The European BTA programme, through the KERABEN Group, guest of honour at the commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of the signing of the Accession Treaty of Spain to the European Union

• The commemoration took place at the Royal Palace in Madrid on 24 June. The event was chaired by His Highness King Felipe VI, accompanied by His Highness King Juan Carlos I, and it was attended by the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, and most of the Cabinet ministers, in addition to numerous personalities from Spanish politics, the judiciary, economics, and society.

• The guests also included Spanish personalities linked to the process of European integration and numerous organisations and persons that, in these 30 years, have led the development of emblematic programmes funded by the European Union, such as the KERABEN GROUP, coordinator of the European project COOLCOVERINGS, whose results are currently being validated at the Living Lab in Castellón city, in the frame of the Building Technologies Accelerator (BTA) programme of the European Climate–KIC Network.

Castellón, 31^st July 2015. On 24 June, the KERABEN Group, one of the leading ceramic tile manufacturers in Spain, attended as guest of honour the commemoration at the Royal Palace in Madrid of the 30th Anniversary of the signing of the Accession Treaty of Spain to the European Union, a solemn event chaired by His Highness King Felipe VI, accompanied by His Highness King Juan Carlos I.

The guests included the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, together with most of the Cabinet ministers, as well as numerous representatives of state institutions and Spanish personalities linked to the European integration process. The event was also attended by representatives of different organisations engaged in research and development in the course of these 30 years in emblematic programmes funded by the European Union.

Among these organisations, the KERABEN GROUP was selected for its research activities in the European project COOLCOVERINGS, which was coordinated by Miguel Ángel Bengochea and enabled the development of near-infrared reflecting ceramic tiles, which avoid heat build-up and reduce building cooling energy consumption. This result, integrated in a ventilated façade construction system, is currently being validated at the CIES Living Lab in Castellón city, in the frame of the Building Technologies Accelerator (BTA) programme of the European Climate–KIC network, whose primary objective is climate change mitigation and adaptation.

About the Building Technologies Accelerator (BTA)

The BTA programme is one of the key elements that the European Climate–KIC network is supporting with a view to accelerating its work in regard to climate change mitigation and adaptation. The programme seeks to speed up the market launch of products, technologies, and services that contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation in the field of building construction. To do so, a network of buildings has been created, which includes the Castellón CIES building. In this network the buildings act as Living Labs in which new products, technologies, and services can be evaluated and put into practice and energy management models, environmental quality control, and user management can be provided in real settings. Programme participants include the Valencia Institute for Building Construction (IVE), the Institute of Ceramic Technology (ITC-AICE), and the Castellón Town Council, which provides its CIES building for Innovation in Energy and Sustainability as one of the Living Labs in which different technologies will be tested.

About Climate–KIC

Climate–KIC is the EU’s major initiative on climate change. It is the largest public–private collaboration in Europe focusing on climate change mitigation and adaptation. Climate–KIC is made up of companies, academic institutions, and public bodies.

The organisation’s headquarters are located in London. Thanks to its centres across Europe, Climate–KIC provides support for start-ups and brings together partners in innovation projects, in addition to training students with a view to achieving a connected, creative transformation of knowledge and ideas and to obtaining products and services that contribute to mitigating and adapting to climate change. Climate–KIC is one of the knowledge and innovation communities (KICs) created in 2010 by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union charged with creating mechanisms for increasing sustainable growth in Europe, as well as with addressing the great challenges of our time.