Valencia works in a sandbox for startups and universities to test their inventions

VALENCIA, Apr. 7 (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Valencia City Council has opened the public consultation process for the sandbox ordinance, a closed and secure testing environment where technological innovations can be tested in a controlled manner before being commercialized and implemented.

The council is working on a new regulatory framework for these spaces, with the aim of allowing companies, startups and academic institutions to test their inventions in the city in a suitable place and with a more agile bureaucracy.

At this time, the public consultation process is open, so that affected individuals and organizations can provide opinions on the future standard until May 29. The initiative is part of the Missions València 2030 model and the Valencia 2030 Urban Strategy.

Both documents contemplate, among other actions, offering the city's entrepreneurial ecosystem spaces, instruments and agents that facilitate experimenting with innovations aimed at the economic, social and environmental development of the city, as well as the improvement of public services, recall municipal sources .

Practice shows that only a small number of innovation projects are able to make the leap between the concept and development phases and achieve a product or service within the reach of the public and the market, despite meeting the requirements to achieve the success. One of the reasons --they explain-- that explains it is the lack of spaces and agile processes to experiment, demonstrate and validate the prototypes.

On the other hand, they point out, experiences mentored and accompanied by the City Council or its local public sector have been detected, which have reached the commercial phase, but the opportunity to retain them has been lost due to the absence of places to test the models.

Prior to putting these test benches into operation, the corporation works to regulate the regulatory framework at the local level through the Ordinance regulating the urban sandbox of the city of Valencia.

Before beginning the process of approval of the text, as established by the legislation, the prior consultation process has been opened to gather the opinion of the people and entities potentially affected.

Anyone interested in participating can do so by contacting the Innovation Service or by sending an email to innovacion@valencia.es. You must identify yourself with the name or company name, accreditation is not mandatory, and it is requested, only to know the origin, if it is a citizen or a company and postal code of residence or social activity.

All the information about the process is published on the municipal website. In particular, the opinion is requested on how the draft ordinance draft can be improved to favor innovation projects that generate public value and collective well-being for the city and, in the event that they are deployed in the sandbox of Valencia and later put into march and are commercialized, the possible participation of the City Council and the citizenry in the benefits that could be derived.