A centre of excellence for printed intelligence is to be built in the Navarre region in Spain and the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is delivering a roadmap study on printed intelligence to the Asociación de la Industria Navarra for this purpose. The study outlines what kind of expertise will be required for research and development in printed intelligence in the future and what kind of applications are to be expected in the selected branches of industry. The new centre of excellence is expected to generate significant new business while supporting sectors in which the region is already strong.
For the Asociación de la Industria Navarra, the roadmap offers a comprehensive and multi-dimensional operating guide. It features three future scenarios for each of the selected sectors, a listing of the technologies that best fit each of these scenarios and their feasibility for commercial use. The roadmap has been prepared by a team of experts at VTT with an exceptionally broad range of cross-discipline expertise enabling the gauging of the potential and practical applications of the technology.
Development has also been pursued in cooperation with local experts. The final stage of the project started in August with the selection of the principal technologies to be developed and their practical applications, together with the securing of the expertise necessary for their development. A total of €4.2 M has already been invested in the building of the centre. A total of €900,000 will be invested in equipment up until 2010 and the operating budget for 2011 will be €1.1 M.