On 15 December, Badalona City Council and the UPC signed a collaboration agreement detailing the actions to be carried out to create the transformation of the old CACI factory in Badalona into a space for technological knowledge and digital manufacturing.
Daniel Crespo, rector of the UPC; Rubén Guijarro, mayor of Badalona; Àlex Montornès, first lieutenant mayor of the Badalona City Council, and José María Cabrera, general director of the CIM Foundation
The Partnership Agreement details the actions to be taken to create this area of technological knowledge and digital manufacturing
The Badalona City Council and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia – BarcelonaTech (UPC) have today taken a definite step towards the future of the old CACI factory to transform it into an area of technological knowledge and digital manufacturing. The old textile factory, located next to the Badalona Maritime Walk and with 4,341 m2 of surface, will be the headquarters of the CIM UPC Foundation, the technology centre of the world reference UPC in the field of Advanced Manufacturing and Industry 4.0.
This afternoon the mayor of Badalona, Rubén Guijarro; the rector of the UPC, Daniel Crespo; the first Mayor of Badalona Town Hall, Àlex Montornès, and the CEO of the UPC CIM Foundation, José María Cabrera, they signed in the press room of the El Viver buildingthe Framework Partnership Agreement for the development of the project to create an area of technological knowledge and digital manufacturing in the former CACI factory.
This agreement, which is signed following the agreement of intent last April, is the tool that allows from now on to proceed to the executions of works, to access budgetary appropriations and to establish the governance and management model to make the conversion of the former CACI factory into a technology research center, into a digital manufacturing space, postgraduate teaching and professional training. Furthermore, the will of the City Council and the UPC, expressed in the Agreement, is that the privileged situation of the CCS favours opportunities to connect citizenship with technological proposals that must become key in the future, and thus provide opportunities for scientific disclosure and learning.
As the first action to be implemented, which the signed agreement commits, it is the undertaking of the preliminary technical study assessing the cost of the works and facilities necessary for the transfer of the CIM Foundation to the CACI building that the Badalona City Council undertakes to commission in the coming months. In this regard, the city council has in the 2022 investment budget the amount of 3.5 million for the adequacy and empowerment of the building.
As regards the governance and management structure, both of the project and of the CACI space, it will initially consist of a Governing Committee, a Advisory Council, and the Executive Directorate. In addition, a presidency and vice-chairmanship is proposed by the Badalona City Council and by the UPC, rotating every two calendar years, beginning on 1 January 2023.
The mayor of Badalona, Rubén Guijarro, has said that “today is a historic day for us to end the debt we owed to the future of the CACI and this emblematic space of the city. We must congratulate ourselves because the triple collaboration between the UPC and the CIM Foundation is aimed precisely at placing Badalona as a research space and projecting to the future as a leading city.”. The mayor has added that: “This bet of the municipal government is firm and proof of this is the investment already approved of 3.5 million by the city council and 3 million more from the general budgets of the state”.
UPC Rector Daniel Crespo has stated that ‘today we are taking a further step along this path which must lead us to make CACI a space where research, innovation, service to the business fabric and the link between technology and citizenship will be re-aligned for the benefit of Badalona and its entire area of influence. The CACI is a project that opens up new opportunities.”.
Distribution of the former CACI factory spaces (use forecast):
- Low plant (PB): Badalona Manufacturing Athena and CIM Pilot Plant
- First Plant (P1): Incubator/coworking I4.0 and Pilot Plant
- Second floor (P2): Classroom Formation
- Third floor (P3): Technical personal offices FCCIM and Exposition Zone
- Fourth floor (P4): Administration and General Services
- Fifth floor (P5): Directorate General and Room of Judges