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instrumentation in the Canaries’. Its business plan was satisfactorily concluded at the end of 2009. In the years that followed, with the economic crisis, the process of launching the project was again delayed. At long last, in
2015 work began on the building of IACTEC headquarters in the Science
and Technology Pole of Tenerife (INTECH), located in La Laguna, not far
from IAC headquarters. Funding has also been acquired for the hiring of staff.
Finding a location for IACTEC was also a story in itself. Our first idea was
to include the site as an extension of IAC premises. That turned out not to be
possible because the offer of space by the Canarian Government was withdrawn following a change in government. The Tenerife Cabildo later offered
us land close to Los Rodeos Airport, right under the approach path. But the
noise would have been intolerable, so we declined the offer. The Cabildo then
offered to locate us in a technology park they were planning to build close to
the south motorway: also unsuitable. It was we who finally found a space
owned by the University of La Laguna that had been abandoned and turned
into an illegal squat. Finally, after laborious negotiations with the University,
La Laguna Town Hall, and the Cabildo, European funds are now being used
for the construction of a Science and Technology Pole, linked to the University
and the Instituto de Astrofísica. It seems that nothing serious is ever achieved
in a straightforward manner in this country.
Fig. 17.6 Façade of the headquarters of IACTEC. (Credit: Inés Bonet/IAC)
F. Sánchez
instrumentation in the Canaries’. Its business plan was satisfactorily concluded at the end of 2009. In the years that followed, with the economic crisis, the process of launching the project was again delayed. At long last, in
2015 work began on the building of IACTEC headquarters in the Science
and Technology Pole of Tenerife (INTECH), located in La Laguna, not far
from IAC headquarters. Funding has also been acquired for the hiring of staff.
Finding a location for IACTEC was also a story in itself. Our first idea was
to include the site as an extension of IAC premises. That turned out not to be
possible because the offer of space by the Canarian Government was withdrawn following a change in government. The Tenerife Cabildo later offered
us land close to Los Rodeos Airport, right under the approach path. But the
noise would have been intolerable, so we declined the offer. The Cabildo then
offered to locate us in a technology park they were planning to build close to
the south motorway: also unsuitable. It was we who finally found a space
owned by the University of La Laguna that had been abandoned and turned
into an illegal squat. Finally, after laborious negotiations with the University,
La Laguna Town Hall, and the Cabildo, European funds are now being used
for the construction of a Science and Technology Pole, linked to the University
and the Instituto de Astrofísica. It seems that nothing serious is ever achieved
in a straightforward manner in this country.
Fig. 17.6 Façade of the headquarters of IACTEC. (Credit: Inés Bonet/IAC)
F. Sánchez