The Port of Barcelona and the Tech Barcelona association have presented this morning the BlueTechPort initiative, which aims to promote the blue economy in the city. The project is ambitious but, for the moment, it is only in its initial phase.
"This year, we have set up an office space that we will rent to startups that develop technologies linked to the sea," announced Lluís Salvadó, president of the Port. The space is located in Port Vell, in the Pier01 building, the headquarters of the Tech Barcelona association. Before it was occupied by the company Nuclio.
"These offices have the capacity to accommodate between 10 and 15 startups with an average of 5 employees each. We are open to renting the space to companies linked to the blue economy in a broad sense: from electricity, materials or biology", has commented Miquel Martí, general director of the association, which has already received interest from 7 companies.
The BlueTechPort project is ambitious because it plans to expand in the coming years. "Once the Copa América is over, the initiative will move to spaces that have been set up for the competition and, in a third phase, the Port will invest 50 million euros in rehabilitating the Sant Beltran quay with the aim of turning it into a laboratory of innovation", commented Emma Cobos, innovation director of the Port, who expects to have these facilities ready within 5 years.
The goal of BlueTechPort is to make the most of the proximity of companies to the sea and turn it into a pilot test bed for their technologies. "Although the initiative is in its initial phase, we did not want to wait any longer to present it because the Copa América is coming up in the coming months and it is necessary for Barcelona to be well positioned," Martí stressed.
The initiative runs parallel to the blue economy hub promoted by Barcelona City Council and the Port at the Mestral and Marina quays in the Port Olímpic area. "They are complementary projects but they can collaborate. While the BlueTechPort is focused on startups, the City Council's hub wants to promote companies with larger and more consolidated projects," Cobos detailed.
