Well-deserved recognition at FITECU for Spanish healthcare clusters

The first International Fair of Innovation and Technology at the Service of Care (FITECU), which was held in Villardeciervos (Zamora) between February 23 and 25, reserved the end of the second day to pay a well-deserved tribute to the clusters of the Spanish social and healthcare sector. Juantxu Martín from GOGOA Mobility Robots, a member of the cluster, was present, as representative of the Basque Health Cluster, together with representatives of the rest of the Spanish healthcare clusters.

Galicia, Extremadura, Catalonia, Navarre, Aragon, the Basque Country and Castile and Leon represented the whole sector and showed the value of the work carried out by these groups, where public and private initiative coexist, and which become “tools for creating, generating or recreating talent and providing innovative solutions”, as Montse Fernandez Chimente, manager of the SIVI Cluster, host and organizer of the event, recalled.

The Deputy Minister of Economy and Competitiveness of the Junta de Castilla y León, Carlos Martín Tobalina, chaired the event, which also included the intervention of John Farrell, Director of Policy and Operations of the European Collaborative Network of Reference Sites for Innovation in Active and Healthy Aging, who remarked that the clusters “do an incredible job of boosting economic growth and employment”.

On a European level, Farrell referred to the importance of each sector “understanding the needs of the others and, when developing the solution, everyone should support everyone else without forgetting the end users, the people affected. You should not think about what the priorities are in your region, but in Europe,” he added.

For her part, the manager of the host cluster, Montse Fernández Chimente, traced a tour of the different groups that, like SIVI, work throughout Spain in a sector that has found in FITECU a perfect ally.

She recalled that SIVI is working on the creation of a network of senior talent to support the ecosystem with its services and knowledge. It is a way, he said, to provide an outlet for knowledge. Clusters are at the origin of the developments that we later find incorporated into everyday life.

Fernández Chimente led the table where the representatives present in Villardeciervos, a small municipality in Zamora at the foot of the Sierra de la Culebra, stressed that clusters are “engines of innovation and levers of research entrepreneurship”.

The event ended with a presentation of awards to those who, on behalf of all, received the affection of Spanish society for their discreet and essential daily work in favor of improvements in the quality of life of dependent people.