DEVISE project partners from across eight European countries gathered in the port city of Santander on Tuesday, 29th January, to officially launch the project. The event was hosted by our Spanish partner Regional Government of Cantabria in the capital of the Cantabria region, on Spain’s north coast.
In the morning, D. Jorge Muyo López (General Director of Innovation, Technological Development and Industrial Entrepreneurship) welcomed more than 50 attendees including representatives from companies of digital and other key sectors such as manufacturing, DEVISE partners and their stakeholders from Ireland, Romania, Spain, Bulgaria, Finland, United Kingdom, France and Belgium.
Following the welcome, attendees started their day by participating in the workshop Factories of the future Cantabria - focused on industry 4.0 as one of the big enablers in the digital transformation of SMEs. The workshop allowed us to get the perspective from actors from different types of organisations, including the Spanish Industrial School Organisation (EOI), digital SMEs providing solutions in fields like robotics (IBEROBOTICS) or virtual reality (BINARYBOX STUDIOS) and manufacturing and automotive companies immersed in the process of their digital transformation like FUNDICIONES CARG, SEG AUTOMOTIVE, FLUIDOS Y MECÁNICA Cantabria and FLYMCA. A fruitful discussion took place reflecting on key factors like the development of Industry 4.0 skills among the staff and the importance of leading the digital transformation from inside the organisation.
In the afternoon, the DEVISE partnership had the opportunity to visit the Santander Teleport, a unique facility providing satellite coverage over the Americas, Europe, Africa, parts of Asia, as well as the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
On day two, partners met for their first Steering Committee (SC) meeting to review progress on project activities and agree on future steps. In parallel, stakeholders had the opportunity to attend very interesting site visits including the Santander International Entrepreneurship Centre, the Traffic and Public Transport modelling laboratory and the Telematics Engineering Group (GIT) of the University of Cantabria, with wide expertise and long track record in Smart Cities, recognised at EU level for having led flagship projects such as Smart Santander.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Regional Government of Cantabria for organising a fruitful event, and to partners and stakeholders who made the journey.
To view more photos from the event, please visit our library.
