The cooperation protocol between the Municipality of Guimarães and the Ayuntamiento of Valladolid, signed last Friday, September 13, establishes the basis for collaboration in areas related to the new space economy, and opens doors to a future more transversal understanding in different domains.
Domingos Bragança, president of the Municipal Council of Guimarães, and Jesús Julio Carnero, Mayor of Valladolid, representing their respective municipalities, signed last Friday afternoon, September 13th, at the Consistorial House of Valladolid, an important cooperation protocol that aims to promote collaboration in areas related to the new space economy, with particular emphasis on those related to the Atlantic Constellation.
The Atlantic Constellation is an Earth Observation project that will allow obtaining data with a high update rate from the territory of Spain and Portugal, through satellites from both countries, and which will have the contribution of the Guimarães Space Hub technology hub. Collecting data that allows action in the event of emergencies and natural disasters, security (maritime and border surveillance), as well as improving the management of natural, marine and coastal resources, environmental surveillance and agricultural and forestry management, among others, include among the main objectives of the operations, which will be led in Portugal by the company Geosat, CEiiA and Força Aérea.
Domingos Bragança, president of the City Council, began by presenting the development strategy for the territory of Guimarães, which is based on the pillars of Education, Culture and Science, highlighting the existing cooperation between the Municipality, the University of Minho and CEiiA in the field of aerospace, and expressed the desire that this protocol, now signed with Valladolid, “will allow the creation of an important axis of collaboration between the two cities”, at a public and private level. The mayor was also interested in learning about the work that Valladolid has been developing, especially in sustainable development, given that the city, together with Guimarães, is included in the list of 100 cities that have committed to bringing forward the goal of carbon neutrality for 2030.
In this sense, and in the working meeting held after the signing of the protocol, the projects that are underway in Valladolid, in various areas, were presented by the local team of councilors, and common points were identified for future cooperation that Fernando Ballesteros, director of Agencia de Innovación y Desarrollo Económico de Valladolid, sees it as “capable of extending to innovation, digital and economic transition, environmental protection, culture and tourism, and economic development, and that prioritizes networking”.
It should be noted that Ricardo Simões, director of Innovation at CCDR-N, was also present at the work meeting, whose objective was to monitor an action whose potential impact on boosting the regional innovation system is great. The CCDR-N Innovation Unit aims, among others, to promote, at a regional level, the use of technological innovations in key sectors of the economy and society, such as technology-based entrepreneurship supported by a close connection between the business fabric and universities, in this specific case fostered by a collaboration protocol between two public entities.
