Malaga continues to attract major international businesses. At the end of January, British company Vodafone arranged an event to present its new European R&D centre, which is now open in the Andalusian city. The hub is provisionally located in the Impact Hub coworking space next to the María Zambrano train station in Malaga.

The new R&D centre has been opened in response to Vodafone’s goal of centralising its R&D activities and accelerating its digital transition. The facilities will be used to work on developing new products and services with which the company aspires to become an international leader in innovation. To achieve this, it will also need to work hard to attract talent. This will all be integrated into the Andalusian business and education ecosystem.

Direct jobs
The first 40 employees at the hub are already working to design new solutions. The workforce will continue growing and will reach over 600 direct, highly skilled jobs, with product and solution architects, scrum masters, software engineers, developers (front-end and back-end), data engineers, UX experts, digital sales process experts, data analysts, cloud developers, experts in innovation and financing projects, blockchain and cybersecurity experts and human resources and IT staff.

Over the next five years, Vodafone will invest 225 million euros in this initiative. From its facilities in Malaga, the company will also manage group sales operations and business clients in 11 countries.

According to Colman Deegan, the CEO of Vodafone Spain, “opening Vodafone’s European R&D centre in Malaga reflects Vodafone’s commitment to the Spanish market and consolidates our position as a key investor for developing future infrastructure, solutions and digital services that favour socio-economic progress. It will also help Spain to continue to be a focal point for attracting digital talent and an international leader in creating products and services based on innovation and top-tier new technologies.”

Focal point for innovation
Attracting talent is not limited to the fields of technology platforms and service development. The company will also promote other areas such as sales and marketing and customer support, and it will use agreements with local universities, vocational training schools, businesses and institutions to create a focal point for innovation around the centre to multiply its impact throughout the region. Public-private partnerships will also be fostered by creating business consortia to bid for public R&D projects.

Malaga was chosen from eight cities in five European countries taking part in an international tender held between January and March 2020. The city’s ideal combination of the selection criteria required proved decisive. These not only measured talent, communication and working conditions, but also other aspects such as quality of life, attractiveness and connections with universities. Good collaboration and coordination between local, regional and national authorities was also highly valued.

^{Photos: Vodafone}