The Regional Government of Galicia is continuing to make progress with the Civil UAVs Initiative, a strategic initiative aimed at promoting innovative solutions based on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to improve the provision of public services and create a technological innovation pole in this segment of the aerospace sector.

The Aerospace Pole of Galicia has been boosted by the support of the Public Procurement of Innovation (PPI), a key tool to attract investment and promote demand-side innovation.

To date, 12 contracts for solutions have been awarded between 2015 and 2023. With a view to future tenders, the Galician Innovation Agency has recently launched a new Preliminary Market Consultation to further promote the integration of technologies based on unmanned vehicles in public services. 

This new call to the market aims to identify new projects that can be funded through the DSI line of the Ministry of Science and Innovation within the framework of the Multiregional Operational Programme FEDER 21-27.

In particular, five new challenges have been identified:

• Challenge 1: Productive land and landscape protection. Recovery of agricultural land and protection of areas of special landscape interest through the use of UAVs.
• Challenge 2: Atlantic Islands Natural Park. Surveillance, rescue, salvage, environmental monitoring, oceanographic research and pollution control in the Atlantic Islands Natural Park using UAVs.
• Challenge 3: Repopulation and natural heritage. Repopulation of land with UAVs and integration of natural heritage information provided by UAVs and other long-range platforms (satellites and HAPS).
• Challenge 4: Safe roads. Wildlife and vegetation control, traffic demand estimation, inspection, maintenance and preservation.
• Challenge 5: Safe society. Improving security through the use of UAVs: intelligence and forensic analysis, protection and security.

Since 2015, the Galician Aerospace Pole has generated a consolidated ecosystem in which numerous public and private actors have participated. This has been led by the departments and areas of the Regional Government of Galicia itself, who use the technologies created and identify new challenges to present to the market. The challenges presented so far have received a response from numerous universities, knowledge centres and companies (both tractor companies and SMEs). These have carried out more than 100 R&I projects through Public Procurement of Innovation, as well as 30 business projects in incubation, acceleration and consolidation at Business Factory Aero. 

More than 1,300 professionals are working on these projects (85% highly qualified) and a public-private investment of almost 500 million euros is being made.