• Fundación Valenciaport’s ordinary board meeting was held today to approve the action plan and budgets for the 2024 financial year.
• The first item on the agenda was the presentation of the new president of the Fundación Valenciaport, Francesc Sánchez, to the members of the Board of Trustees.
• During the second half of the year, Fundación Valenciaport obtained approval to develop 8 new projects, which will be financed by the Horizon Europe and Euromed programmes

Valencia, 14 December 2023. – Fundación Valenciaport has held this morning the ordinary meeting of its board of trustees to approve the action plan and budgets for the financial year 2024, with the level of activity planned amounting to 7,400,000 euros.

The first item on the agenda was the presentation of the new president of Fundación Valenciaport, Francesc Sánchez, to the members of the board of trustees.

In the director’s report, Antonio Torregrosa highlighted as a milestone the 55 innovation projects in which the entity has participated or coordinated during 2023. Specifically, these include eighteen projects from the Horizon 2020 programme, nineteen from the Horizon Europe programme, seven CEF projects, four Interreg-MED projects, two ENI CBCMED projects, one Erasmus + project, two projects financed by the Valencian Innovation Agency (AVI), one SUDOE project, three EMFAF (European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund) and two Ports 4.0 projects. With these excellent results, Fundación Valenciaport continues to maintain the growth of recent years, adding a total of 7 projects more than in 2022.

Torregrosa also explained to the board members the objectives of the 8 projects approved in the second half of the year, five of them funded by the Horizon Europe programme: OVERHEAT, FAITH, THEMIS 5.0, BLUEBARGE and MISSION; and three projects funded by the Euromed programme: RENEWPORT, TOURISMO and TREASURE.

The director also reported on the thirteen innovation projects successfully closed during 2023: Connect Valenciaport, Cyrene, LNGHIVE2, Passport, Moses, Praetorian, Asignat, Green C Ports, YEP MED, I RAIL, Boostlog, Ealing and VIGÍA.

Another of the highlights was the news of the organisation, by the Fundación Valenciaport, the Port Authority of Valencia and the University of Valencia, of the first edition in Spain of the annual conference of the International Association of Maritime Economists – IAME, which will be held from 25 to 28 June next year under the theme “Building innovative maritime ecosystems: smart, green & valuable for society” and for which papers can be submitted until 25 February.

On the subject of open innovation, Torregrosa underlined the resounding success of the Port Entrepreneurship International Congress, an event organised by Opentop last October, within the framework of the Valencia Digital Summit, at which the creation of the network of open innovation hubs in ports “Port Innovators Network” was announced, of which the Port of Hamburg (homePORT), the Port of Halifax (ThePIER) and the Port of Valencia (Opentop) are members. He also highlighted the good reception of the demonstration event of the first Acceleration Programme, in which the start-ups Canonical Green, Sensing Tools, DMS Logistics and Gandolapp presented the pilots developed together with the port community.

Regarding the services to the cluster, the director presented IMARPORT, the new innovation promotion and support service for cluster companies, which facilitates participation in R&D and innovation projects and the application for funding for infrastructure projects, digitisation and decarbonisation of the port logistics sector.

With regard to international cooperation, Torregrosa highlighted the two technical assistance projects currently being carried out in Brazil to promote the decarbonisation process of the port of Itaquí and Portos do Paraná, as well as the advice to the port of Bahía Blanca (Argentina) on the management of its human resources.

With regard to the training area, the director highlighted as a milestone the launch of the 2nd edition of the new programme of The Fundación Valenciaport for the joint obtaining of the Train Driver’s Licence and the Driving Diploma; as well as the inauguration of the 32nd edition of the Master’s Degree in Port Management and Intermodal Transport.

Finally, the director expressed his satisfaction with the excellent reception given by the port community to the week of celebrations organised to mark the 20th anniversary of the entity, which included the demonstration event of the H2PORTS hydrogen project, the reunion of the alumni of the 32 editions of the Master’s course and the organisation of the first congress of the Net-Zero MAR Alliance, among many other events.