For this IFMIF-DONES to be the basis of a solid industry that will make the province a true technological hub, the participation of ‘local partners’, companies from Granada that offer their goods and services to the ecosystem generated by this Great Scientific Infrastructure, will be necessary.

This was made clear at the conference organised by the Confederación Granadina de Empresarios (CGE) on 9 February on the business opportunities of the particle accelerator, which brought together more than a hundred entrepreneurs interested in finding out what the impact of IFMIF-DONES will be in Granada and how the mechanisms of participation in the project will be.

“To create a technological pole, we need three elements: an organised local industry; an environment in which we find the technological capabilities and talent we need; and a strategic institutional plan,” explained the deputy director of IFMIF-DONES Spain, Moisés Weber, who explained that it is key that those who make up the ecosystem of the accelerator “can find everything they need nearby”.

In this sense, Weber stressed that IFMIF-DONES “is a project that needs everyone”. Not only from technology, engineering or construction companies but also from services, hospitality, logistics, training, event organisation, etc.

For his part, the director of the IFMIF-DONES Technical Office, José Aguilar, urged companies to “take advantage of the opportunities” that the project is already generating, referring both to the preliminary market consultation recently launched by the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) and the upcoming tenders linked to the facility. “We know what the 2033 picture will look like. We will need a whole neighbourhood industry around IFMIF-DONES. That’s the real transformative power of the project”.

Aguilar also recalled that the accelerator’s business partners, especially those linked to the manufacture of components and the facility’s start-up, will have a “strategic positioning” that will improve their global competitiveness. “In Citai, in the municipality of Escúzar, we are going to build something that does not exist anywhere else in the world. Those who offer their goods and services to IFMIF-DONES will be a reference”.

The meeting was also attended by the president of the Industry, Energy and Singular Projects Commission of the CGE, Ignacio Cuerva; and the president of the Innovation and New Technologies Commission of the Confederation, Marcelo Vázquez.

In line with the IFMIF-DONES representatives, Ignacio Cuerva pointed out that the accelerator is a project “capable of transforming and revolutionising our economy”. “In the CGE we have always believed in the potential of IFMIF-DONES and, of course, we also trust in the potential of Granada and our companies to carry out a project of this magnitude,” said the president of the Commission for Industry, Energy and Special Projects of the CGE, recalling that in the province we have “qualified professionals, one of the most prestigious Spanish universities and a business network that wants and can participate in this project for our economy.

For his part, Marcelo Vázquez encouraged companies, whatever their size, to try to become collaborators of IFMIF-DONES through the various channels of participation that will be activated as the project progresses. “Any company can have an opportunity linked to IFMIF-DONES”, said the president of the Innovation and NNTT Commission of the CGE, who pointed out that companies have in the Confederation “a key tool to facilitate participation in innovative collaborative projects: the OnTech Innovation cluster”.

Source: CGE