The Vitoria-Gasteiz Araba Mobility Lab Foundation is now fully up and running. After signing a contract with the University of the Basque Country to carry out various studies on mobility in the city and the Territory, the people who will form part of the project in its initial phase will start working this week. Three people will occupy the positions of management, technical and administrative staff.

This is a major step forward in this project promoted by the Provincial Council of Alava and the Vitoria-Gasteiz City Council with the aim of providing Vitoria-Gasteiz and Alava with a centre that would serve as a test bench in a real environment for the mobility systems of the future, both in the field of passenger transport and logistics. For this reason, the Mobility Lab is conceived as an exploratory physical space to develop and test innovation in logistics and mobility in real conditions.

The position of manager will be filled by Iñigo Bilbao, a Senior Architect from the ETS of Architecture of San Sebastian (UPV) and a Specialist in European Project Management from the Spanish Office of Science and Technology (SOST-CDTI-Brussels). With extensive experience in management, including his time at the Basque Transport Authority (ATE), participating in the start-up of the Alava Transport Authority (ATA), he was currently working at the Belgian foundation FINNOVA, on several projects related to mobility in the framework of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).

Leire Balzategi, with a bachelor’s in civil engineering from the University of the Basque Country and a master’s in civil engineering from the University of Cantabria and with a master’s in transport planning and engineering from the University of Leeds (UK), will be the technical manager. She has experience in transport planning and modelling in the United Kingdom and Basque Country, and until now she held the position of Head of Strategic Areas in the Basque Mobility and Logistics Cluster.