CATEC, Advanced Center for Aerospace Technologies, has appointed Gracia Catalina Piñero as Head of the new space business incubator ESA BIC Andalusia, which will be located in Seville and has among its objectives to promote innovation and technological development in the space sector within the community, and make Andalusia a benchmark in the global ecosystem of space startups.
The ESA BIC initiative will be housed in the former Naves de Renfe, next to the CREA Building, which houses the Spanish Space Agency (AEE), being the only one accredited by the European Space Agency in the Andalusian community and one of only 30 ESA-BICs that will operate throughout Europe with its seal.
Gracia Catalina Piñero is a Telecommunications Engineer and MBA from Peking University (China), her professional career of more than 20 years of experience has always been linked to the ICT sector.
In the last 15 years, his professional work has focused on entrepreneurship and business innovation environments around the world. He has actively collaborated in public-private initiatives with the regional administration, universities and large private companies, associations and foundations that promote entrepreneurship, business innovation and scalability of startups.
Gracia has been director of the Minerva Acceleration Program from 2014 to 2023. Minerva is an accelerator of technology-based companies promoted by the Junta de Andalucía and Vodafone to promote entrepreneurship, which has helped and accelerated more than 200 startups in these nine years and has received several national and European awards.
For Gracia Catalina, “it is an honor to assume the responsibility of leading the ESA BIC Andalusia, which aims to be a catalyst for economic and technological growth in the community. We seek to attract and support startups that integrate space technology into innovative solutions, fostering the creation of high-skilled jobs and promoting collaboration between companies, universities and research institutions. Our goal is to create an environment that not only provides financial and technical support, but also fosters a collaborative and dynamic ecosystem where ideas can develop into successful projects.”
Joaquín Rodríguez, CEO of CATEC, stressed that “we are especially proud that CATEC has been designated by the European Space Agency as manager of the ESA BIC Andalusia, one of only 30 ESA BICs operating in Europe with a very special seal of excellence that the Space Agency only awards to excellent initiatives. The space sector is strategic for CATEC and we are convinced of the direct impact it will generate in a large number of industries, being also a facilitator of technology transfer to other sectors, taking advantage of the knowledge and experience accumulated in the aerospace field to generate commercial applications that benefit both industry and society in general”.
