Fomento de San Sebastián and CEIT strengthen their alliance to boost innovation and young talent in advanced industrial services

Councillor Ane Oyarbide has visited CEIT’s facilities to sign the new agreement that strengthens San Sebastián’s commitment to becoming a benchmark in science and innovation with social impact.

The signing of this new agreement enables the development of strategies to promote and raise awareness around entrepreneurship, attract and retain young talent, and foster technology transfer.

Fomento de San Sebastián and the research center CEIT have renewed their commitment to consolidating the city as a hub of science and innovation. The new agreement, signed during a visit by the Councillor for Economy and Local Employment, Ane Oyarbide, to CEIT’s premises—accompanied by Iñigo Olaizola, Managing Director of Fomento de San Sebastián—will make it possible to jointly develop strategies to promote entrepreneurship, attract and retain young talent, and boost technology transfer.

CEIT is a non-profit research center, part of the Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), created by the University of Navarra in 1982. Its mission is to enhance the competitiveness of companies through technology transfer and the training of young researchers.

According to Ane Oyarbide, Councillor for Economy and Local Employment, "we continue to reaffirm our commitment to science, innovation, and talent as key pillars of our sustainable economic development model. Renewing the collaboration agreement with CEIT is a concrete example of this strategic commitment: an alliance with a leading technology center that excels in training young researchers and involving them in cutting-edge projects with international reach. In short, it is a way to build a more competitive, more innovative, and better-prepared city for the challenges of the future."

Juan Meléndez, General Director of Ceit, stated that “for Ceit, the signing of this new agreement with Fomento de San Sebastián reaffirms the mutual and long-standing commitment to a solid public-private partnership, with the shared goal of driving economic growth and development in Donostia. Both institutions share a focus on talent, technology transfer, and support for entrepreneurship, and our projects and initiatives naturally align in that direction. The support of Fomento de San Sebastián over the years has been crucial for connecting with local talent and businesses, helping us bring our technology closer to a broader audience through activities such as the WeekInn or the Donostia Innovation Challenge. We would also like to particularly highlight the generosity and flexibility shown by Fomento de San Sebastián over a decade ago when we co-created the Technology Voucher program.”

Strategic areas of collaboration

As an example of collaboration, CEIT has been actively involved in promoting STEM vocations since 2019 as a mentoring entity in the Donostia Innovation Challenge, a technology challenge program organized by the Municipal Society for local schools. CEIT has also participated in all editions of the Talent Fair organized by Fomento de San Sebastián.

Both entities also collaborate on science outreach activities aimed at encouraging scientific vocations among young people, promoting gender equality in science, and bringing research closer to the public—especially during Innovation Week (WeekINN). As part of this event, CEIT was awarded the DSSINN prize in 2019 for being a leading institution in the promotion of innovation in the city and for its outstanding international outreach and connections with top-tier institutions and hubs.

Furthermore, since the opening of Talent House in 2011, 23 CEIT professionals—10 of them with PhDs—have been hosted there. In 2017, both entities signed a specific agreement to boost CEIT’s IoT Space as a key project for retaining local talent and offering professional development opportunities.

The collaboration also extends to the field of entrepreneurship. CEIT identifies projects with potential and refers them to the EKINN+ acceleration program run by Fomento de San Sebastián. Four CEIT spin-offs have already been mentored through this program. A current example is BideRoad, a CEIT spin-off developing a pilot project based on artificial intelligence to improve maintenance management for four road networks in the city—an initiative that originated from the Municipal Society’s Innovative Ideas Contest.

CEIT was the first center to launch the Technology Vouchers initiative in 2014. Since then, 88 technology vouchers have been managed, with a total value of €911,000, facilitating access for local companies to advanced services for industry.

A consolidated innovation ecosystem

San Sebastián has a robust research ecosystem: 30 centers are part of the Basque Science and Technology Network, R&D&I investment reached €325.4 million in 2023, and 3.7% of the city’s GDP is dedicated to innovation—well above the European, regional, and national averages.

The city employs more than 6,300 professionals in the sector—4.6% of its active population—and leads all provincial capitals in terms of R&D employment intensity, according to the Fundación COTEC’s Map of Technological Employment.