The mayor of Arona, José Julián Mena, and the rector of the University of La Laguna, Rosa María Aguilar, renewed the collaboration agreement between both institutions for the launch of the third edition of the ARN Innova program, whose epicenter Las Galletas Business Center. The project includes both the training of students in science and technology and support for business innovation.
The ARN Innova program is an initiative that emerged in December 2017, with the aim of “creating a space for meeting and common use in the Las Galletas Business Center, to provide the citizens of Arona with the tools and knowledge necessary to define or improve innovative products and services and promote scientific and technological vocations among the youth and schoolchildren of the municipality».
In this new edition, its work methodology and the celebration of its activities will be extrapolated to all the towns that make up the municipality. To do this, two lines of work are established.
The first of these, the ARN Innova Science and Technology Laboratory, is developed by Cienci@ULL, the ULL’s Scientific Culture and Innovation unit, with the collaboration of researchers from the University of La Laguna. Its main objective is to provide the population with the knowledge and tools necessary to foster creativity and interest in science and technology, especially at an early age. The activities that will be carried out annually will be, among others, the program Get Closer to Science with the ULL in Arona, selected by the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE) for its catalog of good practice projects. It consists of a program of two-hour scientific workshops that are carried out in virtual and face-to-face mode with Primary and Secondary students of the municipality.
The second line of work is the program for entrepreneurs in the municipality. It is carried out by EmprendeULL, the ULL Entrepreneurship Service.
From the celebration of past editions of the ARN Innova program, more than 4,000 people benefited from this initiative, 2,000 per edition (around 1,500 schoolchildren and young people and 500 people interested in starting or innovating in their businesses). In this year’s edition it is expected to exceed these indicators, according to the municipal government.
