Fundación Valenciaport promotes 5 Horizon Europe projects in the first half of the year

Today the Board of Trustees of Fundación Valenciaport held its ordinary meeting for the first half of the year.

During the session, held in person, the management report and the annual accounts for the year 2021 have been approved and the members of the board of trustees have been informed of all the activities launched since the beginning of 2022.

Valencia, 20 June 2022. – The Board of Trustees of Fundación Valenciaport today held its regular meeting for the first half of the year, which has approved the management report and annual accounts of the Foundation for the year 2021.

In the director’s report, Antonio Torregrosa has set out in detail the activity carried out by the entity during the first half of 2022, starting, as usual, with the new innovation projects that have been approved since the beginning of the year. These are five projects funded by the Horizon Europe program: DT4GS (Digital Twin for Green Ships), which aims to create a digital ship twin; HYPOBATT, thanks to which a modular, fast and easy-to-use battery recharging system for ships will be developed; FOR FREIGHT, which aims to boost ferro-port intermodality to increase flexibility and reduce the average cost of freight transport; SEANERGY, a sustainability education program on the use of more environmentally friendly fuels and energy sources in ports; and EU-CIP, which will create a European Knowledge HUB for critical infrastructure protection; as well as an initiative financed by the Ports 4. 0 Fund: PERSEO, whose objective is to efficiently monitor emissions in ports.

On the other hand, the director has also informed the board members of the recent incorporation of the Valenciaport Foundation to the MedCruise association, whose objective is to promote innovation in the cruise sector in a sustainable way; as well as the recent assumption of the management of the TIC 4.0 association (Terminal Industry Committee 4.0) or the signing of the contract with Iberdrola to manage the technical secretariat of the Net-Zero MAR Alliance, a collaborative platform whose main objective is to promote the decarbonization and electrification of the maritime sector in Spain.

In terms of open innovation, Torregrosa highlighted the presentation to the port community and the startup ecosystem, last March, of the Opentop initiative – the innovation hub of Valenciaport – whose first activity has been the development of the II Valenciaport hackathon, held from 6 to 8 May, in which 4 challenges formulated by Tiba Spain (Romeu Group), MSC, Navis and Port Authority of Valencia were raised. He also pointed out the imminent launch of Opentop’s first Startup Incubation Program, whose registration period will be open next Wednesday, June 22.

With regard to international cooperation, Torregrosa highlighted the signing of a new contract with the public company Portos do Paraná (Brazil) for the design of the VTMIS (Vessel Traffic Management and Information System) of the ports of Paranagua and Antonina. He also informed the Board of Trustees of the launch, together with STC International (Port of Rotterdam), of the new global technical assistance service aimed at Resilient Port Management in crisis situations. He also mentioned the new edition of the course on pandemic management in ports, held last March in the framework of UNCTAD’s TrainForTrade program. Finally, he expressed his satisfaction at announcing that next September will see the inauguration of what will be the 3rd edition of the Master’s Degree in Logistics and Port Management in Brazil and the signing of an agreement with the Panama Maritime Authority, thanks to which this postgraduate course will also be taught in Panama City in 2023.

In relation to the area of training, the director has highlighted as a milestone the recent achievement by Fundación Valenciaport of the port logistics specialization of the higher vocational training in International Trade. After three years of hard work, and two editions of the pilot project of Dual VET Port Immersion, the next academic year 2022-2023 will start this experimental training cycle of the port logistics specialty, which will finally provide companies in the business community linked to the port of Valencia with professional profiles appropriate to their needs. Torregrosa also reported on the course “New trends in the logistics and port chain“, which has been given to public entities and private companies in the Peruvian port logistics sector. Finally, he wanted to comment on the important progress of the European project Ports and Skills, funded by the Erasmus + program, in the framework of which the Valenciaport Foundation has organized the first of the LTTA (Learning Teaching Training Activities). This is a 3-day program in which 15 students, coming from the port logistics sector of Venice and Livorno, have had the opportunity to learn about the best practices developed in the Port of Valencia. This project focuses on the exchange of best practices in continuous training for the development of innovative professional skills.

During the meeting, the members of the Board of Trustees reiterated their satisfaction with the results of the entity and reaffirmed their support for Fundación Valenciaport project as an umbrella organization for innovation and training at the service of the port logistics cluster.