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a Zona Franca de Barcelona accelerates innovation with the first European incubator for 3D printing factories. To be true to its history, the Zona Franca revolutionizes and incubates innovation in industry, at the factory floor. The special delegate of the State of the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona, Pere Navarro, marks February 11, 2019, as another historic day for the Zona Franca, the same one that boosted the Port of Barcelona, has hosted cutting-edge automotive industry and has witnessed labor mobilizations and social demands.
The first European incubator for 3D printing factories starts with 600 square meters of the institutional building of the Consortium, with the wavy roof, designed by Ricardo Bofill. In a year, the 3D Factory Incubator will open, a transparent cube that will occupy 17,000 m2 on the grounds of the old Seat, thus expanding the Consortium's industrial surface to 70,000 m2. A whole revolution that Pere Navarro will start not with the Minister of Industry, nor with the Minister of Public Works, but with the Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Pedro Duque. Navarro aims for a greener, more human, and better-equipped Zona Franca to create opportunities.
The New Barcelona Post met with Pere Navarro a few days before what should be this very relevant February 11, to converse from the enthusiastic calm that precedes every important day: "It is an exclusive 3D innovation project and it is the first one to be done in Europe. The beauty is that it has more derivatives, other stages, a lot of connection with everything that is industry 4.0. It is a very good initiative that I hope will consolidate us as a benchmark in Europe. We are opening new paths," Navarro explains to us.
The 3D Factory Incubator aims to contribute to boosting the productive transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises towards the industry 4.0 environment so that, aligned with the objectives of the EU2020 and Horizon 2020 Strategy, it will promote interregional cooperation, as well as collaboration between public sector agents and companies, both nationally and internationally. The investment required for the adaptation of the facilities, the purchase of equipment, and the provision of the described services amounts to approximately 3 million euros, with 50% funding from European FEDER funds through the INCYDE Foundation and thanks to the collaboration of the Consorcio de la Zona Franca de Barcelona with the Leitat Technological Institute. "We have selected 34 companies, although initially 20 had been planned. In five years we will reach 100 or, I believe, perhaps more," says Navarro, adding that "they cover very broad sectors of activity, from healthcare to capital goods, sports or logistics, for example. Seven projects are from other countries and the rest, the majority, are from the metropolitan area of Barcelona."
"The Consorcio de la Zona Franca has to do with the economic history of Barcelona, but also with the political and social history of the country," says Navarro. "We are a public sector, we have a vocation and obligation of public service. We want to be a factory of opportunities."
Pere Navarro took office as the new State delegate in the Consorcio de la Zona Franca de Barcelona on July 3, 2018. With a degree in Biological Sciences from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Pere Navarro i Morera (Terrassa, December 23, 1959) acceded to the position after an extensive career, in which his experience as mayor of Terrassa stands out, as first secretary of the Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSC) between 2011 and 2014, and as a deputy in the Parliament and president of the parliamentary group for this formation. In the private sphere, his professional experience has focused on a subject that has always passionate him: the strategic direction of territorial planning and urban development, an area whose interest he combines with his sensitivity in social matters and his concern for sustainability and respect for the environment.
In 2012 he was named by the British foundation City Mayors as one of the 98 best mayors in the world: "I imagine a Metropolitan Region that respects the natural spaces that must be respected and maintained, that offers opportunities for the people who are here and those who will come, an equitable space, that gives opportunities to everyone. Even today there are inequalities: they must be reduced. I believe in a metropolitan region facing a scientific, technological, and social future. We cannot lose the humanistic sense of things."