The Government delegate in Cantabria, Eugenia Gómez de Diego, visited on Tuesday the facilities of the Cantabrian technology company ACORN Technologies, which has obtained a new aid of 360,000 euros within the framework of the PERTE Chip, granted by the Ministry of Industry and Tourism.
During his visit, Gómez de Diego highlighted the role of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan as "an engine of innovation and transformation of the productive model" in the autonomous community, highlighting that the Executive of Pedro Sánchez has granted aid to companies and institutions in Cantabria worth more than 56 million euros in terms of digitalization and science, both for the development of research linked to cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, supercomputing, telecommunications or healthcare, and for the acquisition of technological equipment.
"This type of aid is making it possible to finance many projects and research and strengthen the leadership of leading companies such as ACORs in strategic sectors such as aerospace, microelectronics or secure communications," said Gómez de Diego, who during the tour was accompanied by the General Manager, Manuel Lobeira, and by the Director of Internal Management and Quality, Santiago Díaz.
The delegate recalled that "since the implementation of the Recovery Plan, 1,470 jobs have been created in the computer and communications sector in Cantabria and another 1,970 in professional, scientific and technical activities, exceeding these two sectors of activity by more than 16,000 employees."
In this regard, he stressed that "employment linked to science, telecommunications and technology has grown by 27% in the region since the approval of the Recovery Plan, tripling the average growth in employment in Cantabria, which has been 9.7%."
In this regard, the CEO of ACCORD has pointed out that companies in the sector in Cantabria are generating professional opportunities “ranging from collaborating with NASA to participating in radio telescopes that seek the origin of the universe”, so he has encouraged young people to be interested in STEM careers.
Currently, ACORhas 62 employees, but, according to Lobeira, "we could perfectly have 10 or 12 more if we found the right profiles". The company is especially looking for designers of high-frequency radio frequency equipment, FP technicians in electronics for assembly and adjustment tasks, as well as experts in FPGA programming.
"The main problem is that there are no people trained in these areas or that technical profiles tend to opt for other more visible sectors such as artificial intelligence, without knowing the real opportunities that exist in the region," he said.
2.4 million captured
This new aid from the Ministry of Industry and Tourism is in addition to those already received by the company within different programs of the Government of Spain, including the Technological Space Plan and the PERTE Chip itself. In total, ACORhas attracted more than 2.4 million euros in public aid from the central government for R&D in the last two years.
As explained by Lobeira, with these funds CHORD develops two main lines of research: one, within the Space Technology Plan, focused on the development of embarkable technologies in low-orbit satellites for navigation and calibration in defense; and another, in the field of health, focused on the design of chips for patient monitoring and the efficient management of hospital beds.
Specifically, the company participates in the LEOPNT project, with a grant of 1.25 million euros and in consortium with GMV (coordinator), Alén Space and Anteral; and in the DIANASAT project, with 450,000 euros, together with Aicox and HYDRA Space, aimed at the development of calibration spatial infrastructures for SATCOM terminals. In addition, he leads the AMANECER project, also funded by the PERTE Chip (410,000 euros), in collaboration with the University of Cantabria, for the creation of a miniaturized radio frequency converter in Ka band for cyber-secure satellite communications systems.
The delegate congratulated ACORfor its "technological excellence and commitment to the territory", recalling that the company has recently been recognized as 'SME Award of the Year in Cantabria', an award that, in her opinion, "reflects the potential and strategic role that the Cantabrian technological industry has in the economic and social future both regionally and nationally".
25 years of trajectory
The technology company, with 25 years of experience, bills an annual average of 10 million euros, constituting an international benchmark in high-performance radio frequency for satellite communications in the aerospace and defense sector.
In addition, they have recently created a new brand called OCENTIC that brings together the work aimed at advising and accompanying companies in digitalization processes, through the engineering and implementation in the field of advanced monitoring, control and communications systems aimed at improving productivity, management and security, both in industrial environments and in the field of renewable energies.