University studies in technologies, audiovisuals, video games, business and health focused on the professional world and entrepreneurship

The aim of this call is the funding of research projects aimed both at promoting the generation and significant progress of scientific knowledge and research of proven quality, as well as progress in the search for solutions to society's challenges . 

The funded project, which will be implemented during the period 2024-2028, addresses the growing challenge of distinguishing between human-generated content and artificially generated content, particularly in the context of handwritten signs. On the one hand, the main motivation of the project arises from the growing sophistication of artificial intelligence (AI) systems when it comes to producing content that faithfully imitates human creations, which poses risks in the applications of e -security and e-health based on online writing signals.

On the other hand, the project will advance e-safety and e-health applications, with a special emphasis on e-health and important pathologies where handwritten signs have proven to have great assessment and detection capabilities, such as: a) Parkinson's disease b) Alzheimer's disease c) Dysgraphia d) Fatigue analysis e) Depression, anxiety, stress f) and various respiratory diseases such as COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). The proposal also extends the discussion to watermarks in biometric signals, emphasizing their application in insurance and e-health contexts to prevent replay attacks. 

In conclusion, the WATERWRITTEN project seeks to advance watermarking techniques specifically designed for handwritten online signs, contributing to ongoing efforts to protect e-health and safety applications against the challenges posed by AI-generated content, as well as protection against replay attacks. 

With the financing and execution of this project, the participation of the TecnoCampus research groups in calls for proposals that promote, in addition to the scientific objectives themselves, the creation of a critical mass necessary to face the challenges facing the research and society in general.

With the conference held by the Escola Superior de Propaganda i Marketing and Universidad Federal Fluminense, in Brazil, twenty years of this network are commemorated. With the organization of this conference, the first of the network in Latin America, Maria Luna, a member of the network since 2014, closes, together with professor Åsa Jernudd, from the University of Örebro, in Sweden , his stage in management in the coordination team that organized the conferences in Rome (2022) and Mataró (2023), organized with the support of the Narratives of Resistance research group and the TecnoCampus research office, and Rio de Janeiro (2024), with Talitha Ferraz and Matthew Jones. 

The conference has emphasized the need for the integration of various theoretical perspectives and the knowledge of impact studies and actions related to research and the construction of the memory of cinema audiences. 

Promoted by the TecnoCampus Chair of Social Economy and with the official title of Pompeu Fabra University, this is the first official master's degree in this field in Catalonia, and allows access to doctoral programs. Caixa Enginyers and TUSGSAL provide 4 scholarships (three and one respectively) for a total value of 12.000 euros. Both entities are very committed to the field of social economy and clearly want to bet on people who can study in this field.

The scholarships from the Caixa Enginyers Foundation they have a total endowment of €9.000, distributed in three scholarships of €3.000 each, as well as an Award for the best final master's thesis for the 24/25 academic year endowed with €1.000. TUSGSAL offers a scholarship of €3.000 for master's students for the academic year 2024-25. 

The scholarships are aimed at students admitted to the master's program, who must present a letter of motivation and the academic certificate. The applicant's file note will be a relevant aspect in the assessment. The deadline for submitting applications for these scholarships ends on September 6, 2024 at 14 p.m. These calls represent a unique opportunity for those interested in training in an area with a great social and professional impact.

ESED's goal is to provide accessible, efficient and proximity solutions, offering advanced cybersecurity services such as: anti-phishing solutions, firewalls, antivirus with AI technology, cybersecurity tools to prevent data leakage (WWatcher.com) and find vulnerabilities and security breaches automatically (Petam.io), specialized technical support, IT security training, among other services for SMEs and large companies. 

"In Central Catalonia there is a lot of industry, local and local industry, that is looking for nearby suppliers, who offer them treatment and services like the ones they offer. And this is our goal with the new headquarters", explains Esteban Sardanyés, co-founder of ESED. "On the other hand, for companies that are outside the metropolitan area, finding professionals or specialists in cyber security and IT solutions is a handicap", adds Eduard Bardají, co-founder of the company.

The new location will allow businesses in the area to easily access the services needed to protect their operations and data comprehensively. And to local talent, benefit from new job opportunities. With this expansion, ESED reaffirms its commitment to bring innovation and digital security to Berguedà companies, ensuring that they are protected against the growing cyber threats of recent years.

The event began with the Pitch Competition, a space where the four finalist TecnoCampus university entrepreneurship projects had the opportunity to present their projects in a five-minute pitch: Veja de Pau Cruz, a SaaS platform that automates Venture Capital operations. Storymakers by Carles Rigat and Almansa, which connects brands with digital content creators for more authentic communications. ClosetID by Ona Moreno Abascal, a mobile application that digitizes the closet and offers personalized outfit suggestions with AI., and the winner, Novus Arte by Jasha Berkenbosch, which connects young art lovers with artists and cultural institutions in around the world. Afterwards, the Reverse Pitches took place by experts such as Maite Fibla Gasparin from Ship2B Ventures, Antonio H. from Inveready, Merce Tell from Encomenda Capital Partners SGEIC, Francisco Badia Ortega from Grow Venture Partners, and Mireia Núñez from Prado i Escarrà by WA4STEAM. 

During the event, a space was opened for the Networking Cafe, a strategic break aimed at encouraging direct interaction between entrepreneurs and investors. This time served to establish contacts, discuss possible collaborations and explore funding opportunities in a more relaxed and less formal atmosphere. The day continued with the Investment Forum, where six startups selected from the TecnoCampus ecosystem presented their projects to potential investors.

These startups, chosen for their high growth potential and innovative capacity, had the opportunity to make an elevator pitch, a concise and persuasive presentation to capture the interest of investors in a short space of time. Accountali, a SaaS for Amazon accounting management. HandPoem, which has developed a smart glove for athletes. Scrads, an AI solution for customer service. Coresys Health, with medical devices for the detection of sepsis. Trendimensional, a digital fashion platform with generative AI. Biel Glasses, glasses with technology to improve the mobility of people with low vision. 

Investment Day aims to facilitate access to financing for entrepreneurs, while creating a more robust and connected ecosystem between all actors in the entrepreneurial and investment field.

Read the news published in La Vanguardia

Startup Capital is a direct aid offered by ACCIÓ for emerging technology startups that need financing to carry out the initial phases of the business, develop their product or service and validate the business model to reach the market. 

It is a highly competitive grant, in which the 2024 call has a budget of two million euros, which finances only 20 Catalan startups. The startup of the TecnoCampus business community Banting Labs is one of the 20 startups that has obtained this grant for lost funds. Banting Labs, a project located in the TecnoCampus Incubator, is led by two TecnoCampus alumni: David Reyes, graduate in ADE and innovation management and CEO of the company; and Àxel Rico, an engineer with a double degree in electronics and mechanics, who performs the functions of CTO. 

Banting Labs was born from the Hoop Diabetes university project, with the aim of improving the quality of life of people with type 1 diabetes, when a family member of the team is diagnosed with this disease. Banting Labs is developing non-invasive real-time measurement technology to analyze and monitor biomarkers and/or molecules. The first product it aims to bring to market is the integrated multi-sensor that provides real-time blood glucose readings.

The program, organized with the support of the Maresme Foundation, is part of the VII Call for the development of university training programs for employment aimed at young people with intellectual, developmental and/or autism spectrum disabilities enrolled in the National Youth Guarantee System. Unidiversity 2023-2024. The training has been promoted and financed by the ONCE Foundation and the European Social Fund. 

The course, which took place at the TecnoCampus from September to June with a total duration of 330 hours, included master classes and inclusive with the health and business degrees, workshops, tutorials and internships in companies such as Carrefour, Sprinter, Eurodepot , TecnoCampus Foundation, Iluro Hotel, Musicoop, Sacred Heart of Jesus College, Training and Prevention Center Association, Masley & Lemans, among others.

This training has contributed to improving the employability of the young participants by providing them with transversal skills, such as social and emotional skills, and specific skills, such as the technical knowledge necessary for their future professions. In addition to academic training, the course has included university life activities and an inter-university meeting with other Catalan universities, allowing both students and teachers to share experiences about the different programs. 

During the closing ceremony, Elisa Sayrol, academic director of the TecnoCampus, took part; Isabel Martínez, Director of Universities and Talent Promotion Inserta Empleo; Carme Marti Julia, Director of Business Development and Projects of Fundació Maresme; Beatriz Delgado, Councilor for Education, Vocational Training, University and Sports of Mataró City Council; and Miguel Guillén, academic coordinator of the specialization course. Elisa Sayrol opened the event by highlighting the importance of the course: "Contributing to the employment of the participants of this group was the challenge of the program and we have succeeded."

Students Hossam Ait Aissa, Gerard Pastor and Joan Dima Ariaca were chosen to represent their classmates: "We want to thank on behalf of all the students all the teachers who have guided and helped us in this course." The awarding of diplomas was carried out by Isabel Martínez, Carme Marti, Beatriz Delgado and Miguel Guillén. Councilwoman Beatriz Delgado closed the event by dedicating a few words to the students: "The diploma is the fruit of your effort and I'm sure it's a passport to employment." After the event, students, families and speakers celebrated with an appetizer. 

Registrations are now open for the next edition of the I-Talent course 2024-2025. For more information, click here.

The Creatic awards consist of three main categories: the award for the best projects in the field of technology and innovation, the award for the best project presented by TecnoCampus students, and the award for the best entrepreneurial project of VET students from the educational centers of Mataró In the framework of the first category, the award will be given to the best business initiative in the field of technology and innovation, which has a cash prize of €12.000 and a year of subsidized stay in a of the TecnoCampus business incubators. In addition, two additional prizes will be awarded: the prize for the best business initiative led by women and the prize for the best project with impact (economic, social, environmental), both endowed with €6.000 and a year of subsidized stay in a of the incubators. 

Participation is open to companies established in 2024 or projects with the intention of being established during the first semester of 2025. To do so, applications can be submitted until October 3. In a first selection phase, a committee made up of representatives of the TecnoCampus and other collaborating entities will be in charge of selecting the twelve finalist projects. Subsequently, the finalists will have the opportunity to present their projects in an elevator pitch format in front of a jury, which will be in charge of choosing the winners. 

This year, the awards have a special look towards new solutions in strategic areas such as health, ICT, cyber security, 3D printing and other technologies for Industry 4.0, blue economy, circular economy and the video game industry. These sectors are of vital importance for the development and future of our territory, and we seek to recognize those entrepreneurs who are innovating and generating a positive impact in these areas. 

The awarding of prizes, in all its categories, will take place during the Night of Entrepreneurship, which will be celebrated in the month of November, and which is the annual meeting point of the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the Maresme, and during the which will also be delivered AntenaTrenLab awards, the call for which has also recently opened. It is important to highlight that the Creatic Awards have the financial support of ten companies and entities committed to the sustainable growth of our environment. 

These companies are ESED-Cyber ​​Security & IT Solutions in the platinum category, FYR Legal, Minoryx Therapeutics, Palobiofarma and Banco Sabadell in the gold category, Ambit BST, Eurecat and Setitem in the Silver category and Derecho.com and Ambisort in the bronze category . In addition to the companies that act as patrons, the Diputació de Barcelona, ​​the Generalitat De Catalunya, and the New Information and Communication Technology Companies Group of Mataró and Maresme are supporting the initiative ( GENTIC), the Independent Association of Young Entrepreneurs of Catalonia (AIJEC), the Maresme Federation of Associations and Business Guilds (FAGEM), the Dona't un impuls Association, the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, and the organization business PIMEC.

The two awards have been sponsored by the company Schunk and the company Kriter Software, respectively. The winners were: 

• For the Prize in the category of High School Research Projects, the evaluation committee has decided to award the first prize, endowed with €500, from the sponsorship of the company Schunk, to the work Home automation: everyday technology, by Hugo Polo Prat, from Escoles Freta de Mataró, tutored by Professor Esteve Vallmajor Comas. A Diploma of Access to the Award has been granted in the form of High School Research Work a Is it possible to create a low-cost robotic arm with a home 3D printer?, presented by Marcel Vilaró Morancho, from the Vilatzara Institute in Vilassar de Mar, tutored by Professor Jaume Linares Naranjo. 

• For the Prize in the category of Projects at the end of a higher degree training cycle, the evaluation committee decides to award the first prize, endowed with €500 from the sponsorship of the company Kriter Software, to the project Passive Water Collector, by David Benitez Casacuberta, from the Municipal Labor School Institute of Granollers, tutored by Professor Rafa Aranda Amezcua.

  The awards were presented by the representatives of the companies Roger Marfà Miró, from Schunk, and Marc Mora Aparicio, COO of Kriter Software.

  Elisa Sayrol Clols, director of the TecnoCampus university center, presided over the event, giving access and making a speech. The final debate was given by Julián Horrillo Tello, director of the Technology Department of the TecnoCampus. 

Specifically, he participated in the inaugural round table entitled "Comic and science", accompanied by Charo Sabariegos, from the University of Castilla-La Mancha, specialist in graphic medicine, Álvaro Pons, from the University of Valencia, co-director of the Chair of Comic Studies Fundació SM, and Noelia Ibarra, from the University of Valencia, who acted as moderator, and who is the president of the recently created Academic Society of Comic Studies. 

In the talk, Ojeda described his experience as head of the "Comics, science and technology" project, which he has directed since the 1997-1998 academic year, and which aims to facilitate the dissemination and debate about science and technology in society, as well as promoting scientific and technological vocations, using comics as a pedagogical tool, and with accessible and free results. He has made fifty exhibitions in addition to conferences, presentations and conferences at different events, and has published more than 600 communications between books, book chapters and articles in different media. Ojeda has joined as a member of the Sociedad Acadèmica d'Estudis del Còmic (SAEC), created in 2024, which aims to promote research and academic teaching in the field of comics. It collaborates with different media and film and comic festivals, and has a fixed section in digital media such as Catalunya Plural, El Diari de l'Educació, El Diari de la Sanitat and El Diari del Treball.

Globally, the center exceeds for another year the figure of one thousand students assigned in the June pre-registration, who will be able to start enrolling in the center from this same Friday, July 12. Specifically, there are 1.085 students assigned in this phase of the pre-registration.

In eleven of the fifteen degree programs, the demand exceeds the offer of places, which is why the degrees in Nursing (8,680), AdE and Marketing (8,440), Physiotherapy (8,240), and Activity Sciences have cut marks Physics and Sport-CAFE (8,180), Physiotherapy and CAFE (7,710), AdE (7,480, AdE in English (7,206), Computer Science (6,796), Logistics (6,240), Marketing (6,204) and industrial engineering, in the Mechanics, Electronics and Industrial Organization specialties (5,732).

It should be noted that there were 827 first-preference applications, which shows that the TecnoCampus is consolidating itself as a center of reference in the Catalan university system thanks to the uniqueness of the offer, focused on degrees with a clear professional orientation, and elements such as entrepreneurship and internationalization, present in all studies. 

La registration for the next year for new students will begin this same Friday, July 12, following the calendar that can already be consulted on the web. 

The TecnoCampus makes available to students who have been assigned a place at the center the Student Information Point, through which they can resolve doubts related to the registration process. 

TrenLab antenna presented this morning the Demo Day of the winning solutions of the Antena TrenLab Awards 2023. The event took place in the Antena TrenLab space at the TecnoCampus, and the companies were able to show their innovative solutions. 

During the day, the selected startups showed their projects in front of Antena TrenLab's collaborating institutions, including Renfe, Mataró City Council and TecnoCampus, as well as invited companies. This event marked the culmination of an intensive six-month acceleration process, during which the startups IUrban, Massfactory and Einsmer refined their business models and technologies through proof of concept. 

In addition to the presentations of the startups, the call for the Antena TrenLab 2024 Awards has been officially presented. This day offered a unique opportunity to get to know first-hand the innovations that are transforming the mobility sector. 

The solutions presented are the following: 

• iUrban: Rodalink solution. GPT tourism chatbot that informs in 95 different languages. It uses artificial intelligence to inform, register and attract tourists, creating automated reports to better understand tourists and their interests. 
• MassFactory: App&Town Compagnon solution. Application for mobility that enables people with functional diversity (physical, cognitive or sensory), "silvercitizens" and other fragile groups to use public transport independently. 
• Einsmer: Mobility7 solution. Application with a set of guidelines and specific actions with a technological base aimed at preventing situations of harassment and offering support to people in vulnerable situations. The three companies offer innovative technological solutions to improve the experience of different groups of people, focusing on digitization, artificial intelligence and social inclusion. 

The Department of Communication Studies of the Rovira i Virgili University (URV) has held a seminar entitled "Tableros y pantallas: la encrucijada del juego de mesa en el siglo XXI", dedicated to research on board games as artefacts cultural, historical and communicative. 

The seminar, which had the participation of experts such as Joan Josep Pons, Víctor Navarro and Antoni Planells, dealt with topics such as the history of board games, the current state of the industry, the imagination of worlds in board games table and digital hybrids in this area. The presentations will be collected in a book to be published soon

El Lenin International Congress: Self-determination, Technique and Power it was held on June 26, 27 and 28 in the Catalan capital. In this work, Guillén works on the conception that Vladimir Ilich Ulianov, Lenin, had around cooperativism, to which he dedicated different writings a hundred years ago. 

Through these works it is possible to establish points of connection with the current cooperative reality. Approximately one hundred participants debated for three days around Lenin's writings as a contemporary author, in order to present a critical and updated balance of his figure and his work, around three specific themes: self-determination, technique and power 

Seven plenary sessions and fourteen workshops were held, in which different presentations and academic communications were presented. This international congress has been organized by the Department of Philosophy of the University of Barcelona (UB) and has had the collaboration of the Catalan Society of Philosophy (Subsidiary of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans, IEC), Transform! Europe, Center for Studies Unitat Popular, Fundació Neus Català, Fundación de Investigaciones Marxistas, Fundación Terra e Tempo, Iratzar and Center for Culture and Documentation of the Catalan Countries. 

The president of the organizing committee was Professor Roger Castellanos Corbera, from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Barcelona (UB) and the Catalan Society of Philosophy (IEC).

On Monday, July 8, the series premieres on TV3 Vintage, a co-production of 3Cat and Brutal Media created by Juan Cruz, Rafel Barceló, Júlia Cot and Enric Pardo and directed by David Martín Porras and Elia Urquiza. Professor Rafael Suárez, from the Degree in Audiovisual Media, was part of the technical filming team in the lighting department. 

The event was attended by students, teachers and family members, and seven awards were presented: Best 2on project, Best Design Award, Technical Excellence Award, Best Art Award, Best Sounding Award (a work done in collaboration with students of the Degree in Audiovisual Media), Audience Award and Best Video Game Award for the Industry. 

This year, as a novelty, a category with the Best Production Award has been added. The winners were chosen by the teachers of the subjects, by popular vote among the students in the case of the Audience Award and by the developer Xavi Alsina lead UX Designer at Scopely, in the case of the Best Video Game Award for the Industry. Winners were awarded Steam Digital Store Cards. 

Project subjects are transversal subjects that include all the knowledge of design, art and programming that students have acquired throughout the course. And in the case of Projects III, also production knowledge. Students, mostly in groups of five or six, create, design and develop a video game. And they do this in a record time of 10 weeks. All of this makes teamwork a core value in these subjects, without neglecting the responsibilities of each member of the team, each with an assigned role. The teachers of Projects II are Jordi Arnal, Pau Sánchez and Albert Ramón López. Those from Projects III, Dani Candil, Rafa González and Javier Untoria. The Audio Post-production professors of the Degree in Audiovisual Media are Antoni Satué and Àngel Valverde. The participating projects in this edition can be consulted and played at showroom of the degree.

List of winners: 

• Best sophomore project: Funky Era Authors: Roger Arboles, Marta Badia, Javier Jimenez, Carlos Molina, Adrià Polanco. 
• Best Design Award: Polarized Authors: Francisco Secchi, Francesc Torrus, Xavier Teixer, Aleix Muñoz, Hug Riba, Carles Silvestre, Carla Sánchez. 
• Technical Excellence Award: MyTosis Authors: Marc Sans, Aran Piris, Paula Ruiz, Ian Roche, Ruben, Eduard Sales, Sergio Guerrero. 
• Best Art Award: MyTosis Authors: Marc Sans, Aran Piris, Paula Ruiz, Ian Roche, Ruben, Eduard Sales, Sergio Guerrero. 
• Award for Best Sound Recording: Sakki Authors: Adrián Carro, Paola Deza, Paula Moreno, Mario Ruiz, Maria Goretti Faura, Claudia López, Mar Vico. 
• Best Production Award: Rocket Girl Authors: Adrià López, Pablo Escribano, Guillem Tió, Joel Jolis, Aleix Ferriz, Pablo Fuertes. 
• Audience Award: Requiem for a Beat Authors: Jan Campalans, Nil Puigdemont, Aroa Ochoa, Elijah Cano, Júlia Castro, Ruben Zuñiga. 
• Best Video Game Award for the Industry: MyTosis Authors: Marc Sans, Aran Piris, Paula Ruiz, Ian Roche, Ruben, Eduard Sales, Sergio Guerrero.

Meet Catalunya is a biennial event organized by the Catalan Tourism Agency, focused on meeting tourism, which offers the Catalan sector the possibility of meeting multiple international clients in just one day. 

Participating buyers are carefully selected and invited by the Catalonia Convention Bureau through the external offices of the Catalan Tourist Board. This edition has been dedicated to sustainability, reflecting the country's commitment to environmental responsibility and the conscious planning of events. 

During Meet Catalunya, several activities were carried out such as workshops, familiarization visits, networking, presentations and conferences. The main objective of Meet Catalunya is to promote Catalonia as a tourist destination and to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and experiences between professionals of the sector, contributing to the development and strengthening of the tourism industry. 

These awards are aimed at both entrepreneurs with a business idea and young companies in the textile sector with an innovative value proposition that respects the environment. There are tno categories with which we want to recognize the best value proposition based on sustainability or circular economy, textile functionality and digital technology.

In the category of sustainable proposal or circular economy, the reduction in the use of natural resources in production, utilization of pre-consumer or post-consumer waste, elimination of the negative impact on the environment, among other proposals, will be evaluated that favor sustainability or circularity in the textile value chain. In the next category, that project will be valued that commits to the integration of functionality in the textile product, either through technology and interactivity (sensors and/or actuators), such as for example luminescent fabric or thermoregulating clothing; through the use of materials, textile structure, finishes or innovative functionalization processes that bring specific properties to the product, for example the improvement of thermal management, absorption capacity, antibacterial properties, mechanical resistance, etc. The category of digital business model consists of the incorporation of digital technologies in some element of the business model, for example purchase, production, logistics, sale, relationship with customers; others. 

There will be one single winner for each category with a prize of €3.000 in cash. Also, the prize winners too they will enjoy other important benefits that will help them boost their business projects: 50% bonus for 1 year to stay in the coworking space of the Reimagine Textile incubator, pattern service and making 2 samples per year, free access to the photo set completely equipped and in the FabLab for experimentation and prototyping, technological advice, search for financing, access to specific training and sector information and a year 100% bonus in the membership fee of ASEGEMA. In addition, the winners of each category will also opt for one additional prize of €2.000 in cash as INNOVATION PROJECT PLUS to whoever brings the most added value to society in terms of innovation and/or sustainability. 

The nominations for the awards can be submitted until July 30. In a first selection phase, a technical committee made up of representatives of the entities promoting the awards will select the 15 finalist projects. Subsequently, the finalists will have to present the project in an elevator pitch format to the jury, which will choose the winners. 

The award ceremony will take place as part of the TEX & TECH by Reimagine Textile conference on October 17 in the TecnoCampus auditorium. The event will begin with a topical presentation on the immediate future of the textile sector, followed by case studies of start-ups that have opted for innovation as a competitive advantage, and there will also be technological demos by companies outstanding companies that have developed innovative solutions for industrial processes focusing on digitization and sustainability. 

The Reimagine Textile Awards are organized by the TecnoCampus Mataró-Maresme Foundation, the Mataró City Council, EURECAT and ASEGEMA, with the support of the Diputació de Barcelona, ​​the Generalitat de Catalunya through the PECT Tèxtil del Maresme (FEDER fund) and the col· collaboration of patron companies.

Jordi Bolet Castellà, director of the Mataró chapter of Startup Grind, highlighted this year's success: "This year's edition exceeded all our expectations. We managed to increase attendance compared to the previous year and improve the quality of the panels for the invited companies". 

The convention was attended by politicians, entrepreneurs, investors and technology experts from around the world. Figures such as Romuald Fons, CEO and founder of BIGSEO stand out; Cecilia Tham, CEO of Futurity Systems; or Víctor Gaspar, CSO of Multiverse Computing.

The main theme of the presentations was "humanizing Artificial Intelligence", with presentations on the relationship between AI and nature, social impact projects and quantum computing. In the Pitch Competition the projects Scrads, Chatty Insights and Enterprelearners stood out as winners. Jordi Bolet Castellà, concluded: "The success of this event demonstrates the importance of connecting the local entrepreneurial ecosystem with international knowledge, thus promoting innovation and the creation of new projects."

Read the news in La Vanguardia.

Mataró City Council has taken over the vice-presidency at state level of the Association of European Textile Collectives (ACTE), a strategic positioning that should generate new opportunities to add value for the city. Mataró's candidacy has the unanimous support of all the Catalan ACTE members and he will lead the position, for 4 years, at the hands of TecnoCampus. 

The vice-presidencies are the executive representation of the countries that are part of it and Sweden currently holds the presidency. ACTE is a network formed by around 30 European municipalities, which represent a population of around 2.000.000 inhabitants. These are cities that have in common a strong relationship with the textile sector and with the desire to promote initiatives to improve the textile and fashion industry with the aim of developing a prosperous and sustainable business segment.

Mataró joined the ACTE association in 1993 and during the 2014-2016 period consecutively shared the state vice-presidency with the Igualada City Council. This newly opened vice-presidency confirms the Mataró City Council's commitment to the textile sector and that it fits with the strategic vision of the city and with the drive for the intelligent specialization of certain economic sectors, technological innovation being the basis of the competitiveness of the different sectors, including textiles. Mataró stands out for its long tradition in the textile sector. Despite having gone through several crises, the sector remains and confirms its strength by remaining as the nerve center of Catalan textiles. 

Textiles in Mataró 

Some data (2023 from the Mataró Observatory) relating to the textile and clothing sector in Mataró show a sector that represents 50,4% (234 companies) of the city's industry. A sector that maintains a structure with a clear predominance of small and micro-companies, 80% of which have no more than 9 employees, and that employs 2.120 people, which represents 41,9% of employment in the industry from the city. 

Initiatives underway:

• Mataró Circular 2030. With the aim of accelerating the transition towards a circular model and turning Mataró into a city of reference at county and state level, and placing itself on the map of circular European Mediterranean cities.
• TEXAD project (2024-2028). To prepare European municipalities to deal with the new battery of European regulations and standards that will enter into force in 2025 and which will oblige all European municipalities to collect textile waste separately. 
• ReimagineTextile (since 2019). Business innovation program aimed at the Maresme textile sector promoted within the framework of the Mataró-Maresme PECT. It is the strategic bet that aims to grow and reinvent the textile and fashion sector in Catalonia in terms of innovation, technology and sustainability.
• Cooperatextil (since 2013). It is the digital platform for professional solutions in the textile sector, which connects supply and demand for textile production.
   

History of the ACTE association

This textile association was founded in Portugal in 1991 and is one of the first associations of local authorities at European level. Its founding purpose is to defend the interests of territorial communities and the organizations they represent in territories with a presence in the textile, clothing, leather, footwear and fashion accessories sector. The association is made up of local and regional administrations, technology centers and universities, chambers of commerce and business and trade union organizations. 

ACTE Spain currently has 13 members. The main aim is to ensure that the European industries in the area thrive. The network's main activities are lobbying, preparing and managing common projects as well as awareness-raising actions. For ACTE, networking, sharing methodologies, ideas and innovation are the keys to facing future challenges. ACTE works through cooperation, innovative thinking and knowledge generated by thousands of people in member organizations.