“40 Scientific Milestones at UCA” is one of the latest events held to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the University of Cadiz. This event aimed to review the most outstanding milestones in the history of UCA from the point of view of research and knowledge transfer. Within this historical journey that goes from 1979 to 2019, UCA highlighted the signing of the largest University-Company contract to date, which took place in 2004. This was worth 450,000 euros, and was signed with the aeronautical company Airbus Defence and Space.
The person responsible for this achievement was the Professor of Inorganic Chemistry and one of the founders of Titania, Dr Francisco Javier Botana, who initiated the tests for the reception of fastenings and process controls. The contract sealed the relationship between the University of Cadiz and the aeronautical industry, in this case through the Corrosion and Protection group of the University of Cadiz (LABCYP), headed by Dr Botana and involving a team of researchers. One of these researchers, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, was in charge of carrying out the work associated with this contract, and he is now Titania’s Director.
UCA’s was one of the first university laboratories at that time accredited by ENAC to work in industry, and this was the seed for the start of our company which was founded as a spin-off from UCA in 2006.