With the intention to decentralize innovation, by next year at least ten centers of the Network of Innovation Centers (REDi) will operate throughout Jalisco.
During his participation in Jalisco Talent Land Digital 2021, the head of the Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Technology (SICyT,) Alfonso Pompa Padilla, said that REDi, together with the Open Innovation Platform (PLAI,) are the two organizations that they created to bring innovation to all corners of Jalisco.
"We have to bring innovation to all corners of Jalisco, not just where it is easier to do it, which is typically in universities and very large cities," said Padilla during his presentation.
REDi is a strategic project of the SICyT that consists of physical and virtual spaces where there are entrepreneurship programs, innovation events, spaces suitable for coworking, and other services.
It currently has three locations in operation: one in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area, another in Ocotlán and one more in Zapotlán el Grande. To these will be added six more that will be located within some of the 13 José Mario Molina Pasquel y Henríquez Technological Institutes.
The secretary highlighted that both REDi and PLAI were created to bring innovation and develop talent throughout Jalisco. About PLAI, he explained that his role was key during the economic crisis caused by Covid-19, because through his online courses and training he supported various medium and small companies in this period.
"Our intention is to reach at least ten centers next year and have that network where people can receive through PLAI all their content, and the possibility of contacting others," he said.
To support the scientific and technological development of Jalisco, Pompa Padilla highlighted in his conference three existing programs in the State Council of Science and Technology. They are the Jalisco Innovation Program; the Jalisco Scientific Development Fund, and the Science to Market Program.
He affirmed that in Jalisco there are cases of innovators such as Francisco Valdéz, an expert in sewage treatment; Juan Armendáriz, who has more than 25 international patents in biotechnology; and Margarita Kaplun, an expert in solving the problem of energy consumption through infrared rays, among others.
"I believe that if we look around we could recognize our innovators and we could find a way to support them," he concluded.