The rector of the Miguel Hernández University (UMH) of Elche, Juan José Ruiz, and the president of the Alicante Port Authority, Juan Antonio Gisbert, signed a general protocol of action between the two entities this morning. The objective of this protocol is to establish a framework for UMH research groups to collaborate with companies in the Alicante Port Logistics Cluster. The Regional Minister for Innovation, Universities, Science, and Digital Society, Carolina Pascual, also attended the event.

Also present were the Vice-Rector for Knowledge Transfer and Exchange at the Miguel Hernández University (UMH), María José López, and the Managing Director of the University’s Science Park, Tonia Salinas.

In parallel, the Port Authority of Alicante signed protocols of action on the same subject with the Rector of the University of Alicante, Amparo Navarro, and the Rector of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, José Capilla.

The Rector of the UMH and the rectors of the other universities will encourage their researchers to participate in the project development workshops that the Port Authority will organize after the summer, with a view to the Ports 4.0 Fund calls for proposals being prepared by State Ports for this fall.

Following the event, the finalists and winner of the first Open Challenge, launched by the PortLab project office in collaboration with the UMH Science Park, were announced. This challenge aimed to gather sustainable ideas for internal traffic management within the Port’s facilities. Evaluation criteria primarily considered the innovation of the idea, its potential for expansion to other ports, and the technological feasibility of the proposal, among other aspects. The PortLab technical coordinator presented the three winning proposals and announced the two runners-up, Witrac Comunicaciones Inteligentes S.L. and Tracktio. The overall winner is AllRead Machine Learning Technologies, which will receive a contract worth €2,000.