Seville will finally be the headquarters of the future Spanish Space Agency (AEE), which could be operational in the first quarter of 2023 and which will coordinate national activities and policies on space and Spain's participation in international programs in this area. In the same Council of Ministers, the Executive has also reported the choice of A Coruña as the headquarters of the Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence.
The Government decided this Monday at the meeting of the Council of Ministers, as reported by the Minister for Territorial Policy and spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez, who has framed this decision in the Government's commitment to decentralize newly created public bodies to strengthen the equal opportunities and territorial cohesion.
They opted for the headquarters of the Space Agency -in addition to Seville- Cabanillas del Campo (Guadalajara), Cebreros (Ávila), Ciudad Real, Elche (Alicante), Estella-Lizarra (Navarra), Huelva, Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz), L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria/ Agüimes/San Bartolomé de Tirajana (Las Palmas), Puerto del Rosario (Las Palmas), León, Ourense, Palencia, Puertollano (Ciudad Real), San Javier (Murcia ), Tenerife Island (Santa Cruz de Tenerife), Teruel, Tres Cantos (Madrid), Zamudio (Vizcaya) and Yebes (Guadalajara).
During the press conference after the Council of Ministers, Isabel Rodríguez assessed the success of the call to host this headquarters, and stressed that in the case of Seville, the candidacy had been supported by a total of 298 entities (public institutions, scientific, academic or business).
In the case of the Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence, A Coruña has prevailed over the other 13 candidates, among which were, for example, Granada and Alicante, and Rodríguez has highlighted the aid package proposed by the candidacy, as well as the support of the autonomous community and the country's training and business ecosystem.
The minister stressed that Galicia will offer mobility aid for displaced workers and their families with housing support. In addition, she has valued the business ecosystem that has supported the project, as well as the university and training network in the field that accompanies the candidacy.
Apart from Granada and Alicante, the candidacy has been imposed on Ourense, Jerez de la Frontera, Salamanca, Segovia, Barcelona, Guadalajara, Leganés, Palma, Tenerife Island and Zaragoza.
The creation of the Space Agency is provided for in the new Science Law and in the Strategic Project for Aerospace Economic Recovery and Transformation (Perte), an initiative with which the Government wants to mobilize some 4,500 million euros until 2025 to promote the research and innovation in the aeronautical and space sector.
With its creation, Spain will be equal to other neighboring countries that have similar organizations to guide strategies related to the space sector, which provides essential services for society in the field of communications, Earth observation, navigation, security, the fight against climate change or the monitoring of phenomena such as drought or fires.
The headquarters of the Spanish Space Agency -which will also have a component dedicated to National Security- has been approved by the Government after the proposal made in this sense by an Advisory Commission that during the last month has analyzed all the places that had been applied for .
Over the last few weeks, the Commission has been studying compliance by the candidates with the criteria that had been set as preferential to select that location, and among them that the place has a wide network of access to public means of transport, especially train high speed and located less than an hour from an international airport.
This international airport had to have connections with Brussels and Paris, and preferably also with Amsterdam, Toulouse, Rome and Prague, destinations that the staff of that Agency will foreseeably visit more frequently, as established by the Government, which also wanted it to have close to an environment hoteliers and a "dynamic" business, educational and university sector.
The Space Agency will initially require some seventy employees, including civil servants, labor and senior management positions, will occupy some 3,000 square meters -predictably in the Isla de la Cartuja Science and Technology Park in Seville, and will have several multifunctional spaces and capacity for organize events involving up to 250 people.
