Andalusia’s Minister of Universities, Research and Innovation, José Carlos Gómez Villamandos, recently visited the headquarters of the Technology Corporation of Andalusia (Corporación Tecnológica de Andalucía, or CTA) to meet with its management team and companies from its Executive Committee. His objective was to learn more about the activities of this innovation cluster, and to study potential avenues for collaboration to promote R&D and innovation (I+D+i) in Andalusia.

The Minister was accompanied by Andalusia’s Secretary-General of Research and Innovation, Pablo Cortés, as well as some staff members from his office, and they were received by CTA’s President, Francisco Mochón, its CEO, Elías Atienza, and its steering committee, who gave the Minister an explanation of CTA’s medium-term mission, operations, and strategy. In turn, representatives from some of CTA’s member companies were informed about the Minister’s plans on the subject of innovation, and they took advantage of the opportunity to express their expectations and needs.

The participating CTA companies were Atlantic Copper, the Seville Corporation of Municipal Companies (Corporación de Empresas Municipales de Sevilla), Covap, GMV, Guadaltel, Iberdrola, MP Ascensores, TIER1, and Unicaja.

About CTA

CTA is a private foundation with more than 170 member companies and 17 years of experience. It was originally launched by the Regional Government of Andalusia (Junta de Andalucía), with private management and a focus on promoting R&D, innovation, and technology transfer in that region of Spain.

CTA helps companies plan an innovation strategy, which includes everything from identifying their R&D and innovation needs, developing projects to address those needs, and finding the partners and financing they need in order to put their plans into action. In addition, a series of services have been implemented for the purpose of assisting companies, universities, technology centers, governmental agencies, and other entities in transforming the results they achieve into new business and capital.

With its own incentives program, CTA has already financed 760 R&D and innovation (I+D+i) business projects, with €189 million in incentives that have mobilized a €478 million private innovation budget. As part of those projects, 365 public research groups from Andalusia’s public universities have been subcontracted, along with other research entities.

CTA’s international activities have also been increasing, as a leading partner in collaborative innovation projects. It has already participated in over 35 international projects, including those with EU and multilateral funding, and it has collaborated with more than 250 entities in 35 countries.