The Valencia City Council began working some time ago on the 'Makerspace' project, which delves into the maker concept to devise technological co-creation projects in Valencia: prototyping, models and 3D printing, among others. And this past Friday, the mayoress of Valencia spoke about the project with the world president of HP, Enrique Lores, who was visiting Valencia, where a few months ago the multinational headed by this UPV graduate opened a technology center.
According to the consistory, the multinational company "has shown interest" in sponsoring the initiative, which could be located in La Farinera, the old industrial building from the early 20th century, which is part of the warehouse complex on Calle Joan Verdaguer -more than 5,500 square meters - and which has recently been rehabilitated in the maritime zone, awaiting its inauguration.
As an example of what La Farinera could also be, the City Council refers to the DFactory center, a building located in the Zona Franca of Barcelona, diaphanous, designed as a large coworking and where 30 reference companies, SMEs and innovative startups come together.
There, projects are shared and support is given in corporate digital transformation processes and Hewlett-Packard is a part of it, along with other companies such as Picvisa, a waste separation and recovery company using vision technology and artificial intelligence; the Leitat technology center or Stratasys, a company specialized in 3D printing.
DFactory's areas of activity are 3D printing, robotics, cybersecurity, but also Artificial Intelligence, sensors and advanced manufacturing, aligned with the maker philosophy from which the Valencian project 'Makerspace' draws.
With this new proposal to house this initiative in La Farinera, it goes deeper into the character of the new center. Initially, the government of Joan Ribó pointed out that a business incubator and the headquarters of Invest in Valencia, the investment attraction office that the council develops with the help of the Chamber of Valencia, would fit. The center would be managed by the Active Valencia Foundation of the Pact for the Employment of the City of Valencia-Valencian Community and the Foundation of the Valencian Community for Strategic Promotion, Development and Urban Innovation.
Now, with the arrival of María José Català to the mayor's office, more content has been added and it is already known that it will also house the Digital Management and Technology Center, which will be coordinated by the Universitat de València and the Universitat Politècnica de València, which has been even endowed with a budget. The CDTM will connect students from various disciplines with emerging companies, industries and academic institutions, promoting emerging talent.
CDTM, business incubator, Invest in València headquarters, and even kilometer zero of the video game, because at the inauguration of the 2023 edition of DreamHack, the mayoress announced that the Farinera would also host the "Valencia Game City", the innovation program that seeks place the city in the "leading role" of the video game and e-sports industry.
This is an area that the Valencia City Council intends to explore and about which they also spoke this week with the top manager of HP. In fact, the company would be "open to opening lines of work" in this sense, as explained by the consistory.
Meanwhile, the final procedure is awaited in the adaptation works of La Farinera, which could become "the place par excellence of innovation in the public sector in Valencia", according to the words of the mayor María José Català.
