CIDAUT launches the “OFICINA ACELERA PYME” to drive the adoption of digital technologies by SMEs, self-employers and entrepreneurs.

CIDAUT Foundation has become one of the headquarters of an OFICINA ACELERA PYME (OAP) chosen by Red.es (a public corporate entity belonging to the Ministry of Energy, Tourism and the Digital Agenda –MINETAD-) which depends on the Secretary of State for Information Society and Digital Agenda -SESIAD-) with the aim of promoting the adoption of digital technologies by SMEs, self-employers and entrepreneurs (OAP users) to help their digital transformation, and, with it, the evolution of the economy and society towards a digital environment.

This advanced service is materialized both a physical and virtual space specifically oriented to carrying out support and raising awareness tasks to OAP users about the advantages and innovative methodologies to optimize their businesses operating through the incorporation of the Technologies of the Information and Communications (ICT) in their processes and boosting the data economy and digital content. In this way, the demand for innovative technologies that contribute to improving their productivity will be highly favored.

The ultimate goal is to move towards a new models of economic growth that makes it possible:  the creation of new high quality employments, the maintenance of the current businesses, and the development of new companies/businesses from local entrepreneurs. In the same way, it’s also an objective to encourage women’s digital fluency (understood as the good use and utilization of the technology to acquire more knowledge, be more effective and be better connected in the day-to-day tasks) and to allow a faster reduction of the existing gender gap in companies of our country. These actions cover a large number of technological solutions aim at helping OAP users to advance in their digital transformation processes. Specific attention will be given to: productivity solutions (ERP); e-commerce solutions; customer management solutions (CRM); actions to modernize the business IT infrastructure; cybersecurity solutions; productivity and teleworking solutions; resources to promote digital learning and training;  new digital environments solutions; and, updated information on existing financing instruments on the local, regional and national maps for actions in digitization and industry 4.0.

This action will remain in force until April 2023. It´s co-financed by Red.es (within the Acelera Pyme Program to promote the adoption of technologies by the Spanish companies -including newly created ones-, especially Small and Medium-sized Companies –SMEs-, self-employers and entrepreneurs) and by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) within the framework of Spain’s Multiregional Operational Program FEDER 2014-2020 (POPE) under the slogan “A way to make Europe“.

CIDAUT participates in the conferences “RENEWABLE HYDROGEN IN THE INDUSTRY OF CASTILLA Y LEÓN”

On 16 and 17 March the Ente Regional de la Energía de Castilla y León and the company Tresca Engineering organised the online conferences “RENEWABLE HYDROGEN IN THE INDUSTRY OF CASTILLA Y LEÓN”.

The conference was opened by Mr. Carlos Javier Fernández Carriedo, Minister of Economy and Finance of the Junta de Castilla y León. The agenda was divided into two days and included the virtual presence of experienced speakers from the Ente Regional de Energía de Castilla y León, the European Commission, CNH2-Centro Nacional del Hidrógeno, ICE-Instituto para la Competitividad Empresarial de Castilla y León, CIDAUT, Enagás and Carburos Metálicos.

Europe’s ambitious objective of climate neutrality requires a remodelling of the current energy systems, inevitably towards others that are more environmentally friendly, which, on the other hand, are less manageable than the current ones. This is where hydrogen takes on an absolute protagonism as an energy vector, enabling flexible interconnection between the electricity and gas systems, in addition to achieving the decarbonisation of the economy in its final use.

In July 2020, the European Commission presented the document: “European Hydrogen Strategy: towards a climate-neutral Europe” (EU Hydrogen Strategy), which aims to establish the necessary guidelines to develop the role of clean hydrogen in reducing emissions in the EU economy in an efficient manner. Subsequently, and in line with this document, in September 2020, the Spanish Government published the document “Hydrogen Roadmap: A commitment to renewable hydrogen”, which offers a vision for 2030 and 2050, the aim of which is to ensure the industrial and technological positioning of our economy within the EU framework.

In the industry sector, the main driving force of the economy, there is a commitment to the use of high purity H2 as a raw material in current processes (e.g. refinery, ammonia production, extraction of metals from oxides) from renewable resources and its use to cover high temperature thermal demands (e.g. material fusion processes, ceramic furnaces, cement factories, glass).

Our CIDAUT colleague Jose Ignacio Dominguez had the opportunity to speak about the “DEGREE OF INNOVATION FOR THE USE AND IMPLEMENTATION OF HYDROGEN IN INDUSTRY”, as a key point in the development of the hydrogen technologies.

The conference “Renewable hydrogen in the industry of Castilla y León” highlighted the immense challenge in which we are immersed, the need to undertake the decarbonisation of the industrial sector as soon as possible and the tremendous opportunities that arise for the industry in this context.

 

 

 

Cidaut Foundation and Telefonica subsidiary ElevenPaths sign an agreement to boost efforts around industrial cybersecurity.

Cidaut Foundation and Telefonica subsidiary ElevenPaths sign an agreement to boost efforts around industrial cybersecurity.

In a statement, Cidaut´s ITC-industry 4.0 unit and Telefonica Tech’s cybersecurity unit presented a new project, dubbed ARISTEO, on which they are working together. This collaboration is intended to catch cyber criminals operating in industrial environments aiming to generate intelligence about potential threats for small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) in Spain.

ARISTEO is a real industrial framework which allows the development of connected meta-honeynets; networks consisting of honeypots which run industrial control systems (ICSs) testbeds, thus allowing the collection of much more information on the attacks so attackers “fall into the trap” of thinking they are attacking a real company. These honeypots, classified as high-interaction honeypots, are based on real applications running in real systems. ARISTEO then entertains the attackers to obtain information about them, which is then used to alert customers, analyse security flaws and anticipate potential attacks.

“Examples of open innovation like this are the best way to develop cybersecurity projects, products and services locally, but whose scope is oriented to a global market and are possible because both companies carry innovation in our DNA”, said Jose Cascallana, director at the industrial cybersecurity centre C4IN, Telefonica. Cidaut foundation has provided the infrastructure to develop the pilot. The Industry 4.0 manager, Alvaro Garcia, stated that “the final product will be aimed at the proactive detection of threats and the generation of intelligence, differential elements in the world of cybersecurity, to help SMEs”.

In addition, the agreement between the two groups also establishes a collaboration framework for the development of more research and use cases in industrial cybersecurity, as well as to continue deepening in project ARISTEO, with the integration of the Cidaut demonstrator in the Telefonica demonstrators, of in such a way that both parties can develop, test and evaluate their own and third party tools. This entails holding joint demonstrations carried out in specialised forums and events, as well as allowing the exchange of information from systems exposed to attacks for the application of machine learning and analysis, based on the data obtained.

The companies consider the exchange of knowledge on the real state of industrial cybersecurity, with the SMEs vision of Cidaut, as a center of knowledge (R&D) with a multidisciplinary team that apply concurrent engineering techniques, including industrial processes, and being capable of arriving at the full industrialisation of the best solution, and of Telefonica, as a company that has a proposal for value oriented also to large companies and multinationals. This information will be shared with third parties since the objective is to create a value proposition oriented to the reality of the Spanish industry, satisfying its demand for cybersecurity solutions. Also, this global framework of collaboration between Cidaut and Telefonica is oriented towards future collaboration in both national and European projects.

Both institutions consider the agreement as one more step to achieve the recognition of Castilla y León as a specialized region in the field of cybersecurity.

 

On 25 september 2019, the First Regional Forum on Cybersecurity for SMES and entrepreneurs took place in Salamanca (Spain).

The 1st Regional Cyber Security Forum was organized CIDAUT Foundation, as well as, the Interreg Europe CYBER project partner Institute for Business Competitiveness of Castilla y León (ICE) under the training and support Program for R&D Business Centr@Tec, in collaboration with the General Foundation and the BISITE Research Group of the University of Salamanca, the VIEWNEXT Innovation and the National Cybersecurity Institute (INCIBE). This Forum had aimed to facilitate the development of the regional cybersecurity ecosystem, to encourage the regional entrepreneurship and the attraction of talents to the cybersecurity field. Finally, it also aims to promote the activities of the Regional Cybersecurity Pole.

The official opening of this event was carried out by Mrs. Beatriz Casado (Chief of Innovation and Entrepreneurship of Institute for Business Competitiveness of Castilla y León) and Mr. Enrique Cabero (Vice-rector of Academic Policy and Social Participation at the University of Salamanca).

Next, Mr. Deepak Daswani (Chiefs Security Ambassadors of ELEVENPATHS) presented a global view of the cybersecurity for a competitive industry. Mr. Faustino Nieto (CEO of Productos Ibéricos FANISA SL) showed that cyber-attacks exist across his own personal story. This was followed by a presentation of different successful cases in the cybersecurity context. Different cybersecurity solutions used by the automotive industry and food sector was showed, respectively, by Mr. Álvaro Villarino and Mr. Eduardo Sanz (R&D Project Managers of CIDAUT Foundation) and Mr. Juan Manuel García (CISO of Cerealto Siro Foods). While, Mr. José Alberto García Coria and Mr. Victor Flores (VIEWNEXT) made an applied demonstration of ethical hacking. Subsequently, Mr. Daniel Fírvida (Project Manager at National Cybersecurity Institute – INCIBE) made a presentation on “Industrial cyber-security vs Industry 4.0” and Mr. Miguel Carriegos (Professor at University of Leon) spoke about “Competences, skills and talent management in cyber-security”.

After lunch, Mr. José Francisco de Diego (Regional Manager of Institute for Business Competitiveness of Castilla y León at Salamanca) showed the Interreg Europe CYBER project, and Mr. Tomás Castro (president of the Spanish Cybersecurity Innovation Cluster) made a presentation on the Cybersecurity Innovation HUB.

The Forum proceeded with a discussion panel in which all attendees were encouraged to take part: Mr. Antonio Sahagún (ELEVENPATHS), Mr. Juan Manuel García (CEREALTO SIRO FOODS), Mr. Fernando Pérez (AETICAL), Mr. Manuel Domínguez (UNIVERSITY OF LEÓN), Mr. Benjamín Sahelices (UNIVERSITY OF VALLADOLID), Mr. Javier Martín Limorti (UNIVERSITY OF SALAMANCA) and Mr.  Álvaro García (CIDAUT Foundation).  Finally, Mrs. Beatriz Casado (Chief of Innovation and Entrepreneurship of Institute for Business Competitiveness of Castilla y León) closed the Forum and invited the attendees to participate in the next workshops and events organized under the training and support Program for R&D Business Centr@Tec.

In addition to thematic workshops and panel discussions, a cyber-exercise “Capture the Flag” (CTF) took also place on the day of the event. This cyber exercise provided a forum for the local cybersecurity talents to demonstrate their skills and to be recognized by the cybersecurity stakeholders.

CHEMPLAST, a great experience promoting Innovation in the plastic industry

The CHEMPLAST exhibition took place last November at Madrid, Spain. This was a twofold event, on the one hand challenges and innovations for the chemical industry, and on the other hand, the plastics industry was the focus of the attention. Cidaut had a stand at the fair and contributed actively with several presentations of the material development and processing technologies team.

Left to right: Karina Núñez, head of material development, with Juan Carlos Merino, director of Cidaut, and Maria Teresa Fernández, vice-director of Cidaut.

Three different presentations were held: Manuel Herrero, presented his work on bio polyamides and their modification with nano additives, highlighting that new materials with improved performance and reduced weight can be developed for niche applications.

Blanca Araujo focused her presentation on the challenges and new innovations in thermoplastic structural composites. There is a new generation of composite materials aiming at developing solutions for faster and more efficient manufacturing technologies, combined with improved integration through the research of joining technologies, and completed with improved performance and material functionality. In this sense, Mr. Thierry Renault, from faurecia, presented an inspiring session also on the Chemplast conference in which he reflected on the opportunities, applications and way ahead for these kinds of materials.

Blanca Araujo at the Advanced Composites conference session.

Julia Guerrero focused her presentation on pultrusion, and the opportunities that this technology may provide in the future to recycle different plastic fractions that can be reformulated to provide new market alternatives with a range of different performances depending on the reinforcements used.

Julia Guerrero at the beginning of her presentation

Besides, CIDAUT also took part moderating sessions, with Karina Núñez moderating the session of “obtaining plastic materials from renewable sources, technologies, economic aspects and new markets” in which a very interesting debate was held on the different views about the recycling plastic sector and the role bioplastics should play in it. Blanca Araujo moderated the session titled “New polymers in high technology industries”, and Esteban Cañibano moderated the session “CAD CAE tools and new design optimization”.

Finally, our director, Juan Carlos Merino delivered a presentation at the Labtech Innovation Theatre of the event, reflecting on the different perceptions of the plastics and recycling across industry sectors, highlighting the role of technology centres in fostering new innovation.