The Genalguacil Lab, is a rural innovation space created in an old bank office in the interior of Malaga

For several decades, No. 14 of Real de Genalguacil Street It is occupied by the Unicaja Bank office. Years after its closure, this building has a new life: Lab Genalguacil, a rural innovation space to support entrepreneurship and attract investments that enhance life in cities and ensure their future. “We want to do things differently, and work from the region to decide how we want to live,” Marta Calvente, co-director of the center, explains to EL ESPAÑOL de Málaga.

The idea of ​​this laboratory is related to the concept Genalguacil Pueblo Museum, a cultural brand that has managed to position itself on an international level: it promotes a growth model that generates opportunities and values ​​for the city's residents. This project has international support, including various European universities and the Andalusian Union of Municipalities and Provinces.

Therefore, this space will create projects between various actors, including businessmen, officials, producers, researchers, students, and citizens. And from her actions support forFor entrepreneurship and providing advice to anyone who wants to undertake an initiative in the town with everything necessary. “With all this, the main goal Fixing the population on the territory “At the same time it's bringing back local talent and attracting new talent that wants to move to the municipality,” says Calvente, who runs the lab with Joe Lockwood.

This initiative seeks to provide a pilot idea for rural areas to develop and implement their programs own innovation tools, With local knowledge as a base. Some of the areas that will emerge in this process of rural innovation will be:Or culture, sustainability, energy efficiency and self-sufficiency, agriculture, citizen services, livestock or raw material conversion, among others.

Some of the actions that have already been developed during these years in the Museum Village project and which will continue in 2024 are Spring SchoolsInternational students come to the city to learn about their creative processes.

The laboratory also remembers its former tenants: its name pays tribute to the former director of Unicaja branch for 30 yearsFrancisco José Pinel Galaci. “It was a place where neighbors kept their savings, their families' livelihoods,” says the lab's co-director. “Now we also want to make this a place to go and generate wealth.”

Among its partners is the University of Norway (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) she is one from The most active and those who visit the city the mostAs Calvinti explains. Besides them, they have all kinds of collaborators, who come from different parts of Europe, such as the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany or Poland.