The new space for developing technological ideas or projects has an investment of 1.5 million euros and “closes the circle” of the new productive model for Talavera. It will be one of the 19 incubators in Spain.
The high-tech incubator for promoting innovation and technology transfer to micro-enterprises now has a headquarters. The former Escuelas del Prado, located next to the Plaza de España, will host the project after a significant renovation. This project “closes the circle” for Talavera to completely change its productive model, now focused on promoting new technologies and innovation.
The Mayor of Talavera, Tita García Élez, and the director of Feder Funds of the Incyde Foundation (Institute for the Creation and Development of Companies), along with the director general of Digital Administration, Juan Ángel Morejudo, have signed a collaboration agreement today, by which Incyde grants 1.2 million euros from Feder funds out of a total of 1.5 million euros for the establishment of this incubator, which will host about 40 micro-enterprises and entrepreneurs, who will shape important technological projects related to initiatives in the agri-food sector.
The initiative, requested by the City Council and approved with a high score by the Project Selection Committee, as highlighted by the Incyde representative, is the missing piece of the ‘Talavera Tecnológica’ project that the local and regional governments have been developing over the past three years. According to the Mayor, the city already has the talent and training linked to the University and the vocational training courses offered in different institutes in the city as the first point. “We have the most important directory of technology companies at the national level in a single building,” shaping the Regional Center for Digital Innovation (CRID), which has recently been joined by Microsoft, but already includes Telefónica, Oracle, IBM, HPE, Palo Alto, Red Hat, or Amazon, and is also the headquarters of the GAIA-X Spain Association. The missing “essential piece” was the micro-enterprises and entrepreneurs “who may have an idea from a technological point of view and want to develop it.”
This will be in the future high-tech incubator of Talavera, one of the 19 established in different parts of Spain and the first and only one in Castilla-La Mancha.
García Élez indicated that this new technological-business location will be established in the former Escuelas del Prado, after a comprehensive rehabilitation of the building, which will be equipped with state-of-the-art technological elements to provide a space for future technology professionals for their initiatives related to the agri-food sector. However, these ideas or projects will be developed transversally, giving the opportunity to develop an idea or business concept “in a city that has opened its arms to technology.”
The Mayor expressed her satisfaction with the progress of an initiative that puts Talavera back on the map of technology. From this center, she added, “pioneering projects will be developed worldwide, Talavera once again opens up to the world from a technological point of view, and we do it with the conviction that this is a path we have started and will not look back.”
The combination of all these factors, complementing each other, “will bring great results to Talavera, to Castilla-La Mancha,” said the Mayor, who assured that the city is now “an attractive destination for technology companies, where we already see companies coming to ask us how to stay here.” This continues the shared commitment of the Élez Government team and the regional government, “to make Talavera the technological hub of the central region.”
The conditions are set. ‘We have an ecosystem that needs to be leveraged and we will do it, it’s the working direction and the future for this city,’ concluded the mayor.
Support from major companies. Natalia Vázquez, director of Feder Projects at Incyde, also highlighted this. ‘Few can count on the support of major global technology companies,’ which she recognized as one of the pillars that support this high-tech incubator project, crucial for its concession. However, she added, these world-renowned ‘tractor’ companies ‘do not innovate in-house but seek innovation outside’ and will support these entrepreneurs. In Talavera, pioneering projects will be developed that will be used worldwide.
A total of 29 supports have been obtained for this project, including financial institutions, institutions, local and provincial business associations, and companies specializing in the agri-food and internationalization sectors.
Juan Ángel Morejudo, the director general of Digital Administration of the Government of Castilla-La Mancha, recalled that this agreement ‘endorses the commitment and collaboration of the regional government, as well as the local government, for a change in the productive model in Talavera, based on knowledge, talent, and technological development.’
The new high-tech incubator in Talavera will make technology a driving force for growth and job creation in Castilla-La Mancha and Talavera, ensuring that any company or start-up knows that their idea will be turned into a profitable and sustainable business project here.”
