Asturias will transform the Carrio mining shaft into a cutting-edge innovation centre for testing industrial technology
The Centre, which will be implemented through the Sekuens Agency, will create laboratories and spaces for meetings and cultural creation and includes projects on the food of the future, mobility, energy, digitalisation and forestry development
The Government of Asturias, through the Sekuens Agency, will transform the old Carrio mine shaft, in the municipality of Laviana, into an innovation centre with three different spaces that will be used as an industrial test laboratory for technological development, business activities and cultural activities. The Principality will allocate nearly 2.7 million, co-financed by the Just Transition Fund (FTJ), to the remodelling of the mine’s exterior facilities and the development of the project.
The Regional Councillor for Science, Business, Training and Employment, Borja Sánchez, and the director of the Sekuens Agency, David González, presented the master plan, which includes three work areas: The machine room, dedicated to technology; Life in the shaft, a space for social integration and coworking, and The gallery, for creation and culture.
The project stems from the idea of transforming and reusing old mining operations that, like Carrio, produced coal until recently. The transfer of the facility by Hunosa and the setting up of an association made up of institutions and companies and led by the Principality have made this new initiative possible, which aims to contribute to the economic transformation of Asturias and the reactivation of the mining region, in this case, in the Nalón basin.
Borja Sánchez stressed the symbolic importance of giving a new life to facilities that are now mining industrial archaeology and that have been crucial in the development of Asturias. He also stressed that one of the central axes of the actions to be undertaken in the area is the creation of an innovation mine.
The Carrio innovation centre aims to become a key space for pre-industrialisation, i.e. a regional and national reference point for industrial technology testing.
Both the buildings that previously served as a toilet room, lamp shop or forge workshop, as well as the outdoor areas, will be transformed into laboratories, pilot plants and new workspaces. The centre will promote, among other actions, the following:
- Greenhouses 4.0 dedicated to the agriculture and food of the future, focusing on bioprocesses, probiotics and prebiotics. Underground crops with LED lighting will also be installed as part of a pilot plan of the Regional Service for Agri-Food Research and Development (Serida).
- Sustainable energy communities, focusing on mini-grids and bioenergy.
- Mobility, with projects on autonomous and electric vehicles.
- Digitalisation, through initiatives linked to virtual reality and artificial intelligence.
- Actions in the forestry area to test drones, the internet of things (IoT), new materials and robotisation.
Two of the main spaces of the innovation centre will be located in key areas for mine workers before going down the shaft galleries:
The engine room will be the engine and the industrial technology development space, it will occupy the building that used to be used as a workshop and materials forge and will include two areas: a demonstration space, for prototype testing, and an industrialisation space, for scaling up technological models for industrial use.
Life in the shaft will focus on the area where the miners prepared to access the derrick and descend into the mine. The old toilet block will be an area for meetings, reflection and the organisation of conferences, while the lamp shop will be used as a space for ephemeral exhibitions, with innovation in mining as the theme for the first intervention to be programmed.
Finally, as a complement, in the area of the old Barredos shaft, in the same complex, is the gallery, a facility in which the Laviana Town Council will act, designed as a space for meeting and work for
New members of the association
This morning’s visit was attended by the companies and public and private entities that form part of the Carrio innovation centre association, which now includes new members such as Capsa, Alsa and Satec. The latter two have their own R&D&I centres in Asturias.
The Carrio innovation centre project was also presented to the companies, institutions and investors taking part in the La Granja Impact conference, a foodtech meeting organised by the Sekuens Agency and Capsa Food, with the collaboration of the Regional Ministry of Science, Business, Training and Employment, the Hunosa Group and the Society for the Development of the Mining Regions (Sodeco).
For two days, in the old wells of Sotón (San Martín del Rey Aurelio) and Carrio (Laviana), more than fifty experts will meet to discuss the most innovative developments in the national and international food sector.
*In the main image, above, from left to right: the representative of the University of Oviedo, José Ignacio García; the director of Sodeco, Francisco Fernández; the director of Hunosa Empresas, Elisa Uría; the president of Sodeco, Antonio Crespo; the representative of Fidelitas Asesores, Gustavo Alija; the secretary of the Oviedo Chamber of Commerce, Fernando Villabella; the director of Companies of Caja Rural de Asturias, Miguel Ángel Traverso; the representative of Gonvarri AgroTech, Jorge Pérez; the director of CTIC, Pablo Coca; and the representative of Campo Astur, Jesús López. Below, from left to right: Capsa’s Director of Innovation, Rubén Hidalgo; the manager of the Carrio Innovation Centre, Susana de la Fuente; the CEO of Sekuens, David González; the President of Hunosa, Enrique Fernández; the Regional Minister of Science, Borja Sánchez; the Mayor of Laviana, Julio García; the representative of Campo Astur, Marcelino González; the Director of Compromiso Asturias XXI, Reyes Ceñal, and José Emilio García, from the Gijón Chamber of Commerce.
