Indra, along with the Galicia Regional Government, is looking for the most innovative entrepreneurs and startups to lead the global drone industry

Indra will contribute as technological partner of the Regional Government of Galicia in the Civil UAVs Initiative to promote the creation and rapid development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) from anywhere in the world that want to work in Galicia in the development of innovative projects and ideas that will transform and lead the way for the civil drone industry over the coming years.

The company will carry out this task of international tracking, selection and support of the best startups linked to this field within the Aeronautics Business Factory (ABF) that the Xunta (Galicia’s regional government) has just launched through the Galician Innovation Agency (Axencia Galega de Innovación -GAIN) with the support and collaboration of a solid group of partners comprising the Galician Institute of Economic Promotion (IGAPE), the Closed Type Investment Entity Management Society, S.A.U. (XESGALICIA) –both of them bodies of the regional government–, the Lugo CEL Initiatives foundation, the Galician Automobile Technology Center (CTAG) and Babcock. To achieve its mission, this new entity has been set up with funds amounting to 4.7 million Euros until 2021.

Work will begin almost immediately next November. ABF will launch the first of three annual calls for which candidates from all over the world can apply.

The objective is to identify 19 exceptional aeronautical projects that have the most highly qualified and trained professionals. They should also be accelerable and scalable initiatives that will ensure a notable impact on the global market.

All these projects will find in ABF the funding to work in Galicia, benefiting, in addition, from a full range of high-value services from the possibility of having their own workspace to benefiting from access to modern testing facilities, free or discounted use of the Rozas airfield in Lugo, availability of aircraft such as the Indra P2006T MRI to test its systems and payload, and the technological and business advice and tutoring provided by the ABF partners.

A pioneering initiative in Europe

Nine projects are related to ideas in the early stages of development that will come mainly from universities (spin-offs), independent companies (start-ups) or company spin-outs.

The other ten will be projects of SMEs in the aerospace sector which are already under way and have a validated business model that is in its growth phase. In this case, the ABF will provide support to cope with the industrial research, experimental development and technological innovation activities to be completed in order to launch products or services quickly and effectively to market.

The chosen companies will also benefit from the opportunity to become part of the Civil UAVs Initiative (CUI) of the Regional Government of Galicia, one of the most powerful initiatives in Europe to promote the civil use of drones and improve the services lent to citizens by public administration agencies through the use of these technologies.

The CUI has a market of around 150 million Euros distributed in four major programs. The first one focuses on the creation and improvement of a complete network of aeronautical infrastructures that facilitate the development of a technological focal point related to drones in Galicia; the R & D program, with an investment of 115 million Euros and with Indra and Babcock as the main partners, works on the development of new products, technologies and solutions; the third is achieved through ten tenders with which the Xunta makes the pre-commercial purchase of solutions —ten of them already awarded for a global amount of 6,36 millons to improve territory an rural habitat management— based on the use of UAVs that can be ready within two years; and the last one is the business incubation and acceleration program, whose main activity is the creation of ABF.

With its entry and support of the aeronautical business industry or ABF, Indra fulfills one of the commitments it undertook by becoming a partner of the Xunta in the Civil UAV Initiative. In this way, the company reinforces its role as a company that drives the business fabric in the region.

Its presence as a partner of the CUI has led to the creation of three new specialized companies that have set up their headquarters in Galicia (Gaerum Ingenieria, Seadrone and Soarnor). It has also contracted work from more than a dozen companies and research centers throughout Galicia, which support it in the development of the optionally manned Targus aircraft at Rozas, a Mission and Data Processing Center for unmanned aircraft, and an unmanned ship in development at Vigo.

About Indra

Indra (www.indracompany.com) is one of the leading global technology and consulting companies and the technological partner for core business operations of its customers world-wide. It is a world-leader in providing proprietary solutions in specific segments in Transport and Defence markets, and the leading firm in Digital Transformation Consultancy and Information Technologies in Spain and Latin America through its affiliate Minsait. Its business model is based on a comprehensive range of proprietary products, with a high-value focus and with a high innovation component. In the 2017 financial year, Indra achieved revenue of €3.011 billion, with 40,000 employees, a local presence in 46 countries and business operations in over 140 countries.