Today, April 13th, a delegation from the Spanish Association for Scientific Industry (INEUSTAR) visited the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canaries (IAC), a “Severo Ochoa” centre of excellence, where they have formalized an agreement lasting for three years.

This agreement foresees, in a national and in an international context, the following joint actions (among others): scientific and technical consultancy in material related to astronomy and related themes in order to develop projects in the field of R+D+I, technological development, the use of infrastructure and resources, training agreements and activities in the fields of outreach and communication.

The agreement is being worked out in the context of the inception of the future technology centre “IAC-Tech” in the Science and Technology Park of La Laguna, a new area of technological and business cooperation which will use the accumulated knowledge of advanced scientific instrument development, in order to contribute to the industrial development and the commercialization of products of high added value in the Canaries.

INEUSTAR represents industrial companies working in design, engineering, and development, the supply and maintenance of installations, machinery and instrumentation for scientific purposes. Among its objectives are the promotion of programmes of projects and specific technological developments, such as collaboration, from the point of view of scientific industry, with public and private organisms and entities, whose aims coincide with theirs, either completely or partially, notably in the fields of Astronomy and Space Science.

This agreement will consolidate the productive collaboration between the IAC and Spanish industry which has already worked well in many of the installations and projects of this Institute, and in the Canarian Observatories, where industry has participated in their construction and in getting them in working order, as was the case for the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC).

They have been part of this delegation the President of INEUSTAR, Miquel Ángel Carrera (AVS, S.L.), Lander González Larrea (SCIENTIFICA S.L.), Hugo Martínez de la Hidalga (TECNALIA), Juan Carlos Llorente (GMV), and the Director General of INEUSTAR, Francisco Javier Cáceres, accompanied by the Director of the IAC, Rafael Rebolo during their visit to the IAC Headquarters in La Laguna. Juan Ruiz Alzola, Director of the Canarian Agency of Research, Innovation and the Information Society (ACIISI), was also present.

The INEUSTAR delegation will visit the Teide Observatory (Tenerife) this afternoon and, on Tuesday 14th, the Astrophysics Centre of La Palma (CALP) and the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (La Palma).