Guadalajara’s recently opened Center for Innovation and Design (Centro México Innovación y Diseño or MIND) will install a “materials library” (materoteca) in the near future.
Material libraries house examples of advanced, innovative and sustainable materials and processes.
The Guadalajara library will allow business developers in the region the opportunity to learn about cutting-edge materials in all disciplines of design development, said MIND President Manuel Herrera Vega. “The business person will find out exactly where he or she can obtain the kind of materials needed to develop a project.”
Half of the two million-peso cost of the library will come from the Competitiveness and Innovation Program Mexico-European Union (PROCEI).
The announcement came during a recent visit to MIND by Andrew Standley, the European Union’s ambassador in Mexico.
According to its website, PROCEI promotes “competitiveness-based growth strategies,” develops “high value-added sectors” and facilitates “access to the business community to support plans to improve their international competitiveness.”
Signed in 2011, the program lasts four years and has a budget of 18 million euros (about 23 million dollars). More than 20 Mexican businesses have so far benefited from grants. MIND has received 7.5 million pesos from the fund.
Standley said it was “very important” for the EU to collaborate with the emerging design sector in Guadalajara and Jalisco.
The new materials library is expected to be ready for opening by the end of this year.
MIND was built to serve as a focal point for the development of innovative technology-and design-oriented projects in Jalisco.
The eight-story, 10,000-square-meter edifice is located to the rear of Expo Guadalajara, across from the Westin Hotel.