Ferrovial has become a core partner of the
European Institute of Innovation and Technology through its Digital Knowledge and Innovation Centre (Digital KIC). It is therefore now part of a leading organisation in open innovation, the aim of which is to promote
EU competitiveness to find new solutions to the great challenges of the industry and create new products and services for a
competitive, sustainable and
dynamic knowledge economy.
The European Institute of Innovation and Technology and EIT Digital
The European Commission created the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) in 2007, as a body for boosting European competitiveness and leadership on issues of innovation in the face of competition, mainly from the United States, Canada and Japan. The EIT is the first European initiative to bring together all three elements of the knowledge triangle:
education, business and innovation, thus driving the capacity for transforming ideas and knowledge through an open model of business opportunities in the shape of new products and services for the market.
To achieve these objectives, the EIT is made up by
Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KIC). EIT Digital brings together more than 130 partners including large corporations, SMEs, start-ups, universities and research institutes. Its focus is to accelerate uptake of digital technologies and attract entrepreneurial talent and leadership to Europe. It is organised around co-location centres, where students, researchers, engineers, business developers and entrepreneurs come together to drive the development of digital solutions for the challenges of today. The Headquarters is located in Brussels, with co-location centres in
Berlin, Eindhoven, Helsinki, London, Paris, Stockholm, Trento, Budapest and
Madrid.
Strategic Committee of the Madrid node
Ferrovial’s involvement in the Madrid node started officially on November 8, at the meeting of the strategic committee chaired by
Willem Jonker, CEO of the organisation, where Ferrovial is represented by
Alberto López-Oleaga, Innovation and Processes Director. The organisation’s current status and future outlook was debated, and work began on the five digital focus areas for 2017:
Digital Wellbeing, Digital Industries, Digital Cities, Digital Finance and Cybersecurity and
Digital Infrastructures.
Other participating companies in the Madrid meeting, in addition to Ferrovial, were
Indra, Telefónica,
Sytel,
ATOS, Nokia, IMDEA Software and
Madrid’s Technical University.
Digital Cities Innovation Day Paris: Innovation in urban services
One of the first activities for Ferrovial within EIT Digital was participation in the
Digital Cities Innovation Day, held in Paris on 29 November 2016.
Íñigo Jodra, Director of Ferrovial Services’
Centre of Excellence for Cities, explained the keys to the transformation of cities, and the company’s urban innovation strategy, organised around collaborative and applied research programmes on new citizen-centred service models. More specifically,
Íñigo Jodra highlighted the strategic role of start-ups, which, he said, “bring unique and complementary skills, making them natural partners”. “Innovative public purchasing will accelerate cooperation between service companies and start-ups”, he added.
Matchmaking in Cybersecurity
The Madrid node organised a Cybersecurity Matchmaking event on 29 November, the aim of which was to bring together large corporations with specific technological challenges on issues of cybersecurity with start-ups working on the development of products and services to overcome such challenges.
Román Ramírez, head of IT security at Ferrovial, presented a technological challenge under the title of “sole IT security agent”. Other large corporations present at the event were Telefónica, Indra and ATOS, together with a number of start-ups working in the sector.
