Provides legal certainty for technological trials and makes the Port of Alicante a national benchmark for the development of innovative solutions

Alicante – November 4, 2026. The Port Authority of Alicante has presented the regulatory ordinance for its sandbox or technological testing ground, an instrument that will allow experimenting with new processes and solutions applied to logistics and port activity under real, controlled conditions and with all guarantees.

With this initiative, the Port of Alicante becomes the first in Spain to have an ordinance that expressly regulates a controlled testing environment for innovation. The regulation, which began to be drafted in July 2025, establishes defined procedures, evaluation criteria, and a framework of legal certainty for companies, entrepreneurs, researchers, and technology developers to test their projects in the port area.

Magnet for Innovation

During the presentation ceremony, the president of the Port Authority of Alicante, Luis Rodríguez, highlighted that the ordinance represents an important step for the Port of Alicante to be better prepared for future challenges: “We want to be a magnet to attract innovation and implement it. We want the port to become a benchmark for those with innovative solutions, a place where ideas find opportunities and can be transformed into useful solutions for society and for our entire productive system.”

For her part, the rector of the University of Alicante, Amparo Navarro, stated that the main importance of this pioneering ordinance is that it provides legal certainty to the actions of the Port's technological testing ground: “It is a totally novel regulation in a port environment that makes us especially proud as it is a pioneering case of knowledge transfer success.”

The rector also highlighted the work of the author of the ordinance: “The solvency of this work by Professor Bustos, a specialist in civil liability, implementation of testing environments, and innovative air mobility, represents a step forward in consolidating the relationship between the University of Alicante and the Port of Alicante. We are pleased that the research we generate does not stay in offices and has a real application.”

The Professor of Civil Law at the University of Alicante and author of the ordinance, Yolanda Bustos, pointed out that “Spanish port environments must also be on par with other European initiatives.” In this regard, she considered that “the Alicante ordinance can serve as a reference for other port authorities that want to regulate their own testing grounds.”

The new sandbox aims to contribute to attracting talent and projects, improving the efficiency and competitiveness of the port, and facilitating the responsible incorporation of new technologies, without sacrificing safety, environmental protection, and the guarantees that must govern port activity. Our objective, in the words of José Manuel Ramos, Head of Innovation at the Port Authority of Alicante, is “to equip ourselves with the necessary tools to attract innovation and be the first to adopt that technology.

INNOVATION AWARDS.

During the ordinance presentation ceremony, Luis Rodríguez reiterated the Port Authority's commitment to innovation: “Proof of this is the first edition of the Innovation Awards, which will be held on December 15 at the cruise terminal on pier 14.”

The recently published rules include five categories: Innovation, Competitiveness, Sustainability, Social Impact, and Connections.

He also recalled that 20 percent of the projects presented in the last edition of Ports 4.0, organized nationally by Puertos del Estado, were supported by the Port Authority of Alicante.