This is not an area where Spain is perceived to have a particularly strong association. Nevertheless, Spanish engineers invented the submarine, the autogiro (the precursor of the helicopter), the cable car, and the “chess player”, a robot which could be defined in historical terms as the first computer.

Unfortunately, in the latter half of the 20th century, Spain did not provide any relevant technological innovations. In these first years of the 21st century, however, its ingenuity is beginning to resurface in design, development and application of new technologies.

Today, Spain is the world leader in wind energy production and is one of the most advanced countries in photovoltaic solar energy.

Its leadership in the fields of air traffic control, telecommunications antennae, armed forces and airline simulators, automatic maintenance systems, election results control, etc. is particularly noteworthy.

Indeed, the Spanish Government, through the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade, (ICEX) the agency entrusted with fostering business internationalisation, has recently launched an international promotion campaign with the slogan “Spain, technology for life”. Its aim is to link the country’s new technological capacity to the importance of being able to take advantage of new technologies for the purpose of improving personal quality of life, something Spain is renowned for.