The Junts per Girona candidate, Gemma Geis, and the number 2 on the list, the doctor Xavier Aldeguer, have announced this morning that they are in talks with the German innovation center Fraunhofer so that it can be installed in the future health campus which will be located to the south of the urban area, on land between Salt and Girona.
Geis explained that they have begun to work to “create the conditions and relationships” so that the German public institution, with 74 research institutes spread across various countries such as the United Kingdom, Singapore, Portugal or Sweden, also locates one of its legs in Girona .
A few months ago it was announced that the city of Barcelona was going to host the first center in Spain of the Fraunhofer Institute, an initiative that had the support of the Ministry of Science and Innovation, Barcelona City Council and the Generalitat, specifically the Universitats conellerÃa which until a few months ago was directed by Geis.
“We must take advantage of these synergies so that it also reaches Girona”, stated Xavier Aldeguer, who highlighted the economic impact that locating a headquarters for this research center in Girona could generate in the territory. Aldeguer gave the example of the photonic center that the institution has in Scotland. “For every pound sterling put in by the administrations, nine of wealth are generated for the territory,” he said.
If the implementation of this prestigious applied research organization -inventions such as the MP3, MP4, LED lights or brain biochips- have emerged from this institute, Geis points out that it would be “revolutionary” and “disruptive”.
“It would be the greatest revulsion for Girona in the last twenty years,” explained Geis, who added that “Junts will be the facilitator” for this institute to “sow projects” and have its own headquarters on the health campus.
Geis explains that the Fraunhofer management is open to talking with local administrations, institutions, the City Council and research centers to collaborate and weave projects.
“We have begun to work and define biomedical proposals in the field of digital health or health applications in the field of artificial intelligence with the German institution,” says Geis, who stresses that collaborations can open lines of research in other fields in a future, such as agri-food.
Junts and the other municipal formations that are running in the municipal elections agree with the enormous possibilities that the future health campus opens up, which, among other infrastructures, will have the new Trueta hospital, the faculties of Medicine or Nursing, in the field of biomedicine.
Geis pointed out that it is necessary to start laying the foundations before the future campus is a reality. The most optimistic forecasts point to the end of this decade.
