A Strategic Innovation Committee for Aerospace
Ivace+i will form a strategic innovation committee focused on the aerospace sector. Its mission is to accelerate research, development, and innovation (R&D&i) through upcoming public funding calls, directing grants toward the most pressing challenges of this high-tech field. In this effort, the highly regarded Ilicitano company PLD Space stands out as a notable example of local achievement. This plan was announced during a board meeting chaired by the regional Minister for Innovation, Industry, Trade, and Tourism, Nuria Montes, marking a bold step for Valencia’s innovation ecosystem.
The director general of Innovation, Juan José Cortés, explained that the new working group will include representatives from the scientific community, technology institutes, and business leaders. Its core goal is to first identify the priority challenges facing this nascent industry and then propose targeted technological developments through collaboration among stakeholders across the Valencian Community’s innovation network. The approach centers on translating scientific insight into practical aerospace solutions, driving downstream benefits for regional competitiveness and employment.
Cortés emphasized that aerospace firms and organizations within the cluster will gain greater access to public funding. It is anticipated that projects aligned with the committee’s outputs will receive emphasis in the funding round that the agency plans to launch in 2025. This alignment seeks to ensure that public investment translates into tangible growth opportunities for regional players and accelerates the sector’s development trajectory.
“Our aim is to back a sector with strong growth potential, with proven successes across all three provinces, and to recognize its strategic value due to its innovative character and high impact on the productive system,” the director general stated. At present, the composition of the innovation committee is being defined so it can begin operating after the summer period, signaling a practical, near-term rollout.
The aerospace sector in the Valencian Community is gaining momentum, notably through the emergence of PLD Space, the Ilicitano enterprise that recently announced a 10 million euro investment in its Miura 5 launch base located in French Guiana. With the first flight of its rocket scheduled for late 2025, PLD Space is positioned to become the first non-government operator to conduct orbital launches from this historic base, underscoring the region’s growing significance in space activities.
In the coming months, Ivace+i will also reactivate multidisciplinary teams dedicated to Sustainable Habitat, Smart Tourism Destinations, and Mobility, Transport, and Infrastructure. The objective is to refresh the priority challenges and assess the impact of innovation proposals gathered over recent years, ensuring that the region’s innovation pipeline remains responsive to evolving needs.
Investing in Public Sector Innovation
Director Cortés highlighted Ivace+i’s commitment to energizing Public Innovation Purchasing (CPI) within the regional administration. The move aims to streamline and expand the use of public procurement as a lever for innovation, enabling government bodies to acquire new solutions more efficiently and to stimulate private-sector R&D in tandem with public needs.
It was noted that a self-guided training course has been made available to all Generalitat public employees, illustrating the advantages of CPI as a means to enhance public services and drive R&D&i in the private sector. The training is designed to build internal capacity for evaluating and implementing innovative solutions that deliver real citizen value.
Simultaneously, the Innovation Department, through Ivace+i, is coordinating with multiple public sector departments to identify the challenges and needs that could be addressed through innovative public procurement. Early cooperative lines have been established with the ministries of Agriculture and Health, and will soon extend to Education, as well as with Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat Valenciana (FGV) and the Sociedad Valenciana de Gestión Integral de los Servicios de Emergencias (SGISE). These partnerships aim to translate bold ideas into tested, deployable solutions that improve public services and regional resilience.