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The UMA considers him to be the architect of the creation of a technological innovation ecosystem in Malaga based on the synergy between Malaga TechPark and the University.
Felipe Romera Lubias has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Malaga. This is the first doctorate proposed by the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería de Telecomunicación, which recognises the great merit of being “the creator of an ecosystem of technological innovation in the city based on the synergy between the Parque Tecnológico de Andalucía and the UMA”.
This was announced by the first director of the ETSI of Telecommunications, Professor Carlos Camacho, in the laudatio he delivered as Romera’s godfather in the University Auditorium, which hosted an investiture ceremony attended by numerous representatives of the business, technological, political, academic and social Malaga.
The ceremony was presided over by the rector of the University of Malaga, José Ángel Narváez, accompanied in the procession by two Andalusian rectors – the president of the CRUE and rector of Córdoba, José Carlos Gómez Villamandos, and the rector of Granada, Pilar Aranda; the former rector of the UMA, Adelaida de la Calle; the current director of the School, Rafael Godoy; the author of the honorary doctorate proposal, José Tomás Estrambasaguas, and Carlos Camacho, the doctoral candidate’s godfather.
Spectacular projection of the PTA
Felipe Romera is the general manager of what is now called Malaga TechPark, an entity he has chaired since 1992, when the then Parque Tecnológico de Andalucía – a rara avis in Spain at the time – was created with eight companies and 130 workers. Just six years later, the technopolis grew to 100 companies, 1,700 employees and a turnover of 200 million euros. The evolution of the PTA has been spectacular and today its turnover exceeds 2,300 million euros and 22,000 workers, with more than 600 companies.
According to Carlos Camacho in his laudatio, it was in the 90s when Málaga TechPark was considered a management model in Spain. At that time, Felipe Romera began to be recognised worldwide as an expert in technology transfer and dissemination processes. Proof of this is that he managed to get the world headquarters of the International Association of Technology Parks (IASP) and the Association of Science and Technology Parks of Spain (APTE), which he currently chairs, installed in Malaga TechPark.
A Telecommunications Engineer from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, he initially worked at Ericsson’s research centres in Madrid and Stockholm. In 1978 he came to Malaga to join the newly created research and development department of SECOINSA, where he worked on the development of real-time operating systems and communications software for the then nascent computer networks.
SECOINSA became Fujitsu España and its R&D centre in Malaga, under Romera’s direction, developed in the 1980s world-leading technology systems, such as the large packet-switching exchanges for Telefónica’s data networks, telephone modems with advanced signal processing technology and the first multiprocessor computers with UNIX operating system to be developed in Spain.
In 1990, he was entrusted with the creation and management of the PTA, a job that he combined with the management of Fujitsu’s R&D department. Thirty years later, at the ceremony of his investiture as Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Malaga, he was recognised for his achievements and his efforts to contribute to the projection of the UMA.
Malaga TechPark-UMA/UMA-Malaga TechPark
According to his godfather, “it is impossible to understand the success of Malaga TechPark without the contribution of the UMA, in the same way that it is impossible to understand the current positioning of the UMA without Malaga TechPark. They are two projects that grew up together and have become realities that arouse the interest and admiration of other universities and technology parks”.
As examples, “the research projects of the UMA in collaboration with Cetecom-AT4 Wireless, Nokia Ericsson…. Without the UMA, multinationals such as Keysight Technologies, Dekra or Ericsson, to name but a few in the telecommunications sector, would probably not be located in Malaga TechPark”, continued Carlos Camacho, who also mentioned the large number of University students working in the Park and the development element of the El Rayo Verde building, “a key element in the transfer of technology that positions the UMA as an example of relations between the academic and business worlds, as well as an entrepreneurial university linked to open innovation”.
For all these reasons, the sponsor summarises Romera’s fundamental contributions in three main points:
⦁ The creation of a technological innovation ecosystem based on the synergy between the PTA and the UMA.
⦁ The development of different models of technological innovation that have been exported to other locations and have been internationally recognised.
⦁ The international projection of the UMA through its numerous publications and dissemination activities, highlighting the importance of the UMA in the success of Malaga TechPark.
Pride of the doctoral student
After the godfather’s speech, an emotional Felipe Romera received the title, the cap, the ring, the gloves, the medal and the book of science from the rector, accrediting him as a member of the University Senate. After the ceremonial promise of loyalty read in Latin, the doctoral student expressed his gratitude to the University, “an intimate and personal satisfaction that I have at this moment and that it is not possible to convey in words”.
Romera recalled his first steps at the UMA as a lecturer at the Polytechnic University School “to teach microprocessors”. Years later he was appointed secretary of the University’s Social Council, an entity which, in his words, worked hand in hand with Pedro Aparicio’s Malaga City Council to lay the foundations for the Technology Park.
Applying the theory of the different waves of innovation in Silicon Valley, the foundations of the PTA were laid. The ETSI of Computer Science and Telecommunications were created at the UMA, experts (professionals and academics) came to the city, large companies were promoted, spin-offs were developed, the blue building of university institutes was erected in the technopolis, and the OTRI was created. All this created a breeding ground for technological innovation that culminated in the agreement signed in 2013 to establish a catalogue of joint services between the UMA and the PTA to offer to companies.
In this way, park-university relations were increased. The PTA was extended to the Teatinos site and the UMA became a member of the Park’s Board of Directors. The Green Lightning arrived, which, in Romera’s opinion, “has allowed greater permeability between the clusters of the park that work in digital technologies of the fourth industrial revolution and the university in artificial intelligence, big data or cybersecurity technologies. And in recent months, the creation of the Ricardo Valle Innovation Institute (InnovaIRV) and the Digital Eye.
“With all these elements I have worked for the last 30 years to try to develop a virtuous system of innovation in Malaga; time will tell if we have succeeded,” he concluded his speech.
The future began in Malaga in 1992
His words gave rise to the recognition of the rector, who recalled the year 1992 and the image of a young engineer named Felipe Romera enthusiastically showing his project to the authorities on the day of the inauguration of the Park. “He was talking about the long term, something that not everyone understood, because in Spain talking about the long term always sounded strange. At the end of the event, someone came up with the exact phrase. In Málaga the future has begun'”.
Narváez recalled the beginnings of the PTA. “The Technology Park, like the university, did not have an easy childhood, nor was it free of difficulties. The Park grew up amidst the scepticism of those who believed that the implementation in southern Spain of the Silicon Valley model was simply a utopian idea. But that utopia was worth considering. It was possible. At that time there was already a university in Málaga that was beginning to develop its technological profile. And Felipe began to design a unique and unknown model in our country, and, most difficult of all, a Silicon Valley-style model, but in a completely different social, cultural and economic environment”.
It was about designing a future together,” he continued, “(…) the University went to the Park and the Park has come to the University. Thirty years have passed since the Technology Park was inaugurated. At the University of Málaga, about to celebrate its first half century of life, we have been privileged witnesses to the growth of the Park. Three rectors and a rector have felt its pulse, sharing its vicissitudes, not always easy. And also its successes. And every day, we have found a man, no longer on the front line, but at the very apex. That man is Felipe Romera, its creator, that young telecommunications engineer who, with talent, intuition and diplomacy, was not only capable of pointing to the future with a pointer, but also of making it a reality”.
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“And it is no coincidence that this year, which marks 50 years since the creation of the University of Malaga, we recognise the figure of Felipe Romera, because in the development of the university his figure is also present”, added the rector, for whom “the project shared with the Park has allowed us to learn about this different university, attached to the environment, closely linked to the productive sector to seek solutions, but also to better train students, seek opportunities and train enterprising citizens”.
The Rector went on to praise the figure of the new honoris causa, assuring that “Felipe Romera was the right person at the right time. We were fortunate to be able to count on him and we are lucky to have him. He has been able to see the future, to convince and to inspire; he has been able to bring everyone together, inside and outside our country, through his tenacity, his ethical and social values, for being convinced of an idea and for being able to share it generously, no matter who or where”.
In conclusion, he said “that is why today we are so proud of you being one of us, because we feel that we are part of you”.