IMDEA Networks joins the four technology clusters of the Community of Madrid

The goal is to turn Madrid into the main digital hub in southern Europe

07 June 2022

The Madrid Regional Government culminates the opening of the last of the four digitalization clusters in the region dedicated to Blockchain (Tres Cantos), Artificial Intelligence (Leganés), Digital Transformation (Torrejón de Ardoz) and Internet of Things (Las Rozas). Professionals from 57 leading national and international companies, organizations and entities, including the IMDEA Networks Institute, comprise the clusters team with the aim of consolidating the region as a digital hub in Southern Europe, generating new business opportunities, more employment and facilitating the interaction of citizens with the public administration.

Throughout the month of May, the Madrid Regional Government, in collaboration with the City Councils of the locations of the four digitization clusters, has been holding events in which the starting signal was given by the signature of the agreement by the leading companies and institutions that will be part of these innovation spaces for the digitization clusters.

The first to start up was the blockchain cluster, located in Tres Cantos, on May 7. Its objective is to make Madrid an exporting power of this technology. The Minister of Local Administration and Digitization, Carlos Izquierdo, indicated that the agreement would “turn Madrid into the neuralgic point of connection of nodes of this technology not only with Europe but also with the American continent”.

On May 9, the Artificial Intelligence Cluster was established in Leganés. Its main functions will be to carry out research, studies, analysis and projects in Artificial Intelligence; to promote its implementation and use; and to promote the automation of business processes. “In general, clusters contribute to bringing all the actors, in this case of the Community of Madrid, whether from the academic or labor side, to the same physical site to exploit synergies. I think it is very appropriate to have this Artificial Intelligence cluster, which is a field that is receiving a lot of attention, to be able to push together the actors of the Community of Madrid to develop this technology”, explains Albert Banchs, deputy director of IMDEA Networks, in an interview with Leganés Activo.

The digital transformation cluster, located in Torrejón de Ardoz, was launched on May 18. Some of the main functions of the cluster will be: to promote the implementation, standardization and use of technologies and solutions that induce or produce digital transformation; and to respect and disseminate ethics in the development and use of digital transformation, as well as comply with regulations regarding its research.

Finally, on May 27, the last one, the cluster dedicated to IoT (Internet of Things), was constituted with the aim of improving the quality of life of the citizens of the Madrid Regional Government thanks to the access to the new automated experiences that the IoT context offers, as well as to carry out dissemination campaigns for its understanding and to promote the implementation, standardization and use of the technologies and solutions related to IoT.