The Regional Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development of the Andalusian Government (Junta de Andalucía) and Technological Corporation of Andalusia (CTA) have brought together more than 50 entities, including SMEs and research groups, to the Confederation of Entrepreneurs of Andalusia (CEA) for the official launch event of the Andalusian Digital Innovation Hub ICT-BIOCHAIN.
The conference was opened by Cristina de Toro, general manager of Industries, Innovation and Food Chain at the Regional Ministry of Agriculture, Elías Atienza, general manager at CTA, and Luis Picón, director of Relations with Organizations and Companies at the CEA. In addition, the event included the participation of the prestigious Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBlOiC) of Scotland.
This ICT-BIOCHAIN Hub is supported by two strategic pillars of public-private cooperation in which the Andalusian Government is already working through the Regional Ministry of Agriculture: the Andalusian Bioeconomy Cluster and the Andalusian Digital Innovation Hub Agrotech, whose objective is to accelerate the digital transformation in the agrifood sector and its value chain.
Elías Atienza explained that “the participation of CTA in this project is a sign of our firm commitment to the Circular Bioeconomy. CTA finances R&D business projects related to the Bioeconomy and Circular Economy, is also a member of the BioIndustries Consortium (BIC) and participates in 18 European projects, of which 6 are related to this sector.
The Andalusian Innovation Hub ICT-BIOCHAIN will provide SMEs with access to expert knowledge and technologies to promote the integration of ICT solutions, Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0 into the biomass supply chains, which will contribute to a supply sustainable at competitive prices and, therefore, to the development of the Andalusian Bioeconomy.
This Hub is part of the European ICT-BIOCHAIN project, which is led by the Regional Ministry of Agriculture and in which CTA is a partner. ICT-BIOCHAIN is funded by the Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU) under the Horizon 2020 programme to boost the digitization of biomass supply chains.
About ICT-BIOCHAIN
The ICT-BIOCHAIN project has a budget close to €1M and an execution period of 2 years. It will use Andalusia and the southeast of Ireland as pilot regions to develop Digital Innovation Hubs, with the aim of promoting the deployment of the Bioeconomy in the European Union. The project brings together 8 partners from 5 European countries (Spain, Ireland, Finland, Germany and the UK).
