A showcase of innovative, Galician materials available to professionals and researchers. This is the umbrella under which the Materioteca de Galicia was created, a facility launched in Ferrol in 2018 at the CIS Technology and Design as one of the new features for the Design for Innovation 2020 Programme, which the Regional Government of Galicia created with the aim of promoting the incorporation and systematisation of design in companies as a driver of innovation and competitiveness.

Here you can find the resources and services needed to take full advantage of new materials in circular economy projects, Industry 4.0 and digital transformation and all kinds of innovative initiatives aimed at developing products and solutions with high added value.

Since its creation, the Materioteca de Galicia has become a reference point for all those Galician professionals who research, innovate and design in relation to new materials. It aims to be a meeting place both for those who create them and for those who use them, and a focus for the dissemination of materials technology originating in Galicia.

Santiago Nieto, technical manager of the Materioteca de Galicia, explains that the starting point of the project was the collection of innovative materials in order to put them on display. It is an exhibition with free access that works as a library where the materials can be seen and looked up in order to discover all their characteristics and specificities. The project also benefits from a very extensive database where more information on each of these materials can be obtained.

"The exhibition," says Nieto, "means that designers interested in learning about these materials can approach them in a direct and intuitive way. They can see what it looks like, if it is flexible, they can see its quality, etc. When they want to access a particular material, they have the information they need to contact each of the manufacturers," he says.

A living exhibition

Since it opened, companies and organisations, as well as the three Galician universities, have sent in samples that are being added to the exhibition.

The initiative operates as a technology surveillance unit in which materials produced in Galicia are put to good use. The Materioteca has its own database of Galician materials and also an external database with more than 8,000 materials from all over the world, which can be accessed by anyone interested in finding out more about them.

"We are disseminators of materials," says Nieto. They use a proactive working method whereby they contact companies and ask them for samples of their innovative materials so that they can be added to the exhibition and to the public access database through their web portal.

To date, the exhibition has more than 100 materials from different sectors. They plan to add 20 more materials to this list in the next six months. "There is a continuous exchange of technology and materials transfer regardless of the sectors the companies come from," says Nieto.

Materials given a second chance

The centre brings together entrepreneurs, companies and technology centres seeking additional training or materials from other sectors that can be applied to their own. There are also materials that, through other companies, are given a new lease of life and a second chance. Examples of these synergies include materials for food use that end up being applied to the aeronautical sector, solutions using mussel shells to reduce the environmental impact of concrete or new solutions to combat climate change.

The company Betanzos HB is carrying out testing alongside another firm to apply its 'Tablex' wood board for computer cases or automotive components while preserving its sustainable development.

In the Materioteca de Galicia, Galician materials have found the perfect space to increase their diffusion, while at the same time, they help new projects to develop new materials. This provides new uses and more market opportunities for higher value-added products. The centre has also held a contest of innovative materials from Galicia. The best ones will undergo a market study and will be put in contact with other firms to increase their commercialisation.