The International Projects Department of Fundación Laboral de la Construcción has a new manager since April 1st. Miguel de Gracia Mena is an Industrial Technical Engineer from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) -with an Honorable Mention-, Masters in Chemical Engineering and Doctor cum laude in Chemical Engineering from the Universidad Complutense in Madrid (UCM).

De Gracia has developed almost his entire professional career in the field of Research, Development and Innovation (R+D+i), starting at the Universidad Complutense itself and continuing in companies in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries

Since 2016, he has undertaken innovation project management roles at Ineco, a leading engineering and consultancy company in the infrastructure sector in Spain, which became the technical service and means of the Ministry of Development (currently the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda), since 2008.

At Ineco, Miguel de Gracia participated in projects for the Horizon 2020 program and led multidisciplinary teams and initiatives related to smart cities, universal accessibility, interior geopositioning and apps, among other areas, managing innovation projects from the idea generation phase to the development, deployment and manufacture of products.

Some of the projects he has carried out are:

• “Terra” Proyect,  o the Horizon 2020 programme, with Ineco: Analysis of the performance requirements of very low level airspace drone operations and identification of new and existing terrestrial technologies that could meet these requirements, proposing the best technical structure to carry out monitoring operations using drones. Today, this work follows on from previous international projects in the field of the Single European Sky.

• Infra-Adapt" project, of the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI): search for innovative solutions to adapt to the meteorological effects caused by climate change on road infrastructures, based on the Building Information Modelling (BIM) methodology.

• Ineco's "TEAcompaño" project: Development of a mobile application (app), whose main objective is to help to structure and simplify the process of travelling by air to make it accessible to people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Specific Language Disorder (SLD), thus improving their user experience and that of their companions. It was Ineco's first social work project, in which entities such as Aena and the Alanda Foundation collaborated; and it also became a pioneer in the application of innovative techniques such as user experience and design thinking to develop innovation focused on people and on the observation of the user.

• Make vs Buy" project, from the company International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF): a technology transfer initiative to synthesize molecules and intermediaries  in the manufacture of fragrances, based on their own know-how, instead of turning to markets and competitors to acquire them. On this basis, 20 molecules were synthesized, the most important being balc-aldehyde, an intermediary  in fragrances that are well known to the public, such as those of Chanel.

At Fundación Laboral de la Construcción he will lead a team of 14 professionals who are developing more than 20 European projects coordinated by the joint entity, as well as the new proposals to the different European programmes. In addition, he will set up new lines of collaboration and cooperation between the International Projects Department and the Territorial Councils of Fundación Laboral, and new ways of transferring knowledge regarding the results of the Foundation's European initiatives.