Barcelona will create an urban innovation zone on the coast

Between Morrot, Gran Via, Tres Xemeneies and the beach, there is an area of more than 25,000 hectares that the Barcelona City Council wants to transform into an innovation space that consolidates the city's leadership in southern Europe. The Barcelona Innovation Coast aims to bring together universities, research centers, startups, corporations, investors, associations and administrations on a platform that promotes and dynamizes this area, mobilizing resources and attracting projects.

Mobility, technology, energy and health will be the four strategic sectors that the council wants to promote through this initiative, which will focus on the Barcelona coast, but aims to influence the entire metropolitan area. To do so, it foresees measures such as creating a deeptech investment fund, which will help mature projects in initial phases of innovation, develop urban laboratories and strengthen the training offer. The constitution of the Barcelona Innovation Coast Council is also contemplated, where all public and private organizations involved can meet on a stable basis.

The economic impact expected from this new urban innovation space is not minor. The City Council estimates that 40,000 jobs and 235 million euros can be created in the next ten years. These estimates take into account the 550,000 square meters of premises and offices of more than 1,000 square meters available in this area and can serve to host companies and projects that fit with the four sectors that are to be promoted. Filling with activity premises that have been left empty by the coronavirus crisis is one of the priorities of the council, which this week already announced its intention to promote that commercial ground floors host economic activities that are now located on upper floors, such as professional offices.

"Now we need to diversify our economy and innovation has to be at the center of this recovery strategy to continue being an international reference in green and digital economy, and to be able to attract the maximum number of concrete projects from the European recovery funds," explained the Deputy Mayor for Agenda 2030, Laia Bonet, in the presentation of the initiative, within the framework of the Barcelona ReAct conferences, which are intended to define the bases for the city's economic recovery. "We will only do it well if we do it together: public institutions, private sector and civil society, the essence of the Barcelona model," she added.

Sportech in the Olympic Ring

Some of the innovative projects that are to boost the Barcelona Innovation Coast are already known, such as the transformation of the Correos building and the Tres Xemeneies. The third day of the Barcelona ReAct conferences has also served to specify another, which geographically fits into this area of more than 25,000 hectares. The City Council wants Montjuïc to be one of the new economic centralities of the city in the post-coronavirus stage with the promotion of the sportech sector. The Olympic Stadium will host a project incubator of almost 1,200 square meters, which will be promoted by B:SM and Barcelona Activa.

The promotion of Montjuïc will also include the new Port Olímpic project, managed by B:SM, and a program to support the creation of startups, with training and advice. The initial budget of the Barcelona Sport Tech Hub is three million euros. In the future, the new hub will have a headquarters in the Palau Municipal d'Esports.