The Secretary of Innovation, Jerónimo Mora, and the Director General of Innovation, Juan José Cortés, have pledged to strengthen the innovation agent model after recognizing the success of this role at Atalayas Ciudad Empresarial, the first industrial park to employ technical staff funded by Ivace+i.
Mora and Cortés held a working meeting with the manager of the Management and Modernization Entity (EGM) overseeing this industrial park, Vicente Seguí, to assess the role played by the agent. The agent’s mission is to connect the needs of the companies located there with the R&D&i lines pursued by universities and regional technological and research centers throughout the area.
“The Atalayas case shows that the benefits this figure delivers can be replicated in other industrial zones of the Community of Valencia, which is why we encourage other management and modernization entities to apply for this talent promotion program in the upcoming grant cycle that Ivace+i will open in the coming weeks,” explained the Secretary of Innovation.
Since 2021, the Las Atalayas agent has provided tailored proximity innovation advice to the park’s companies, fostering collaboration with research groups and raising awareness among researchers about the importance of market validation in their projects. This period has also seen proof-of-concept tests and pilots with tangible impact for this industrial polygon.
To date, this figure has worked directly with around 90 companies and promoted more than 140 expressions of interest to develop both innovation processes and initiatives that optimize waste management and advance digitalization and sustainability for firms within the area. It has also played a key role in transferring results from the innovative projects recently promoted by the EGM over the last three years.
The aim of the Innovation Department, led by Nuria Montes, is to strengthen the network of innovation agents, increasing both their numbers and their functions. Juan José Cortés believes this technical staff is set to further boost public-private collaboration, encouraging the productive fabric to participate in the Public Procurement of Innovation (CPI) processes that administrations will implement in the coming years.
Support for Innovation
Vicente Seguí, manager of Atalayas Ciudad Empresarial and vice president of the Valencian Community Federation of Business Parks (Fepeval), underscored the role of these agents within the management entities. “Often our companies lack time to identify their innovation needs or to know where to turn to meet their challenges. The fact that this service is provided by the EGM, a stakeholder organization that earns their trust, has helped establish this reference figure and opened doors to the innovation ecosystem,” he emphasized.
To date, Ivace +i has allocated nearly 12 million euros to build an innovation agent network, named Innoagents, which now includes about fifty I+D+i specialists. Access to these funds is open to universities, research centers, technical institutes, and business associations, as well as industrial parks across the Valencian Community.