The port innovation ecosystem, Cartagena PortLab, will begin a new stage in its role of identifying, developing, and presenting strategic and transformative projects, with the announcement of the tendering for the renewal of a strategic innovation consultancy service for the creation and dynamization of this innovation hub.
The objective of this initiative by the Port Authority is to reinforce the positioning of the port of Cartagena as a tractor agent of innovation in the logistics-port sector, through collaboration with innovative companies, startups, universities, technology centers, and public bodies.
With this action, whose bid submission deadline ends shortly, the Port Authority takes a decisive step in the execution of its Strategic Plan, placing sustainability, digitalization, and innovation at the center of its development model, contributing to the transformation of the port of Cartagena into a reference hub in the Mediterranean.
Cartagena PortLab facilitates, among other functions, channeling and enhancing the value of the innovative talent of the regional environment; preparing and presenting projects to aid programs and European funds linked to sustainability, energy, digitalization, and competitiveness. Another of its functions is to support the port community in identifying funding opportunities and generating an international positioning and communication strategy that positions the port of Cartagena as a reference in port innovation.
Finally, one of Cartagena PortLab’s functions is to promote collaboration between sectors through the Cartagena Port Valley-UPCT Chair, technology companies, startups, and the institutional sphere, through a stable structure that allows for anticipating funding opportunities, preparing projects rigorously, and ensuring their execution.
As Pedro Pablo Hernández, president of the APC, explains, it is a tool to “work in a more integrated manner with the port community and with the agents of the environment,” which allows channeling the talent and innovative knowledge in the Region in order to promote innovative solutions that “improve the efficiency and sustainability of our operations.”
