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Presentation of the 7Th Edition of the Defence and Security Congress, DESEi+d 2019

Presentation of the 7Th Edition of the Defence and Security Congress, DESEi+d 2019

Yesterday, in the Isdefe conference hall, the 7th National Congress on Defence and Security R&D (DESEi+d 2019) was presented. This congress will be held from 19 to 21 November at the Navy’s Non-Commissioned Officer School in San Fernando, Cadiz.

The announcement was made by Division General José Luis Murga Martínez, Deputy Director of Planning, Technology and Innovation for the Ministry of Defence, and Jesús Ángel Paz Pena, Commanding Officer of the Navy’s Non-Commissioned Officer School in San Fernando, Cadiz, which will host the 2019 Congress and that last year celebrated its 75th anniversary.

Prior to this announcement, the results from DESEi+d 2018 were presented by Division General José Luis Murga Martínez, who noted the importance of a congress that satisfies the objectives of “bringing together all the parties involved nationally in defence and security R&D and that provides a forum for presenting and disseminating existing research and development in the civil sector, whose innovative results and methodologies are potentially applicable to national defence and security”.

Brigadier General Pedro José García Cifo, Deputy Director of Military Training, highlighted the involvement of the University Defence Centres (CUD) and the important educational, research and popularisation work being done by their teaching staffs. Of the CUD’s current 215 professors, 50 took part in DESEi+d 2018 and presented a total of 30 papers, serving to link DESEi+d and the CUD.

Colonel Santiago Aguado Arroyo, Director of the Cavalry Academy in Valladolid, which hosted DESEi+d 2018, stated that the “local impact was greater than expected”, with significant coverage from local media, a considerable effect on small and medium companies in the area, and great interest from the three universities in Valladolid. He noted that “the demand from students in military training centres to attend the Congress was very high, since their final-year projects involved presentations made at the Congress”.

This was followed by a round table to present the Isdefe 2018 R&D Award, moderated by Mr Jesús Alonso Martín, Isdefe’s Director of Business Development, and featuring the winners from the previous editions: Mr Miguel Ángel Trujillo (2016) from FADA – CATEC, Mr Raúl López Sánchez (2017) from INTA and Mr Rodrigo Blázquez, who represented Mr Mateo Burgos García (2018) from the Technical University of Madrid.

All the winners of the various editions of the “Isdefe Antonio Torres R&D Award” agreed that the “award is an important stimulus for researchers” that helps them to continue in their areas of research and improve their level of maturity until they reach their final conclusion.

Closing the event were the Ministry of Defence’s Managing Director for Armament and Materiel (DIGAM), Admiral Santiago Ramón González Gómez, and Isdefe’s CEO, Mr Francisco Quereda Rubio.

The DIGAM compared the Congress to a sounding board that brings together industry, academia and technology centres to work as a team and look for synergies. He noted that it provides a forum for exchanging ideas, interests and experiences that is useful and satisfying for all the actors involved in defence and security R&D