The motto of the International Conference of the APTE (Association of Science and Technology Parks of Spain) in its 9th edition was ‘The City, NODE of knowledge’, which focused on the analysis of future cities as well as those cities that knowledge turn into wealth and viceversa with instruments like the Science and Technology Parks.

The Consortium Biopol’H is part of the APTE so it shares the objectives of the theme of this edition of the General Assembly of the association, since it seeks to create an area for knowledge to be the meeting point for researchers, companies and other stakeholders that can contribute to the creation of this 'node' of knowledge.

The event was held April 27th through April 29th in the Science and Technology Park of La Cartuja in Seville and it was attended by several important figures, such as José Antonio Griñán, President of the Regional Ministry of Andalucia; Antonio Ávila, Minister of Economy, Innovation and Science of the Regional Ministry of Andalucia (CICE); Juan Tomás Hernani, General Secretary for Innovation from the Ministry of Science and Innovation; Alfredo Sánchez Monteseirín, mayor of Seville; Felipe Romera, President of the APTE and Isaías Pérez Saldaña, President of Cartuja 93.

The president of the APTE, Felipe Romera, presented statistics with data for fiscal 2011, highlighting the increased number of companies in an 8.3%, the increase of employment rate by 7% and above all the significant growth of investment in research and development (R&D) activities and the creation of job positions in R&D in a 26% and 10% respectively. Moreover, Romera pointed out that the Science and Technology Parks are hallmarks of the country and an excellent instrument of the National Innovation System. There are a total of 5,539 companies located in them that represent the most innovative companies in the country.