The president of the PAV indicates that “the Spanish ports are attracting the best possible talent and incorporating knowledge from outside through open innovation”

Valenciaport promoted Superlab Ports, the first innovation centre in the fight against climate change in the maritime port sector. It has also launched OPENTOP, the Innovation Hub of the Valenciaport Foundation

José Llorca, Head of Innovation at Puertos del Estado: “We are committed to disruptive processes that change the business model with products that go to the market and the new economy”

The Ports 4.0 Fund, promoted by all Spanish port authorities and Puertos del Estado, is the largest public project of digital transformation

The The president of the Port Authority of Valencia (PAV, Aurelio Martínez, explained that “society is asking us to develop talent and the ports are committed to innovation in the areas of efficiency, safety and the environment. We are working to facilitate this attraction of talent and to make Valencia a reference for the development of the innovation ecosystem”.  The head of Valenciaport highlighted that recently “OPENTOP, the innovation hub through the Valenciaport Foundation, an institution created 18 years ago to promote innovation, has been presented. In addition, in 2019 we are promoting the creation, together with EIT Climate Kic, of the Superlab Ports, the first innovation centre in the fight against climate change in the European maritime port sector”.­

The president of the PAV, together with the head of Innovation of Puertos del Estado, José Llorca, inaugurated the presentation day of the new call of the Ports 4.0 Fund for pre-commercial projects 2022 in the Clock Building. Llorca explained that this initiative aims to “promote disruptive elements to be more competitive as a country, with the support of both the public and private sectors, through the agents operating in the ports”. For this reason,” continued Llorca, “we are committed to processes that change the business model with products that go to the market to be used by the entire port community and facilitate the transition to the new economy and the development of the industry”.

For his part, Martinez stressed that “we still have many challenges, and to address them, it is no longer enough with the innovation that we can promote the agents of the sector, but we must attract the best possible talent and incorporate knowledge from outside through open innovation”. For this reason,” he continued, “together with the rest of the Spanish Port System, the creation of this specific Ports 4.0 fund was launched more than two years ago, with Valenciaport as one of the driving forces, to help those people or companies, mainly start-ups, that have good ideas and projects, and to support their implementation to continue capitalising on innovation as a lever for the development of our ports”.

In this sense, the Head of Innovation of Puertos del Estado has assured that in the first call of Ports 4.0, 520 proposals were received, “a scope that shows that entrepreneurs see in port logistics a sector full of opportunities, with a great business potential where they can develop products and applications with the technologies they master and which opens up a very interesting field, and has also put them in contact with the port community”. Llorca highlighted the work of the Spanish Port Authorities as public administrations that play an important role in supporting entrepreneurs “at any stage of entrepreneurship, but especially in the process in which they are left without financial resources to continue with their idea”.

Efficiency, safety and environment

During the presentation of this call, Aurelio Martínez indicated that in this second edition Valenciaport has focused its proposals on challenges related to improving efficiency, safety and the environment. Specifically, they are focusing on projects for CO2 absorption in port activities; improving the efficiency/coordination of services linked to the ship’s port of call; combining all sources of land traffic information; optimising the work processes of the Port Police; monitoring/predicting the evolution of port traffic; and improving safety and security in access control.

With respect to the first edition, the PAV supported 13 ideas and 27 projects in their commercial and pre-commercial phases, 21 of them as a facilitating agent. In the end, 5 of these ideas were selected by the fund and a total of 2 projects directly facilitated by the PAV, to which were added 5 more facilitated by other agents of the València port community.

11.25 million for Pre-Commercial projects

The conference was closed by the vice-rector of Studies and Entrepreneurship of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), María Esther Gómez. In addition, the head of Strategic Planning and Innovation of the PAV, Juan Manuel Díez, spoke about the challenges in R+D+i of Valenciaport, where he highlighted the work of the “port cluster as a catalyst for innovation with the direction of the Valenciaport Foundation. In recent years, the PAV has developed more than 200 innovative projects, now we want to continue advancing in our strategy to be a carbon neutral port in 2030, a transforming objective that requires innovation and the attraction of talent to solve this challenge”.

At the meeting, success stories of the first call were also presented by Guillermo Fernández, Member of the Ports 4.0 technical office; Ignacio Rodríguez of GDS; Javier Mancheño of MIP Soluciones en Tecnología; and Gabriel Ferrús of Seaports Solutions. An assessment of the first call was also made by José Llorca, Juan Manuel Díez, Guillermo Fernández, member of the Ports 4.0 technical office and Borja Torres, member of the Ports 4.0 technical office.

The Ports 4.0 Fund, promoted by all Spanish port authorities and Puertos del Estado, is the largest public project for the digital transformation of a sector launched so far by Spanish administrations. The Ports 4.0 Fund was launched in 2020 in a firm commitment to innovation by the ports with the aim of ensuring that both the ports and the logistics chain continue to gain in competitiveness. To this end, the programme is looking for start-ups and technology companies that propose real disruptive solutions to the port challenges of the 21st century.

Ports 4.0 has launched the second call for Pre-Commercial projects with 11.25 million euros. Projects can be submitted to develop a new product, service, process, or to improve an existing technology with a new innovative component by developing its application for the port-logistics sector. On the other hand, the Fund also has 6.75 million euros, with grants of 15,000 euros per selected idea (750,000 euros in total) and the remaining six million for grants of between 100,000 and two million euros per project in the commercial phase, which are those that are on the verge of being launched on the market.