The regional Executive faces a difficult decision this week due to the dispute between Gran Canaria, Tenerife and Fuerteventura to house the future headquarters of the Spanish Space Agency. The Governing Council has to choose, following a technical report, the island that will lead the Canary Islands candidacy. The deadline given by Ministry of Territorial Policy, who drives Elizabeth Rodriguezto compete with other locations in the country for the Spanish NASA culminates in eight days, that is, on November 7. According to the criteria of the ministerial order, it will be positively valued that if there is more than one proposal in an autonomous community, the Governing Council of that region indicates “the preference order of each one of the localities”, a complicated paper taking into account the rivalry that has always existed in these matters in the Islands.
The Canary Agency for Research, Innovation and Information Society (Aciisi), dependent on the Ministry of Economy, Employment and Knowledge of the Government, it is in charge of carrying out the “non-binding reasoned report” with its technical evaluations of the candidacies that have already been presented. In principle, the Aciisi only asked the councils of the capital islands to formulate their proposals before from October 20 to have time to prepare the report and submit it to the Governing Council, because they were the only ones that had a plenary agreement showing their interest in hosting the Space Agency.
But Fuerteventura Town Hall has joined this race for the new center, and approved in its Governing Council on October 21 the presentation of its candidacy, and ratified this agreement in the plenary session last Friday. In fact, last week he sent his proposal to the Canarian Executive, although one day after the deadline that the Aciisi had given to the two city councils. However, the Majorero president, Serge Lloret, understand that that date of October 20 is merely verbal, since there is no resolution of the Canarian Government where any term is established. The only valid date is November 7 embodied in the ministerial order, therefore, they are on time, he alleges.
In any case, this insular corporation agreed in Friday’s plenary session to present directly to the Ministry your candidacy, regardless of the report of the Canarian Government. However, Lloret hopes that the Aciisi will also value his proposal, like that of Tenerife and Gran Canaria, although it may not be chosen as the preferred island.
great silence
The Aciisi is carrying out the evaluation with great silence. will be the Governing Council, expected next Thursday, who decides how to present the candidatures. The bases indicate that they can be formulated by the Community or by local institutions. Therefore, it may be that the councils attend on their own and the Government only issues a report to the Ministry of Territorial Policy or the Community presents the Canarian proposals, although in order of preference.
All in all, whoever the island is that heads the candidacy, if it is chosen by the State, it will benefit all of them, given the synergies in the research and aerospace sector of the Archipelago. The three island corporations believe that they more than meet the precise criteria established in the call to host this new body.
The The future Space Agency will have a budget of 500 million euros, and will initially have 70 highly qualified employees. The The State’s objective is for the agency to be operational in the first quarter of 2023, so those applications that offer facilities of about 3,000 square meters available to be occupied from the beginning of said period, and that have a wide network of access to public transportation, digital connectivity or are less than an hour from an international airport. It will also be appreciated that they have trains of high speed (AVE) for the transfer of workers.
Likewise, the Ministry wants there to be an adequate hotel environment that allows the accommodation of institutional and work visits, as well as for the agency to be supported by a nearby “dynamic” business, educational and university sector. Teruel Exists has complained that the bases exclude them.
Canary Islands Values
The Canary Islands do not have an AVE but they do have airports that fulfill this function and solid land and sea transport. Majorero president, Serge Lloret, believes that it seems that there are criteria that are not made for the Islands, but even so, he believes that they have many possibilities due to their skies, climate, connectivity, their leading aerospace research projects, their service infrastructures and research centers and, as a bonus, it would be the first space agency close to Africa, with the demands that African countries are beginning to make in earth observation, defense and communications. The Archipelago is going to have tough competition. Seville is making a very strong commitment to be the venue, and there is also Huelva, Elche, León, or Puertollano (Ciudad Real) from La Mancha, where Minister Isabel García coincidentally was mayor.
Proposal of the Cabildo of Gran Canaria
The Cabildo de Gran Canaria offers four possible venues: the first is made up of Casa Fuentes, in Ciudad Jardín, next to the ICT Demonstration Center and the Bandama de Infecar Auditorium. The other alternative venues are: the Scientific-Technological Park of the ULPGC, Infecar, the Intelsat Station in La Goleta-Piletas (Agüimes) and the Faro 2 shopping center in Maspalomas.
Gran Canaria airport meets the connectivity criteria: 123 international destinations and, among others, 101 connections a week with Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Frankfurt, Prague and Toulouse, cities required by the ministerial order.
The Cabildo includes the 9,895 establishments (hotel and non-hotel) and the 138,844 places that the Island has.
The university, business clusters, 320 researchers, the Technological Science Park, the ITC, or the INTA (National Institute of Aerospace Technology).
Council of Tenerife
The Cabildo de Tenerife proposes the Tenerife Science and Technology Park (PCTT) as its headquarters, which has various enclaves that have large spaces, such as training rooms, meeting rooms or an auditorium, as well as laboratories or a gym and spaces intended for the installation of large companies and multinationals.
It has two airports: Los Rodeos and Reina Sofía, located in the southern area. Its main destinations are Spain, with more than 1,000 direct flights per week, in addition to international destinations, operated mainly by the Reina Sofía airport.
In total, there are 203 hotels in Tenerife in addition to the extensive non-hotel plant. The accommodation offer is 122,273 beds.
The Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands, which manages the Teide Observatory and has the Great Telescope. In addition, the Anaga supercomputer or the Technological and Renewable Energy Institute.
Fuerteventura Town Hall
The Cabildo de Fuerteventura offers the Island’s Technological Park as its headquarters, with 300,000 urbanized square meters, and adds the “immediate” availability of the Building for the Promotion of Knowledge and Technology Transfer and the ongoing construction of the Multipurpose Building and the Process Center of data.
Fuerteventura airport has 400 weekly national and international air connections, with flights to all the places requested in the bases, apart from its maritime connections.
The Cabildo de Fuerteventura indicates that the Island has 133 hotel establishments that offer 60,160 beds.
The corporation puts its leading aerospace projects as its strength, such as the Canarias Geo Innovation Program 2030 earth observation program and, within it, the construction of a stratoport for the launch of pseudo-satellites and drones, among others.
