Microsoft to open world's first Health Innovation Center in Spain

First Microsoft Centre of Investigation into Health Innovation confirmed for Valencia.

Following a meeting in New York yesterday the president of Valencia's regional government, Francisco Camps, confirmed that Microsoft had signed an agreement to set up its first ever Centre for Health Innovation (I+D+i) in the Comunidad Valenciana. However, the exact location of the centre has not yet been revealed. There are three provinces in the Valencian Region - Alicante, Valencia and Castellon - and the Centre would be welcomed by all three.

Microsoft expressed its preference for Alicante, because of the city's excellent air connections to the rest of the world, it's good specialized health system and the high percentage of retired people among its population. But Valencia or Castellón have not been ruled out as possible locations for the centre.

Camps said that the most important result of the agreement was the fact that the Valencian Region had been chosen by Microsoft as the location for the new centre and indicated that the precise location for the centre would be known in the first fortnight of February when he would attend another meeting with the Spanish Chairperson of Microsoft, María Garaña.

Since it became known that Microsoft was thinking about setting up its first ever Centre for Health Innovation requests that the new centre be located in Alicante have been received from the University, doctors, business groups and politicians representing the region. The Port authorities have already offered a large space in a reserved zone for high technology businesses. But offers have also been received from Elche, Torrevieja and Benidorm.