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Andalucía Innova

Andalusia's I+D+I public system includes over 20,000 researchers and more than 1,900 research groups. Together with Madrid and Cataluña, Andalusia has a great potential, with 15% of the nation's total scientific output. This privileged position has been possible thanks both to the regional government's financial support to the I+D+I and the aid of the private sector. In 2005, the Andalusian Programme for the Spreading of Scientific Knowledge (today Andalucía Innova) created the news agency InnovaPress in Spanish, with the aim of providing prompt information about scientific developments in the region. The project follows the European Commission's guidelines for the creation of a major scientific news agency that will enhance the spread of such information, and will serve as a new tool for the EU's economic reforms set out in Lisbon, as debated in Brussels last December 2004. The Andalusian Programme for the Spreading of Scientific Knowledge is sponsored by the Andalusian Ministry of Innovation, Science and Enterprise. This is a pioneering project in Europe, which has managed to gather research, higher education and knowledge-based industry, I.T.s, and entreprenurial, industrial and energy policies. With the interaction of all these agents in mind, the Andalusian Ministry of Innovation, Science and Enterprise intends to create a major social alliance that will enable an "innovation explosion" in Andalusia as exclusive guarantee of progress and welfare development. Some of the actions carried out by the regional government include a brand new Multi-annual Plan for University Infrastructure Investment for the period 2006-2010, with a total budget of 480 million Euros for the ten Andalusian public universities. With this new Plan, investment in university infrastructure and equipments agents in mind, policies groups. Also, a new system of incentives has been established for Research Groups and Excellence Projects, reaching a total of 202 million Euros (2005-2008), to start 1,146 excellence projects dealing with Life Sciences, Food and Agriculture, Information Technologies, etc. Through InnovaPress, the Andalusian Programme for the Spreading of Scientific Knowledge will channel this new sustainable economic and social model, based on the creation of social welfare, respect for the environment and equal opportunities, within the major framework of the second modernisation of Andalusia.