Background
The Community of Madrid’s Strategy for Competitiveness in Industry 2008-2011 calls for promoting the creation of an Advanced Region Network in order to position Madrid amongst the most dynamic and innovative regions worldwide.
The first step towards forming this network was taken in the year 2007 when a delegation from the Community of Madrid led by Minister of Economic and Consumer Affairs Fernando Merry del Val visited the region of Bavaria, Germany.
The purpose of this meeting was to strengthen the ties between Madrid and Bavarian clusters and to sign a cooperation agreement with the government of this region of Germany in order to favor a mutual transfer of technology.
During this meeting, the Bavarian representatives were provided the main socioeconomic information about Madrid as well as information about the various technology parks and clusters that make up the Network of Parks and Clusters of the Community of Madrid, in addition to the possible areas of cooperation that could be established between the two regions such as, for example, the establishment of software and ICT systems, the development of medical technology, joint innovation and research projects or nanotechnology projects using new materials.
The Spanish minister and the Bavarian minister of foreign affairs signing this agreement represented an important step toward cooperation between the two regions in working together to improve R&D and innovation.
Subsequent agreements were signed with other regions such as Île de France, Helsinki, Stockholm, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Silicon Valley.
The goal is for Madrid to be among the ten most innovative and dynamic regions worldwide by the year 2020, while leading an Advanced Regions Network.