The ICT City of A Coruña is now a reality

Four years after the signing of the transfer of the land by the Ministry of Defense to the UdC and with a delay of 11 months over the planned date, the project of the Cidade das TIC begins to be a tangible reality. The Advanced Services Center, the first building of the business complex located on the grounds of the former Fábrica de Armas de Pedralonga, which aims to promote the development of emerging technologies in Galicia, will open its doors on October 20.

The recently inaugurated center aims to operate as a meeting place between clients and suppliers of ICT solutions and to facilitate the sharing of technologies. The building will be key in the development of the technological and innovation park in A Coruña developed by the UdC, the Galician ICT Cluster and the Galician Government, which aims to turn A Coruña into a pole of attraction for investment and talent linked to new technologies. A complex that will multiply the tractor effect that everyone expects to generate the Spanish Agency for Artificial Intelligence Supervision (AESIA), which will start operating before the end of 2023.

5,000 square meters to house the first companies

The first building of the business area of the Cidade das TIC will have 5,000 square meters, for the development of which the Xunta has earmarked nearly five million euros. It will house a dozen technology companies, coworking spaces, laboratories and a digital solutions demonstration area for companies and institutions linked to the Cluster.

Center for Advanced Studies: confirmed companies

ITG, Imatia, Cinfo, Xoia, Enxenio, Odeene, Tokiota, Dataspartan, Soslife7 or Itelsis are some of the technology firms that will have permanent space in the new building. All of them have a business model linked to at least one of the four laboratories that the center will house, which will be dedicated to artificial intelligence, augmented reality, quantum computing or smart devices.

The coworking area may be occupied by professionals, startups or micro-companies that will have access to the facilities on a temporary rental basis and that aspire to benefit from the synergies generated by the technological ecosystem that is being built in A Coruña.

In addition, a space of up to 15,000 square meters has been reserved to house those companies that are expected to settle in the complex in A Coruña in the coming years. All this apart from the so-called Business Campus, for which 120,000 square meters will be reserved for technology firms and which will occupy most of the old factory complex.

Galaxy Lab: drone test bench in urban environments

 After the start-up of the Advanced Services Center, it will be the turn of Galaxy Lab, an infrastructure developed by ITG and created to serve companies that need to experiment and test their urban aerial mobility systems for goods or people, both in the early stages of their R&D or as a previous step to the certification and commercial operation of their products.

 Galaxy Lab will open its doors after an investment of 1.1 million, with which ITG intends to turn Pedralonga into a reference test bench for any project that bets on the use of drones in urban scenarios. Not surprisingly, the building, which occupies building 14 of the old industrial site, has in its more than 1,500 square meters of floor space an operations area for take-off vehicles, as well as indoor flight areas, laboratories, spaces for assembly and testing, machining workshops, 3D printing and welding, and office, meeting and warehouse areas.

Galaxy Lab will allow the deployment of U-space systems and services so that companies, technology centers or universities specialized in automation and aerial robotics can evaluate issues such as the adjustment of geopositioning, navigation and communications systems, flight conflicts or coordination with real controlled airspace. Issues related to the experimentation with drones in the field of passenger and freight transport in urban areas.

The ultimate goal is to provide Galicia with an advanced AI laboratory that will place Galicia at the international forefront in drone testing.