Barcelona KEY (Knowledge Economy Yard) is a project led by the Government of Catalonia, Barcelona City Council and the Sant Adrià de Besòs City Council. Its aim is to attract high value-added research and business projects and new top-level international academic research activity to Catalonia, to strengthen the role of Barcelona and Catalonia as an economic and knowledge hub.

Barcelona KEY’s main aim is to attract value-added companies, research or higher education institutions with recognised international standing.

For the creation of Barcelona KEY, an urban space of 34,500 square metres of land (84,000 square metres of floor area) has been reserved at Sant Adrià de Besòs, in the northernmost part of Barcelona, by the sea. This land is divided into two areas: one of 16,000 square metres of public land (Campus plot) and the other of 18,500 square metres of private land (Port plot).

In 2013 the eleven proposals presented by twenty institutions from around the world were selected to set up at Barcelona KEY. The central hub of the future knowledge economy city will consist of projects related to engineering, in the three areas around which Barcelona KEY is formed: higher education, research and entrepreneurship. Other sectors represented are the biomedical, social innovation, design and business sectors.

Until February 2014, the proposals selected in the International Ideas Competition will take part in the Projects Contest, in which the development of their activity is specified and the space requirements, architectural and urban aspects and the job-creation capacities of the project determined. The Projects Contest will be judged in May 2014.

ECONOMIC AND TECHNICAL DATA

• 34,500 m² of land surface with a total surface floor area of 84,000 m², set out in 16,000 m² of public land (Campus plot) and 18,500 m² of private land (Port plot)
• Term of execution: 5 November 2012 – May 2014