- The Clock Building of the Port Authority of València (PAV) has hosted an explanatory day with the participation of the professionals responsible for implementing the Ports 4.0 project in the Valencian docks: Francesc Sánchez, president of the Valenciaport Foundation; Antonio Torregrosa, general director of the Valenciaport Foundation; José Llorca, head of Innovation of Puertos del Estado; and Juan Manuel Díez Orejas, head of Innovation of the PAV
- Together with them, professionals linked to the programme have informed about the funding and development opportunities for innovative ideas and actions within the framework of the Ports 4.0 programme. In parallel, entrepreneurs who have participated in previous editions have explained their experience.
- The deadline for applications for the current call is 29 February for ideas projects and 1 April 2024 for commercial projects.
- We aspire to lead logistics innovation”, said Francesc Sánchez at the presentation of the programme
València, 24 January 2024.- The Clock Building of the Port Authority of València (PAV) hosted yesterday the conference ‘New opportunities for innovation in logistics. New Call 2024 of Ports 4.0’. This meeting has been informed about the opportunities offered by the new call of the technological entrepreneurship challenge program Ports 4.0 for companies and startups with links to the port logistics sector.
To detail the implementation of the program, the professionals responsible for launching the Ports 4.0 project in the Valencian docks have been summoned: Francesc Sanchez, president of the Valenciaport Foundation; Antonio Torregrosa, general director of the Valenciaport Foundation; Jose Llorca, head of Innovation of Puertos del Estado; and Juan Manuel Diez Orejas, head of Innovation of the PAV.
Francesc Sanchez, president of the Valenciaport Foundation, opened the event by highlighting the commitment to innovation: “most Spanish ports have begun to consider new challenges in the field of innovation and we also aspire to lead the logistics innovation,” he said.
For his part, José Llorca, head of Innovation of Puertos del Estado, has detailed the main lines of the new call for Ports 4.0: “innovation has to be penetrating the port logistics productive fabric”, therefore, “the Ports 4.0 Fund is aimed at financing the technological maturation of projects that are immersed in an innovation process”.
The amount for the financing of ideas in a more incipient phase and for commercial projects with more maturity amounts to €6,750,000, which is distributed in €750,000 for the modality of ideas and €6,000,000 for projects in the commercial phase. The main requirement to benefit from the aid is the development of a new product or the improvement of an existing technology with a new innovative component to be applied in the port logistics sector.
The deadline for submitting applications for ideas is February 29, while the deadline for commercial projects is April 1, 2024. More information on applications for funding under the Ports 4.0 Plan can be found on the Valenciaport website for more information on funding applications for the Ports 4.0 Plan.
Challenges of the Spanish Port System
The director of Innovation of Puertos del Estado has pointed to data management as one of the keys to the future of the sector. “The management of data and its rapid interpretation will help ports to anticipate events,” he said. In parallel, Juan Manuel Díez Orejas, head of Innovation of the Port Authority of València, said that this fund “has opened the port sector to new technologies and the new economy of open innovation”. Antonio Torregrosa concluded the day by thanking “the support that Valenciaport has in its promotion of open and technological innovation”.
Solid and credible projects to apply for State Ports funds
The call Puertos 4.0, within the Plan de Impulso al Emprendimiento para la Innovación (Puertos del Estado), consists of the promotion of initiatives that are committed to carry out actions and research programs where efficiency and sustainability become pillars for increasing the competitiveness of the port area.
Logistics efficiency in infrastructures, environmental sustainability, safety and security and the digitization of processes and intelligent platforms are the innovative services that can be promoted in the port sector thanks to this new edition of the Ports 4.0 funding program. For this reason, Valenciaport considers the development of state funds that encourage the search for sustainable alternatives and digitization for port systems to be of paramount importance.
Projects participating in previous editions
Next, in the block of ‘Projects Selected in previous calls by Ports 4.0’, some of the keys for companies to access funding have been detailed with the testimonies of some project managers who are already in the commercial phase. It should be noted that in the three previous calls for Ports 4.0 a total of 750 ideas and projects have been submitted, of which 132 have been validated and are currently being funded. Jorge Marcos, from the Valenciaport Foundation moderated this round table.
Josep Sanz, director of Energy Transition and Sustainability of the Valenciaport Foundation and responsible for the ‘PERSEO’ project has emphasized the importance of directing projects towards electrification. “Ports are increasingly tending to electrify their activity, and in the case of Valenciaport and the southern ports, photovoltaics will play a fundamental role,” he said.
For his part, Mohamed Amine Koubaa, founding director of PV Nexus, commented that “any idea in an early stage of maturation is difficult to materialize and that is why 4.0 is so important for the development of technological proposals”.
Gabriel Ferrús, CEO of SEAPort Solutions and responsible for the ‘PAULA’ project, has highlighted the importance of collaboration with facilitating agents such as the APV. “The facilitating agent plays a key role. It is very important to rely on them to monitor and check the progress of the logistic-port proposal”, he pointed out. The explanatory day was led by the Port Authority of València, Valenciaport Foundation, Puertos del Estado, PV Nexus, SEAPort Solutions and Opentop Valenciaport Innovation Hub. These are public and private organizations which try to promote with these trainings the creation and growth of innovative technological companies.