The Marañosa Institute of Technology (ITM) hosted the SecuDRONE technology workshop, held on 4 October and organised by the Association for the Promotion of Strategic Technologies and Industries (APTIE), under the context of the needs and answers involving drones, antidrones and security applications.

Isdefe took part in the workshop and participated in the presentation “Drone swarms for security”, led by Isdefe engineer Mariano Gómez Plaza, an expert in the area of surveillance technologies for public security. 

On 21 September, Valladolid hosted the 19th Workshop of the Club of Quality and Innovation Directors

The workshop, organised by ZITEC Consultores, a leading member of the Club of Management Excellence, featured Tirso Camacho Mira, Head of the Strategic Planning and Processes Department at Isdefe, who presented the Role Model for Creating Public Value developed by Isdefe.

This model describes and organises, from a perspective of value creation, the different strategies and approaches adopted by public institutions to accomplish their mission.

It has been almost five years since Law 19/2013 of 9 December on transparency, access to public information and good governance went into effect, laying out a new way to view relationships between the Administration and the citizenry.

Ever since, in compliance with its legal obligations, Isdefe made available to the public a “Transparency Portal” on its website.

The Defence, Security and Space Forum (DSS Forum), sponsored by the European Microwave Association (EuMA) and Microwave Journal, was held on 26 September at the facilities of the Madrid fairgrounds (IFEMA). This year’s theme was the integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in defence and security scenarios.

Fernando Arias, senior consultant in Isdefe’s Defence and Security Department, took part in the roundtable on “Efforts & Investment Needs to Drive UAV Technologies to Market”.

On 25 September, at its assembly hall, Isdefe hosted the meeting of the Executive Level of the military airworthiness authorities (MAWA) forum. The meeting was chaired by Major General (R) Edvardas Mažeikis, who heads the Airworthiness, Standardisation and Certification (ASC) unit of the European Defence Agency (EDA) and brought together the national defence authorities of various European countries.

Organised by the University Research Centre for Homeland Security (IUISI), in partnership with Isdefe, this workshop on border and transport security was held on 19 September with the participation of the main institutions that are involved in this activity in Spain.

The workshop was opened by the Commander of the Civil Guard’s Coastal and Border, Port and Airport Security Service, Mr Simón Venzal Contreras, the director of IUISI and professor of international law at the UNED, Ms Fanny Castro-Rial, and Mr Álvaro Manresa, Head of Business Development at Isdefe.

The 1st National Congress on Systems Engineering, organised by Isdefe and the AEIS, will take place on 25 October on the topic of “Cross-sector Vision of Systems Engineering in Spain”.

The 11th Seminar on “Satellites as a key element for security, defence and government applications” was held at the Cantabria Science and Technology Park in Santander from 5 to 7 September. The Seminar was hosted by Hisdesat and AMETIC.

The conferences and roundtables at this year’s seminar dealt with the current status of satellite government services.

The seminar was opened by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs (JEMACON), Admiral Francisco Javier González-Huix Fernández, and closed by the Secretary of State for Defence, Mr Ángel Olivares Ramírez.

Isdefe, which has considerable experience and know-how in the field of astrophysics and space sciences, took part yet again this year in the congress organised by the Spanish Astronomical Society and which hosted its 13th scientific gathering.

The event, held in Salamanca from 16 to 20 July, brought together most of Spain’s astrophysics community and featured more than 400 professional astronomers.

The course, organised by CESEDEN along with the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, was held from 16 to 18 July and featured Isdefe and public and private agencies involved with defence technology. One of the goals of the event was to introduce and discuss the opportunities derived from the European Union’s involvement in defence.