The city councils of Seville and Malaga join the project, opening two specialized centers for the development of software applications following the FIWARE international open source standards

FIWARE Zone aims to boost innovation activities in Andalucia around smart applications and services powered by FIWARE.

Seville, January 24th 2017. José Sánchez Maldonado –Regional Minister for Work, Industry and Trade–, Juan Espadas –Mayor of the City of Seville–, Francisco de la Torre –Mayor of the City of Malaga–, María Jesús Almanzot –Director of Territorio Sur at Telefónica– and Juanjo Hierro –CTO of the FIWARE Foundation– have presented today in Seville the FIWARE Zone initiative, created to drive innovation activities in Andalucia and focused on the development of smart applications and services powered by FIWARE.

“We feel excited about the announcement made by Junta de Andalucía and the Cities of Sevilla and Malaga joining the FIWARE Foundation and the impulse they are giving to the FIWARE Zone which today is inagurated in the two cities.”, declared Hierro.

The initiative consists in up to six axes of activity, through which FIWARE Zone will be reaching all the actors that is necessary to involve in an innovation-driven ecosystem, including companies, entrepreneurs, public administrations, associations, technological clusters, universities, startups, etc.

The first step of this initiative has been the opening of its first two innovation centers in the Region, specialized in the FIWARE technologies. One of the centers will be located in the European Pavillion (Pabellón de Europa) at the Scientific and Technological Park (PCT) in La Cartuja, Sevilla. The other one will be located in the Promalaga Urban Lab building, in the city of Malaga. Around both spaces, companies, entrepreneurs, developers and institutions will meet and collaborate using the FIWARE open standards in order to develop, test and showcase innovative applications and services in the fastest and easiest way, addressing the challenges of sectors as the Smart Cities or Smart Agrifood.

The entrepreneurs will be starting their activities tomorrow, with four Andalusian companies as the first ones working at the FIWARE Zone, which also provides a space for co-working. These centers are offering a capacity to accommodate up to 30 workplaces and 80 people receiving training about how to develop solutions based on FIWARE technologies.
The FIWARE Zone brings the sensors and devices needed to provide hands-on training to the companies, and to let them make the necessary tests and experiments in order to build their own solutions, with the support of the staff of the FIWARE Zone.

The FIWARE Zone also provides an urban lab which is connected to devices deployed in the streets, making possible for the companies to test their IoT-enabled smart solution in real situations. FIWARE Zone will be the space for collaboration with the Andalusian public universities and the educative sector in general, giving students the knowledge that will help them to develop their professional career brining their expertise in FIWARE. Additionally, FIWARE Zone will be launching open calls, bringing funding to pilot projects of new solutions focusing in specific problems of the cities, and will be supporting the go-to-market process of the companies, not only at national but also at international level.

“The FIWARE Zone is called to become a global-level reference of what a FIWARE iHub is expected to be”, said Juanjo Hierro. Juan A. Marcelo, Director of FIWARE Zone concluded: “It is a space where entrepreneurs, large companies, universities, the public administration and end users will meet together and develop innovative smart solutions based on FIWARE.  Where training, certification and support of FIWARE technologies is provided and experimentation or showcase of FIWARE solutions and FIWARE-ready technologies will be offered.”