Lleida’s Scientific Park, the “agricultural innovation hub of Catalonia”, celebrates its 9th anniversary

Lleida (ACN.) - The Agricultural Science and Technology Park of Lleida (PCiTAL) celebrated its 9^th anniversary on Monday, and did so "reaffirming its commitment to the economic future of Lleida," according to the Mayor Àngel Ros. The park hosts some 111 organisations, comprising of 89 companies, 14 research and development centres and 8 research groups. This constitutes five times the number of businesses that were based in the park just five years ago, representing a 540% growth. Significantly, there are more than 1,400 people employed in the park´s facilities, many of them young people.  The turnover of the Agricultural Science and Technology Park of Lleida has reached €102.5 million, with an annual growth of 30%. 

The Mayor of Lleida, Àngel Ros, described the Science Park of Lleida as a "reference point" for the rest of Spain and Southeast Europe, a centre of wealth and job creation and "an important part of the future of our economic sectors, especially food, technology and broadcasting.” In fact, the Park has been recognized as the agricultural innovation hub of Catalonia, and has been praised by the Catalan Government for its success and excellence.

Ros remarked that the Sceintific Park had absorbed a significant part of the employment needs of Lleida’s young recent graduates with college or vocational training. Also, the mayor of Lleida said that the available space in the Science Park could be developed to accommodate up to “5000 professionals”, under the Gardeny special plan.

One of the park’s greatest achievements in  recent years has been the incorporation of the ‘FruitCentre’ into Lleida’s Scientific Park, a pioneering post-production monitoring centre of fruit in Catalonia,   which currently employs 120 full time researchers across  20 laboratories.

The Scientific Park of Gardeny also encourages entrepreneurship and gives particular attention to generating employment opportunities for young people and seeking funding. Farms found here include the FP Nursery, the TIC Nursery, the Nursery Spin-offs and the nursery of general projects, alongside the centre of audiovisual and multimedia production, Magical,  and a further 41 entrepreneuring companies employing a total of 140 people.

Of particular significance is the FP Nursery, which is currently operating at 100% of its capacity with projects ranging from marketing products, to web services to the industrial production of beer.

It also facilitates the EFICREA development project, and the design of a beer factory for the hospitality sector, which has won the 2013 YUZZ Prize, with a visit to Silicon Valley. Previously Plunge Interactive, another company based in the Park, now consolidated, won the same award.

The Scientific Park provides a network of support and management for a young entrepreneur at the start of his or her career. Notably, several projects from the Park’s network have reached a certain level of recognition or promotion. For example, the 'Feelingprojectes' project on App and Web product development, promoted by a group of young high school students working in the Park’s facilities, has been recognized with a mention at the 2014 International Smart People with Smart Ideas Awards, for its potential to improve the lives of people.

The Scientific Park of Lleida also demonstrates a clear commitment to training and dissemination activities, which involved over 3,800 people in 2014. Moreover, in the last year alone, the Park’s facilities have hosted some76 conferences, meetings or presentations and around 30 guided visits have been made to the Arborètum and Magical premises by companies and other associations.