The Minister of Economy and Industry of the Xunta de Galicia, Francisco Conde; The director of Axencia Galega de Innovación, Manuel Varela; And the president of the Intersectoral Technology Alliance of Galicia (ATIGA), Juan M. Vieites; Have presented in Vigo a collaboration agreement to strengthen the Galician technological centers as the main driving force for business R & D & I.

With this agreement, the commitment of the Ministry of Economy and Industry and ATIGA was formalized to increase the joint participation of technology centers in large R & D & i consortium projects and to facilitate the collection of funds for high-impact multisectoral initiatives, In particular the Horizon 2020 program.

ATIGA is made up of the six state-level technology centers in Galicia recognized as such by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness: AIMEN (Northwest Metallurgical Research Association), ANFACO-CECOPESCA (National Association of Canned and Seafood Manufacturers – National Technical Center CTAG (Galician Automotive Technological Center), GRADIANT (Galicia Technological Telecommunications Center), ENERGYLAB (Technological Center for Energy Efficiency and Sustainability) and ITG (Technological Institute of Galicia).

The Alliance, which has managed to raise a total of 76 million in the previous Framework Program of the European Union, currently collaborates with approximately 1,600 companies; Employs 814 people and offers scientific support to strategic sectors of the Galician economy; Has been consolidated as a technological reference of the Galician productive fabric, especially of the SMEs, and it promotes the impulse of the internationalization business.

According to the councilor, “the knowledge centers integrated in ATIGA play a very important work together with the productive fabric, with a permanent list of their needs and with a proactive attitude of generation of knowledge.” He also highlighted the work of ATIGA in strengthening the role played by technological centers as the main driving force for innovation, multiplying their potential to, through R & D & I, set industrial fabric in Galicia and that companies can Create quality employment.

Francisco Conde also put value in technological centers as one of the key agents in the development of the Competitiveness Agenda of Galicia, which seeks to consolidate the so-called Industry 4.0, since it has sufficient capacity to offer scientific and technological support To the majority of the strategic sectors of the Galician economy, reason why they are called to play a key role for the modernization of the Galician industry through innovation.

He also noted the work they are doing in the creation of joint research units, along with reference companies in Galicia. The objectives of these initiatives are to develop high impact and knowledge-intensive projects, to bring research organizations closer to the company, to put value on research groups, to encourage the transfer of innovation results to the market and to attract Galicia I + D + i.