The Secretary of State for R&D, under the Ministry of Economy and Innovation, has just announced that Villamayor will join the municipalities which form part of the Innpulso Network for Cities of Innovation.
This network was created six years ago as a strategic city-based platform to strengthen innovation at a local level, without taking into account the size of the municipalities. This is why cities such as Madrid, Barcelona and Bilbao can share this distinction with towns such as Ávila, Cáceres, Eibar and villages with populations numbering fewer than 10,000 inhabitants.
In order to join this network, candidates must demonstrate that they have conducted activities in which they “support innovation in their region, define politics, strengthen structures, institutions and local businesses with a strong scientific, technological and innovative component” according to the call notice.
In addition to Villamayor, the following cities have also joined Innpulso: Alcalá de Guadaira, Alcázar de San Juan, Almussafes, Alfaz de Pi, Aranda de Duero, Camargo, Gandía and Torrente.
Some of the advantages for municipalities receiving this distinction include the possibility to launch collaborative projects with network partners, higher priority to house scientific and technological facilities, and preference for hosting conferences, seminars and other events. A total of 62 Spanish towns have received this recognition, with Villamayor the only town located in the province of Salamanca to hold this distinction.
The Science Park of the University of Salamanca congratulates the town of Villamayor, its local government and its citizens for its incorporation into the Innpulso Network. This is a national level seal of quality recognizing efforts to strengthen innovative scientific, technological and social networks, contributing toward the creation of a productive knowledge-based model.
Approaching 10 years since its founding, our Science Park is becoming a reference in R&D not only at a local or regional level, but at a national level as well, as the numbers show (100% occupancy, housing more than 50 companies with 800 direct employees) and can now boast this honour for our municipality.
To form part of this Spanish map of R&D and of a network such as Innpulso is a source of satisfaction, but also comes with a responsibility to take advantage of this situation and maintain the recognition, which is renewed every three years.
Our efforts to make Villamayor and Salamanca a hub of intensive activities in innovation is a goal which is bearing significant fruit. The objective is to consolidate and expand our model to the rest of the University campuses of Salamanca: Zamora, Avila and Bejar.
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Juan M. Corchado 