Both parties sign a collaboration agreement for the development of joint initiatives. The headquarters will be located at the School of Engineering of Algeciras.

The University of Cadiz and Telefónica España have signed a collaboration agreement this morning at the Rectorate for the implementation of joint initiatives that contribute to the development, dissemination and application of new technologies. The signing was attended by the Rector of the UCA, Francisco Piniella, and the Director of the Southern Territory of Telefónica Spain, Joaquín Segovia. With this agreement, the creation of the Blue Economy and Smart Ports Chair is promoted through another specific agreement. The UCA-Telefónica Chair was created as a centre for debate, reflection and research on new information and telecommunications technologies and their impact on society.

The director of Telefónica’s Southern Territory expressed his satisfaction at being part of the UCA, as “the university is the epicentre of thought and culture”. He also stressed that “public-private relations are very effective, as companies can help to complete the transfer of knowledge, aligning the research carried out by research groups in universities with the opportunities that these represent for companies, achieving, between all of us, innovation with impact”.

For his part, the Rector of the UCA pointed out that with this Chair “we want to consolidate a strategic alliance with Telefónica in an area that we consider a priority: the blue economy and the development of intelligent ports”. These days, he specified, “we are making progress, precisely, with the organisation of the II International Meeting on Knowledge and the Blue Economy (InnovAzul), where, as in the first edition, we hope to once again count on the participation of Telefónica”. It is part of the objectives of the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals, entrepreneurship and digitisation, not only set by the University of Cadiz but also through the European alliance of the European University of the Seas SEA-EU.

In this context, “today we are creating this new Chair with the best possible ally. Hand in hand with a leading company in the field of new information technologies and telecommunications such as Telefónica. An innovative company that is socially involved with the region”. With it, he concluded, we are going to work, from the School of Engineering of Algeciras, in an area where the UCA is a reference in teaching, research and transfer: the blue economy. We are the only Spanish university where all official university studies related to the sea can be taken. Among them, our Masters in Port Management and Logistics, in Maritime Transport and in Logistics and Operations Management (the latter will be incorporated into the academic offer of the UCA in the new academic year 2022/23)”. Without forgetting, he detailed, “a unique strength: we are the coordinating university of the Campus of International Global Excellence of the Sea (CEI-Mar) and the alliance of the European University of the Seas” and we have led, hand in hand with companies such as Telefónica, the Andalusian platform for the Blue Economy”.

The Telefónica Blue Economy and Smart Ports Chair of the UCA, based at the ETSI of Algeciras, joins the network of chairs of the University of Cadiz which, between them, add up to a total of more than 15 alliances with reference companies in their fields of activity and which constitute a priority line of action in the innovation and transfer strategy of the UCA with the main economic, industrial, business and social agents of the environment.

The Telefónica Chairs Network was born in 2001 and currently has 24 chairs in 26 Spanish universities thanks to the integration of the University of Cadiz. It is the largest network in Spain, which serves as an instrument for training, research and knowledge transfer with a common objective: the promotion of new information and communication technologies (ICT) in society.

The event was attended by the vice-rectors of Educational Policy and Science and Technology Policy of the UCA, Eva Garrido and Mª Jesús Mosquera, respectively, as well as the director of Public Administrations in Andalusia of Telefónica Spain, Rafael Expósito, the head of Digital Transformation South, José Antonio González, and the assistant to the Southern Territorial Management, Cristina Lirio.