ESS Bilbao

ESS Bilbao is Bilbao, Spain's candidacy to host the future European Spallation Source (ESS), whose placement will be decided before the end of the year 2009. The other candidates are Lund and Debrecen.

Financing and management

The placement of ESS in Spain is solidly supported by central and regional government institutions, as well as by the main scientific organisations and companies. All of them will cooperate in assuring the necessary logistical and financial support. The construction of the ESS is a definitive boost to place the country and Europe at the highest levels of scientific excellence in the world. It is considered to be the fulfillment of the growing R&D budget in Spain throughout the last years, making the 8th economic world power into a first-order scientific power.

Environment

Bilbao can be considered the financial capital city of the Basque Country, one of the most developed regions in the world. We should emphasize these aspects:

Economy

Despite its relatively little extension and a population of 4.9% of Spain, the Basque Country represents 6.2% of the GDP, 10.45% of the industrial GDP, and 9.2% of exportations.

The Basque Country hosts a great number of industries, is one of the richest regions in Europe and has climbed from 89.6% in 1990 to 117.1% of the average per capita income in 2002, and 125.6% in 2005 (industry and construction are 38.13% of the GDP). This growth has only been overcome in the European Union by Luxembourg and Ireland.

Communications

The Basque Country has a modern communications infrastructure via road, railway, or airplane, allowing fast and comfortable connections with the rest of Spain and Europe. Located on the Euro-Atlantic axis Lisbon-Stockholm, Bilbao Airport is the most important center of air passenger transport in the northern part of Spain.

The Basque airports Lujua (Bilbao), Foronda (Vitoria) and Fuenterrabía (San Sebastián) are located in a radius of scarcely 60 km (37 mi) and took 4.41 million passengers in 2006.

Education

The labour force's qualification is one of the advantages of the Basque business sector, and people's formation is one of the public political priorities. The Basque Country is the region with a higher percentage of graduates among the people who have finished their studies in the last ten years (65.8%), above the European average.

The Basque Country has five universities, with 28 faculties or schools, three superior technical schools and 11 private and public university schools which are attended by around 70,000 students.

Companies supporting the project

BBVA, Iberdrola, ESB, Petronor, Red Eléctrica de España, Gamesa, OHL, FCC, ThyssenKrupp, Telecom Italia, Grupo Mondragón, Corporación IBV, Garrigues^{[disambiguation needed]}.

External links

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