursday, the Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant, inaugurated the Science for Industry (S4i) congress, organized by the Autonomous University of Madrid and BeAble Capital. A meeting held on January 18 and 19 that took place in the La Nave space, in Madrid, and that from the first hour of the first day welcomed restless researchers and students eager to know what is happening in the world of science in Spain.
A curiosity that not only has to do with knowledge about the projects being worked on in our country, but also with the possibilities of developing a scientific career without having to leave it. “We want to work together to have a more competitive and autonomous industryfor a citizenry with greater well-being,” said Morant, alluding to one of the main objectives of his road in this legislature: to promote “the transfer of knowledge so that it definitively reaches society.”
Prototypes to see and touch
Science for Industry brought together leading companies, universities, research centres, European institutions and investment funds specialized in the field of science and dedicated to industrial technologies. During the two days of the meeting, attendees were able to learn prototypes from different research groups, while connecting with prominent representatives in this fieldboth from the scientific and business sectors.
One of those projects was Next Gen Leather, which has developed a system of leather manufacturing through biological processes in industrial spaces that completely dispenses with the use of animals. An example of how science can transform the fashion industry and the production of materials.
[La tecnología española que limpia los océanos de microplásticos y les brinda una segunda vida]
Another example of innovation was the one deployed by Reinforce3D, a startup that showed a technology, with the name Continuous Fibre Injection Process (CFIP), with which they intend improve the performance and lightness of 3D printed partsthus opening new possibilities in fields such as construction and engineering.
Captoplastic was not left behind by exhibiting a unique equipment in the world capable of remove microplastics in real time and in large volumes of water. While Savia Technologies, in turn spinoff from the Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M), brought two autonomous cars to the event to demonstrate the results of the technologies they are working on, which include artificial intelligence and computer vision.
Many of the projects that came to share their achievements did so with prototypes that attendees were able to test on the spot. This is the case of the BiDA Lab research group, from the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), which is developing biometric and behavioral analysis to, among other things, detect images created with artificial intelligence or identify emotions.
National and international meeting point
Along with the demonstrations of these emerging projects, there was also the opportunity during the two days of S4i to go to keynote talks and meetings with researchers and scientists from institutions from different parts of the world. Figures such as Shiva Dustdar, director of the EIB Institut of Luxembourg, Jane Hutchins, director of the Cambridge Science Park (United Kingdom) and Wei Huang, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, have passed through the main stage and the rest of the spaces set up for this purpose. Sciences.
S4i has the support of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, the City Council and the Community of Madrid, and is sponsored, among others, by ICEX España Exportación e Inversiones and Invest in Spain, SPAINCAP, CDTI and EOI. It also has the European Innovation Council as partner especial.
[Teresa Riesgo: “España es el segundo país que más inversiones de los fondos europeos ha destinado a I+D”]
Its objective, as stated by the vice-rector of Transfer of the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), is to become “meeting point where all the links of the innovative ecosystem are connected.” He recalled that this initiative was born three years ago, under the name of Patents for Innovation, because they detected that “substantial” opportunities to improve society were being lost.
To strengthen its position as a reference in the scientific world in our country, this year The Facing Challenges Summit, a Science Equity fund meeting, is now merging with S4i. “With this incorporation, we will be able to attract all parts of the ecosystem, since investors, national and European public agents, startups, industrial companies, universities and research centers will be able to coincide,” says Alberto Díaz, founding partner of BeAble Capital, and organizer of the event together with the UAM.
We want to be the “ideal showcase to be able to contemplate new technologies and products arising from science and deep knowledge“, Add. With this year’s edition closed, expectations for the next one are already very high. And they demonstrate the concern of researchers and scientists in our country to be seen and contribute in a more tangible way to creating a better society.
2024-01-20 01:00:00
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