Spain’s Industrial Technology Development Center (Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial) is a mainstay underpinning Spain’s entrepreneurial sector. Coming under the Ministry of Economics, Industry and Competitiveness (Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad), the CDTI acts as an economic lever, a consultancy and international-aid body for the corporations making up Spain’s business fabric, driving public-private collaboration (CENIT and CIEN).

On 12 December 2017 a National Innovating Firms Encounter (Encuentro Nacional de Empresas Innovadoras) was held to coincide with CDTI’s 40th anniversary. Madrid’s National Music Auditorium was the venue and the leading figures were the Minister of Economics, Industry and Competitiveness, Luis de Guindos, who opened the event; the Secretary of State of Research, Development and Innovation, Carmen Vela, who closed it; the Secretary General of Science and Innovation, Juan María Vázquez; plus CDTI’s Director General, Francisco Marín.

GMV was one of the seven companies cherry picked by CDTI as success stories to speak about entrepreneurial-R&D and their relation with CDTI. The speech given by GMV’s CEO, Jesús Serrano, brought out CDTI’s telling influence on GMV’s career, helping to drive its internationalization process and win itself the position of the world’s number-one supplier of commercial telecommunication satellite control centers as well as the leading developer of satellite navigation systems in Europe, up-and-running systems in Asia and pre-operational systems in South America and Oceania.

Representatives from 500 corporations shared this day, which helped to highlight the entrepreneurial innovation of Spain’s economy.