Fernando de Caralt
President
Welcome to CTAE, a non-profit R&D centre specialised in aerospace technologies. Our mission is to apply the knowledge and results of university research to promising technology developments for private businesses in any sector of the economy.
I am pleased to see how in only a few years, CTAE has become a reference in our region: it has attracted talented people, developed R&D capabilities in a number of promising areas, established strategic alliances with the university and the corporate worlds as it nurtures a strong network of international partnerships. This did not seem an easy task back in 2004, when the idea of creating an R&D centre in aerospace was launched by the Government of the Generalitat of Catalonia, in collaboration with Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), the BAIE Aerospace Cluster and a number of local and national aerospace companies.
I strongly believe that aerospace projects need multidisciplinary teams combining different technical fields and market knowledge, and this team work is what makes our profession so exciting. Many of these projects are in the R&D and innovation area, where the average aerospace company invests 14% of its turnover, significantly more than in most other sectors of the economy.
Another key factor in the development of our region is its aviation infrastructure. The regional authorities have recently set up a plan for the development of airports and airfields, which society at large must now take advantage of. Here again, CTAE can play an important role in providing the public and private sectors with technology watch and applied research services.
I hope that you will find our website interesting and wish you a fruitful cooperation with CTAE.
Juan de Dalmau
Director
I am extremely privileged to be able to work at CTAE with a group of talented scientists, engineers and administration staff, committed to serve our customers and funding agencies with quality R&D products and services.
Some of my colleagues come from abroad, but most of them are graduates from local universities, especially from the excellent degrees in industrial, telecommunications or aerospace engineering delivered by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). These promising professionals typically spend some years at CTAE and then move on to industry or government agencies with a good experience in multidisciplinary project work and with international connections. I encourage you to discover their profiles in our webpage, where you will also find where our past colleagues are now working.
You will also see that the Centre’s laboratories, developed in cooperation with university and industry, already cover strategic areas such as navigation and communications, safety-critical software, avionics testing, and composite materials manufacturing research. It is also our mission to promote technology transfer with other sectors of the economy, such as surface vehicles and mobility, logistics, environment, biomedical and others.
With our R&D capabilities, we can provide small and large businesses with pre-competitive technology developments and services. The Centre also hosts a small number of start-ups, offering incubator services and thus contributing to the emergence of new entrepreneurial initiatives, putting at their disposal our internal research and that of cooperating universities.
As a potential colleague, customer or partner, I hope you will find our website useful. Please feel free to contact us. It will be a pleasure to help you further.
