spain sin press summary (from 1 sept to 1 oct)
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Spain sin press summary (from 1 sept to 1 oct)TRANSCRIPT
Spain Science and Innovation Press Summary
From 1 September to 1 October 2014
Policy News
ERC grants €900K to finance six Spanish
research projects with commercial potential
Spain was the third country to be awarded the
most projects in the first round of the 2014 Proof of
Concept’s Grants Call, only behind Israel, with 11,
and the United Kingdom, with 10.
Spain and Japan reinforce bilateral scientific and
tech collaboration
Spanish Minister for Research, Carmen Vela, led the
Spanish delegation that travelled to Tokyo on
September 17 to attend the second Joint Spanish-
Japanese Science and Technology Commission, and
meet with delegates of the Japanese R&D system. The
visit was hosted by the Japanese Minister of Scientific
and Technological Policy.
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Spain's chemical sector, attractive for foreign investment
The chemical industry is the manufacturing sector that will undergo the greatest overall growth from now
until 2030, at an annual growth rate of 4.5%. It is also the second largest exporter in Spain, reaching sales of
over €30 billion to international markets, now at the receiving end of over 55% of Spain's production. The
chemical industry comprises several sectors and produces raw materials that supply 98% of the country's
productive economic activity.
Some of Spain's strengths in the chemical sector are: a strategic geographic location; it is the EU country
with the longest coastline, boasting 46 international ports capable of shipping goods abroad; it also has a
solid investment support structure and competitive labour costs. It is the sector having the highest
expenditure in technological research and development in Spain, and due to its essential contribution to the
country's economy, it also receives plenty of institutional support. Spain is also home to the largest chemical
cluster in the Mediterranean area and Southern Europe.
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Agritech
Bioiberica launches a new technique to scan crops
with airborne cameras
Spanish company Bioibérica is now selling its Crop-Scan
service, a remote diagnostic service that can tell users the
condition of a crop from a plane. The scan provides a wide
variety of valuable information, such as the crop’s
temperature, hydration, chlorophyll content and ripeness.
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The Spanish test that detects ulcer-inducing
bacteria
Thousands of patients around the world are
benefitting from Spanish company Operon’s test,
which detects the presence of the bacteria that
causes ulcers, Helicobacter pylori, in the digestive
tract. The firm exports its technology to over 50
countries.
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Health
Spain: World’s 8th Largest Agrifood Exporter in
the World
Last year, Spain became the world’s 8th largest, and
the EU’s 6th major, exporter of agricultural foods. This
was announced after a record-breaking amount of
money generated in the industry at the end of 2013,
when agricultural food exports totalled 36.367 million
euro and international exports grew by 3.75%.
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Technology
The European Union goes for Spanish
cybersecurity
S2 Grupo, a Spanish cybersecurity specialist firm, will
receive support from the EU to develop Captor, its
first anti-cyber threat system.
The system fights the most sophisticated threats any
kind of organization might face from cyber criminals,
cyber terrorists or hostile governments.
Spanish Research centre CEIT-IK4 leads on a
Big Data EU project for wastewater
treatment plants
The goal of the Diamond project effort is threefold:
to treat water so that it can be reused, to produce
electricity from the sludge generated during the
treatment process, and to recover nutrients which
may be employed as agricultural fertilizers.
Spanish technology studies oceans’ salinity
from space
At the end of 2009, the ESA (European Space
Agency) launched the SMOS satellite. It was a
success thanks to the excellent performance of
MIRAS (Microwave Imaging Radiometer with
Aperture Synthesis), an innovative aperture
synthesis microwave radiometer which supplies data
on soil humidity and oceanic salinity to track the
evolution of climate change. MIRAS was developed
by Airbus DS España, and it’s 100% Spanish
technology.
A Spanish company launches the Australia’s
largest solar plant
Spanish operator Fotowatio Renewable
Ventures has brought online the largest
photovoltaic plant in operation in Australia, with 24
megawatts (MW) of installed capacity. The facility
was built by Spanish company Acciona, which will
be also responsible for its maintenance over a two-
year period. It covers a surface area of nearly 50
hectares. It has 83,000 solar panels and, under
normal conditions, the facility can satisfy the
electricity needs of around 4,500 homes.
Energy
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Sara Cebrián | Science and Innovation Attaché Iberia| [email protected] | TEL: 00 34 91 714 6357 Ana María Román | Science and Innovation Iberia| [email protected] | TEL: 00 34 91 714 6362 British Embassy Madrid | Torre Espacio, Paseo de la Castellana 259D, 28046 Madrid
Spanish group CAF awards major contract to
supply Mexico with 26 trains
This contract will supply 26 trains to be used on
the STC Metrorrey’s number 3 line. This light rail
system is located in the Mexican city of
Monterrey and contributes to consolidating CAF
(Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles) as
one of the leading rolling stock suppliers in the
Mexican market.
Infrastructure
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