Navarre, a national benchmark in research into nanotechnology

June 2006

The Government of Navarre has set up the first Spanish venture capital fund for nanotechnology through Sodena

Navarre is the first Spanish region to create a venture capital fund dedicated to investments in nanotechnology projects.

The agreement between the Government of Navarre and researchers of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) envisages an investment of four million euros, which will be materialized through the Sociedad de Desarrollo de Navarra (Sodena).

Thanks to this agreement, which includes the creation of a research center into nanotechnology (€ 1.5 million), Sodena will have a 5% holding in the share capital of Principia (€ 0.5 million). Moreover, the first Spanish venture capital fund to finance investments in nanotechnology projects has been set up under the agreement (€ 2 million).

The President of Navarre, Miguel Sanz, and the Regional Minister of Industry and Technology, Trade and Employment, José Javier Armendáriz, signed the contract on 18 May 2006 in Boston (United States). The agreement, signed with senior managers of the company Principia Technology Group, links Navarre to one of the most prestigious companies in the world in technological innovation and development in the field of new materials and materials and devices at atomic and molecular scale (new materials whose size is one millionth of a millimeter) that constitute a new techno-science.

Henry Smith, Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a pioneer in the research and development of nanotechnology and one of the most prestigious international scientists in the field, is the President of Principia. 

Javier Tejada, Professor of Condensed Material Physics at the Universidad de Barcelona and Director of the laboratory UBX, accompanied the heads of the Government of Navarre and Sodena in their visit to MIT in Boston. During the seven-hour-long visit they met the senior managers of Principia and the head of the Electrical Engineering Laboratory of MIT, Jeffrey H. Shapiro.

Javier Tejada recently received the 'Príncipe de Viana 2006' Prize for Culture, awarded by the Council of Culture of Navarre. He is also the coordinator of the development of nanotechnology infrastructures and projects arising from the agreement.

The fact that Sodena has taken a stake in the share capital of Principia means that it has established a close link with the research environment of the MIT. The Centro de Innovación Principia-Navarra is destined to be a national benchmark, and also the center that will coordinate relations between the prestigious MIT and all the projects carried out in Spain under the agreement. The activity of this laboratory is linked to R&D+I projects in the field of nanotechnology and consultancy work. The ultimate objective is that some of the research projects should become business projects to be implemented in Navarre.

The agreement signed in Boston, however, goes beyond this. In collaboration with Principia, it has enabled the setting up of the first Spanish venture capital fund for investment in nanotechnology projects. This will mean that business projects that emerge from the activity of the Innovation Center will have sufficient financial backing to guarantee their consolidation. The fund will start off with two million euros.

The success of the III National Nanotechnology Congress, held in Pamplona last March, was the forerunner of the agreement, which aims to repeat the strategic success that Navarre had with its commitment to renewable energy sources a decade ago. “Navarre needs to make a firm commitment to research to maintain -and increase in the future- the high levels of economic and social wellbeing that it enjoys at present”, said Miguel Sanz after the signature of the agreement.

The President of Navarre added that the agreement with the MIT “strengthens and drives Navarre's position in the area of Innovation, as it currently holds top place in Spain in terms of expenditure on R&D+I (1.9% of the region's GDP), ahead of other regions such as Madrid, Catalonia or the Basque Country”. Finally, the President of Navarre quoted the agreement as yet another example of the efforts made to diversify the economy of Navarre as an objective of the initiatives of Sodena, the II Technological Plan for Navarre and the industrial policy of the Government of Navarre.