#SuperLabPorts, new Hub in Valencia for innovation and entrepreneurship in Climate Change in Ports

#SuperLabPorts is already running. Today has taken place the inauguration of this space in Valencia of international projection designed and thought for innovation and entrepreneurship in the maritime and port sector in climate change. The #SuperLabPorts is located in the port of Valencia and is the result of collaboration between the Port Authority of Valencia (APV), the Valenciaport Foundation and EIT Climate-KIC. With this initiative, the port of Valencia highlights its position as one of the tractors of the Maritime Hubs Deep Demo and as a world reference in the fight against global warming in the maritime and port sector.

The opening ceremony was attended by Aurelio Martínez, president of the APV and the Valenciaport Foundation, and Kirsten Dunlop, CEO of EIT Climate-KIC. After the event, the president of the APV and the head of EIT Climate-KIC presented the initiative to the president of the Valencian Regional Government, Ximo Puig.

The #SuperLabPorts is an open and multi-functional Lab designed to be a collaborative and co-creation workspace to catalyse decarbonization through a fundamental transformation of economic, social and financial systems. 

As Aurelio Martínez has explained, “the SuperLabPorts is a necessary step to establish in Valencia a Centre of Excellence in Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Climate Change for the Maritime-Port Sector. We have to work to achieve this, but I am convinced that we are in a position to fight for it. Through the SuperLabPorts they are promoting market studies of national and international start-ups in climatic action applicable to the maritime-port sector, collaboration agreements with other accelerators and co-working spaces and conferences have been conditioned“.

As a co-creation Hub, the #SuperlabPorts is a space for entrepreneurship and innovation that will bring together start-ups, technologists, companies, industry, universities, public bodies and citizens with the aim of accelerating solutions to the many challenges faced by maritime and port ecosystems.

#SuperLabPorts aims to connect demand with supply and mobilize cities, regions, countries, businesses and start-ups to work together across large and diverse communities to unite efforts to innovate for systemic changes that trigger climate action at scale.

With its core strategy Transformation , in Time, EIT Climate-KIC highlights that innovation at systems level is the way to prompt such transformations. By systems innovation we mean integrated and coordinated interventions in economic, political and social systems and along whole value chains through a portfolio of deliberate and connected innovation experiments (i.e. a portfolio approach).

EIT Climate-KIC has chosen to shift from a supply-led to a demand-led model, positioning itself as an orchestrated innovation ecosystem that connects ‘demand’ with ‘supply’ to catalyse transformational systemic change. This will require to bring actors (cities, regions, countries, companies, start-ups or individuals) working together in ways that bridge multiple contexts to successfully tackle challenges.

Deep Demonstrations

With this initiative, the Port of Valencia joins EIT Climate-KIC’s strategy that places Deep Demonstrations of such changes as its central part. Deep Demo are intended to be inspirational examples of what’s possible.