Tecnun-School of Engineering will host, together with Mubil, MIT's 'City Science Lab Gipuzkoa' innovation laboratory.

The average Lab of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has signed an agreement with the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa for the creation of the City Science Lab Gipuzkoa, a new innovation laboratory that will work on projects to improve mobility. The signature has come about thanks to the academic collaboration that Tecnun, the School of Engineering of the University of Navarra, MIT and the New Mobility Center of Gipuzkoa (Mubil) have maintained for years. The School of Engineering of the University of Navarra will actively participate in the projects and will host, together with Mubil, the new innovation laboratory.

The campus of MIT Cambridge has hosted the signature of the agreement in which have participated the Deputy of Economic Promotion and Strategic Projects, Jabier Larrañaga , the director of Mubil, Ane Insausti and director of MIT City Science, Kent Larson. The representation of the territory of Gipuzkoa has been completed by the director of Innovation, Jon Gurrutxaga, and the director of Tecnun-School of Engineering of the University of Navarra, Raul Anton .

It should be noted that the agreement involves the entrance of Gipuzkoa in the 'City Science Network': the exclusive collaborative network of cities around the world, sponsored by MIT, which includes Shanghai, Helsinki, Toronto, Taipei, Hamburg, Guadalajara (Mexico), Andorra, Ho Chi Minh City and Concepción (Chile).

The 'City Science Network' proposes a unique working methodology, which is based on research laboratories in reference letter cities around the world to respond to the challenges of citizenship and contribute to the advancement towards a new model city or region. In the framework of the initiative, these cities, integrated in an international network of cooperative laboratories, work together with the MIT average Lab in the development of investigations that lead to the development of concepts and technologies core topic that are implemented and evaluated in real environments, with experimentation as the axis.

The integration in this network will allow Gipuzkoa to access the research, knowledge and technological capabilities of MIT, including 'CityScope', a 3D augmented reality platform that visualizes complex urban data on a small-scale model of the territory in real time.

On the other hand, the agreement, which has a financial endowment of 1.2 million euros and a 3-year renewable term at its conclusion, will be a great boost to development and research in this field for Gipuzkoa and the Basque Country, testing innovative solutions in real environments.

City Science Lab Gipuzkoa

The new laboratory, called "City Science Lab Gipuzkoa", is focused on promoting the transition to a new model that responds to the needs of the citizens of the different regions of Gipuzkoa and contributes to improving their quality of life and well-being.

It should be noted that the relationship between the MIT average Lab and Gipuzkoa goes back a long time. Tecnun Gipuzkoa, which has had an academic relationship with MIT for many years, facilitated the participation of members of the MIT average Lab in April of last year in a workshop on mobility. As result, the MIT average Lab observed in the territory of Gipuzkoa the potential to become part of its international network : solid capacities in research and development, vocation for innovation and experimentation driven from the public sphere and in close connection with the private sector or an increasing presence of electric or hybrid vehicles among the transport fleets.