Spanish Chamber of Commerce in the United Kingdom

Tag: Innovation

SACYR | NEW PATRON OF THE CHAMBER

We would like to welcome Sacyr as a new Patron of the Spanish Chamber.

Sacyr is a global infrastructure and services company, expert in turning challenges into achievements. Operating in nearly 30 countries and a workforce of 30,000 professionals, it is one of the main global contractors and is already among the 10 largest in Latin America.

Innovation, international growth, sustainability and the execution of complex projects have made Sacyr and its subsidiaries an international benchmark.

Sacyr Engineering and Infrastructures stands out thanks to its high qualification rate and experience in all types of construction. Among its works, stand out more than 3,300 km of highways and express roads, 64 km of tunnels and more than 107 km of viaducts; hydraulic works such as the Third Set of Locks for the Expansion of the Panama Canal; airport works; ports; hospitals; residential building and urbanization works.

Sacyr Concessions is ranked sixth developer worldwide in the PPP market, currently managing 35 assets distributed in 10 countries that include: highways (3,755 km), social and health projects (more than 2,500 beds) and transport interchanges.

Sacyr Industrial designs and builds waste treatment and recovery plants, electrical infrastructures, Oil & Gas, EPC water projects, among other projects.

Sacyr Services develops a wide range of businesses: environmental services, full water cycle and other related activities. It´s permanently focused on providing a complete service for its clients and meeting all their needs.

Valoriza Agua is the sixth largest company in the world for desalinated water capacity and carries out the water management cycle, it has designed and built more than 100 brackish and sea water desalination, purification, and reuse plants.

Valoriza Conservación de Infraestructuras is the Sacyr company devoted to maintenance work on all kinds of road infrastructures (10,000 kilometers of roads and highways in Spain, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay and Peru), dams, ports, irrigation canals and hydroelectric power plants.
Should you want to know more about our new Patron, please visit their website:

www.sacyr.com

15/03/2018
CLH-PS, NEW PATRON OF THE CHAMBER

We would like to welcome CLH Pipeline System (CLH-PS) Ltd. as new Patron of the Spanish Chamber.

CLH-PS is the only independent provider in the UK dedicated to the storage and distribution of liquid fuel through pipelines. The company is part of the Spanish CLH Group, the leading company in Spain for oil product transportation and storage and a European leader in the downstream refined oil storage and pipeline logistics sector that through international expansion has become a global reference for the industry.

CLH-PS was created in 2015 following the privatisation of the Government Pipeline and Storage System (GPSS) by the UK Government’s Ministry of Defence and nowadays distributes ground and aviation fuels through its 2,000 kilometres of pipeline and 15 storage terminals around England and Scotland.

The network supplies some of the UK’s major civil and military airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester. CLH-PS also offers fuel logistical support to blue chip clients within the Oil and Energy industry.

Should you want to know more about our new Patron, please visit their website: www.clhps.uk

09/05/2017
ENERGY AND INFRASTRUCTURE FORUM LAUNCH EVENT

On Wednesday 19^th October the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain launched its Energy and Infrastructure Forum with an evening event that gathered over 30 senior representatives of Spanish and British companies within the above sectors.

The Energy and Infrastructure Forum of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain is chaired by Mr. Alfonso Puga, Chief Commercial Officer at NextDecade, and the board is formed by senior executives with a proven track-record in the energy and infrastructure fields.

Some of the members of the Energy and Infrastructure Forum.

Through this initiative, the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain aims to provide a platform to highlight the experience and expertise accrued by Spanish companies in these sectors over the past decades as well as the invaluable human capital and talent they bring in at different levels.

The remit of the Forum will thus be the organisation of round tables and debates to contribute to the sharing of best practices, exchange of innovation processes within companies, and the analysis of current issues on energy and infrastructure and relevant policies within these fields. Each session of the forum will count on a keynote speaker to introduce the topic and foster discussion among participants.

Attendees exchanging opinions during the debate.

Notably; the launch event on October 19^th counted on an exceptional speaker: Mr. Riccardo Puliti, Managing Director in charge of the Power and Energy and Natural Resources sectors at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Mr. Antonio Oporto, Board Director for Spain and Mexico at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and a long-standing friend of the Chamber introduced the speaker to the attendees. Mr. Puliti centred his speech on “Energetic Security in Europe”, providing an overview on the current landscape and analysing different scenarios for energy companies.

Mr. Ricardo Puliti (centre), keynote speaker for the first session of the Energy and Infrasctructure Forum.

His address was followed by an open debate and a round of questions, also chaired by Mr. Oporto, which attendees showed enthusiastic interest as they could exchange opinions on the topic. The event came to a close with a drinks reception which offered participants the opportunity to further network and engage in conversation.

Mr. Antonio Oporto (centre), Board Director for Spain and Mexico at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

We take this opportunity to warmly thank Mr. Riccardo Puliti for accepting our invitation to be our first speaker and all attendees for making this first event a success. We would also like to thank Herbert Smith Freehills for kindly hosting this session at their premises.

Please keep posted on our Upcoming Events section or subscribe to our weekly newsletter for further information about future activities of our institution.

09/12/2016
BREAKFAST SEMINAR: FINANCING INNOVATION FOR BUSINESSES

On Thursday, 10^th November, we had the pleasure of holding the seminar “Financing Innovation for Businesses”, at the premises of the Spanish Chamber. We held this seminar in collaboration with F. Iniciatives, member of the Chamber.

On this occasion, Cristina Carmona, Head of External Relations and Communications of the Chamber, gave a warm welcome to all attendees on behalf of our institution and gave the floor to the speakers of the session: Mr. Antoine Abbatucci, Business Development Manager and Mr. Eneko Igartua, International Grants Consultant.

Mr. Abbatucci, began the session introducing the schemes of the Research and Development Tax Incentives. The main aim of this tax incentive is to increase the competitiveness of the UK companies and to guide them through their R&D activities expansion.

Mr. Eneko Igartua presenting during the seminar.

After that, Antoine explained the requirements that HM Revenue & Customs have established for companies to be able to access grants, and he then introduced the R&D tax relief for SMEs. He started by defining the concept of an SME following the European Commission criteria and then he went on to describe the Calculation of the R&D Tax Relief and the benefits SMEs can have through the claiming process which works by self-assessment.

After Antoine finished the introduction, it was the turn of his colleague Eneko Igartua who introduced to attendees the UK´s Innovation Agency, which funds, supports, and connects innovative British businesses through a unique mix of people and programmes to accelerate sustainable economic growth.

Antoine Abbatucci (far right) could greet attendees before the session started.

As Eneko explained, there are a series of initiatives currently running to foster research-based and innovation-driven projects, including the European R+D+I Grant, Horizon 2020. This is a funding framework programme for all EU research and innovation-related activities being carried out between 2014 and 2020. With a budget of 70.2 billion euros, Horizon 2020 was created with the aim to strengthen the EU’s position in research, innovation, and technology matters.

To conclude the seminar, Antoine Abbatucci offered an overview of the Brexit impact for R&D Funding; for now there are no changes in the participation of British companies within European programmes until the Brexit become effective, but after Brexit multiple scenarios are possible and it is key to be informed of different European grants and funds to react accordingly.

Participants had time to continue the discussion after the seminar.

After the session, all attendees had the opportunity to exchange their impressions and ideas about the points covered in the seminar while enjoying some breakfast.

We would like to thank all attendees for joining us and particularly Antoine Abbatucci and Eneko Igartua from F.Iniciatives for delivering such an insightful seminar.

If you want to find out about other activities organised by the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, we encourage you to keep an eye on our UPCOMING EVENTS section on our website. In addition to this, you can also subscribe to our weekly newsletter in order to receive updates and information about our events.

24/11/2016
VIRTUALIZATION & CLOUD SYSTEMS FOR COMPANIES

On Thursday, 27^th October, we held the breakfast seminar on “Virtualization & Cloud Systems for Companies” at the premises of the Spanish Chamber. On this occasion, the speaker for the session was Mr. Jorge Casto, CEO and Founder of Safe Computing, Benefactor member of the Chamber.

The aim of the session was to show participants how technology can be of great help in companies of any size and not necessarily be a headache; and to prove this he would explain how virtualization and the cloud computing systems can ease the transition to a digital transformation.

Mr. Jorge Casto, from Safe Computing, during the seminar.

Our Secretary General, Igor Urra, gave a warm welcome to all attendees on behalf of our institution and gave the floor to Mr. Jorge Casto, who began the session with a brief introduction to the history of technology in order to provide some background on this field.

After this introduction, Mr. Jorge Casto went on to analyse several examples to illustrate how virtualization and cloud computing implementation have increased the productivity in companies and reduced some technical hitches.

Furthermore, he explained that these system’s ultimate goal is to transfer information to a virtual environment thus eliminating hardware and physical devices, transpiring into reduced costs and saving time when dealing on how to access data and information.

Once the talk had finished, attendees had the chance to network and exchange their opinions about the session.

During the session, Jorge discussed several key concepts that helped attendees to understand better the most technical aspects of virtualization, such as the difference between the virtualization and cloud system, what a data centre is and what types of clouds we can find in the market depending on each company´s needs. Furthermore, he offered general advice on what a company should bear in mind when thinking about implementing these systems.

As it is important for businesses to see the practical day-to-day implications of going virtual, the speaker analysed two case studies of companies from different sectors and sizes, giving attendees the opportunity to check the background information of the companies before implementing the virtual systems; and afterwards so they could see for themselves what impact it had on each.

He then ended the session by explaining that if a company wants to optimize and maximise its resources, virtualization should be an unavoidable reality and how there are as many solutions in this field as potential companies’ needs.

Participants had time to mingle and continue the discussion while enjoying a nice breakfast.

After the session, all attendees had the opportunity to network, ask questions to Jorge Casto and exchange their impressions and ideas about the points covered in the seminar while enjoying some breakfast.

If you want to find out other activities that the Spanish Chamber is organising, we encourage you to keep an eye on our Upcoming Events section within our website. Furthermore, you can also subscribe to our weekly newsletter in order to receive updates with our events.

08/11/2016
Percpectives on Infrastructure – Talk on Bridging the Gap between Architecture and Engineering

After a buzzing welcome reception at our City of London venue, hosted by partners Grimshaw Architects, proceedings were kicked off by a warm introduction by the President of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Fernando Pérez. As he aptly remarked, we all have an opinion on infrastructure because we all use infrastructure. The event was fabulously attended, and our four speakers delved into the emerging areas of infrastructure design and innovation which, in the words of one speaker, are starting to shape our collective human experience of where and how we live.

Grimshaw Architects Chief Executive, Mr. Jolyon Brewis, started by asking why design was important to the functionality of infrastructure. He pointed to Battersea Power Station as an example of something that has carried with it both its original functionality as a utility, as well as an important sense of character and identity which has lasted the test of time. He quipped that he wasn’t proposing that we return to building infrastructure as if they were great cathedrals, but rather to reignite that spirit which takes such projects beyond the bare bones of functionality and strives to contribute characteristically to the community which it serves. One example was a Grimshaw project in New York, where a hybrid functionality is being innovated in a water treatment facility by developing much of the unused land on the site into a golf course.

Mr. Ignacio Clopes, Managing Director for UK and Ireland at Ferrovial Agroman, branch of the infrastructure giant Ferrovial ( Patron of the Chamber) , chimed in. He spoke of the need for developing “smart infrastructure”, where again New York was used as an example of how a disused, industrial-era raised train viaduct running through the city was converted into an enormous public promenade featuring landscaping and flora. Not only had it been returned to public use in an iconic way, it also provided a very pleasant way in which to traverse that section of the city.

From left to right, Mr. Ignacio Clopes (Ferrovial Agroman), Mr. Enrique Rico (IDOM UK), Mr. Gavin Franklin (Crossrail), Mr. Joylon Brewis (Grimshaw Architects) and Mr. Fernando Pérez (President of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce).

Our final two speakers; Mr. Gavin Franklin, Project Manager of Crossrail, and Mr. Enrique Rico, Head of Railways at IDOM, were keen to offer their perspectives. Mr. Franklin’s main focus was on the dichotomy of “collaboration”, something which he had experienced both positives and negatives of whilst presiding over one of Europe’s largest infrastructure projects – a project so large that it had actually first been conceived half a century ago.

Although this process of collaboration was admittedly time consuming, he encouraged the merging of good practice between designers and engineers. As he put it, whilst civil engineers build the big important holes in the ground, with the customer experience a very distant concept, the architect just bridge that gap, working from inception to optimize the service user experience. Finally, Mr. Rico expanded upon his work within IDOM, indulging the audience with an insight into the world of rail infrastructure, citing Poland as an example of a country moving towards the modern era by investing heavily in improving this area.

After a pensive and banterous Q&A session, the speakers and attendees retired to the atrium to mingle whilst enjoying drinks and some Spanish-themed hors d’oeuvres. We sincerely thank Grimshaw Architects, as well as our speakers, for a successful and highly engaging event, and we very much hope our attendees enjoyed it too.

23/10/2012

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