Port of Barcelona launches new €60 million blue economy hub

Construction has officially begun on BlueTechPort, a new large-scale innovation hub for the blue economy promoted by the Port of Barcelona and World Trade Center Barcelona. The project will transform the historic Sant Bertran warehouses and the surrounding port area into a unique European ecosystem for applied innovation, where buildings and port facilities will operate as a single experimental laboratory.

With a total investment of €60 million, the first stone marks the start of works on a new 25,000 m² space, scheduled for completion by 2028.

The future facilities will host around 2,500 professionals and companies linked to the blue economy. BlueTechPort is conceived as the core of a much broader innovation ecosystem, extending beyond the Sant Bertran dock to turn the entire port area into a real-life testing environment for new technologies and solutions in the port sector and the blue economy.

“BlueTechPort is a blue economy hub that will put Barcelona on the world map”

Núria Burguera, Director of Communications at the Port of Barcelona

Share quote:

• X
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Whatsapp

“BlueTechPort is a blue economy hub that will put Barcelona on the world map,” said Núria Burguera, Director of Communications at the Port of Barcelona, during the opening of the event.

This applied innovation hub represents a significant step forward in the Port of Barcelona’s innovation strategy. The port has already demonstrated its ability to foster emerging companies and new business models through the initial development phases of BlueTechPort. Currently, 22 companies are part of the initiative, operating between Pier01 at Tech Barcelona and the first warehouse at Sant Bertran until this autumn.

Several of these companies have already established themselves within the Port of Barcelona and are testing their prototypes on the 50 linear metres of the Barcelona Nord quay specifically allocated for this purpose. This model is expected to be progressively extended across the rest of the port area, scaling innovation throughout the port and reinforcing Barcelona’s role as a hub for the blue economy.

“BlueTechPort is more than just a building. It is the gateway to an open laboratory that spans the entire Port of Barcelona, where innovations can be tested under real operating conditions,” said José Alberto Carbonell, President of the Port of Barcelona. He highlighted that this ecosystem will integrate initiatives such as the BCN Port Innovation Foundation and projects under the Ports 4.0 programme, while also generating synergies with other leading innovation players already based at the port, including Tech Barcelona and Norrsken.

Gustavo Santana, President of Spain’s State Ports Authority, underlined the strategic role of ports as drivers of innovation across multiple sectors and stressed that facilities such as BlueTechPort position ports as key catalysts for the blue economy. In turn, Carles Anglada, CEO of World Trade Center Barcelona, described BlueTechPort as a “meeting point for collaboration and synergies” within a rapidly expanding ecosystem that already attracts international talent.

The Minister for Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition of the Government of Catalonia, Sílvia Paneque, recalled that “the new BlueTechPort is built on a legacy of country and on scientific knowledge that gives it solidity and certainty,” highlighting the role of the Catalan Maritime Co-Management Council. This body brings together representatives of the Catalan government, marine research centres, blue economy sectors, and civil society organizations, and “has carried out exemplary work in recent years and now also has the satisfaction of having this new centre for innovation in blue economy technology in Barcelona.”

Finally, the Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, stressed that “BlueTechPort is an initiative fully integrated into the city’s economic diversification strategy and a flagship project of Barcelona’s commitment to the Blue Economy. Reusing disused physical spaces through technology and the ability to attract talent via this port-sector-linked project should enable us to guarantee the right to stay in the city, creating new job opportunities for the people of Barcelona.”

Source: Port de Barcelona