Fostering research excellence
in EU Outermost Regions
Fostering research excellence
Canary Islands is an archipelago located in the North Atlantic Ocean, 940 km away from European Continent.
The archipelago is spread over 7.446,95 km2 with 3.012,37 km2 of protected land area and 490.337 km2 protected marine area.
Canary Islands is an archipelago located between the Cape Verde and Madeira, and 95 km to the coast of Morocco. Its economy is centred principally in the service sector, encompassing 87.78% of total employment in the region, mainly the tourism sector. Other sectors (Agriculture, forestry and fishing; Industry; Energy; and Construction) make up the Canary Islands economy. Nevertheless, the total unemployment rate is nearly a 20.1%. It is also a region with a very rich biodiversity, as well as its regional neighbours.
The archipelago is spread over 7.446,95 km2 and is home to 2.127.685 inhabitants. Taking into account the population dynamics, the region is characterised by a rather high population density (291.8 inh/km2), which is more than three times higher the national average (Eurostat, 2017).
The regional economic activities are based in the service sector, which represents an 84.73% of the Gross value added, mainly due to the tourism related activities. It is followed by Construction (6,20%), Energy (3,95%), Industry (3,76%) and Agriculture, forestry and fishing (1,36%).
The R&D Capabilities of the region are mainly gathered in the two public universities (University of La Laguna and University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), which together comprise 91% of research groups and 93% of researchers. There are another 7 regional public centres research (IAC, PLOCAN, ITC, ICIA, FUNCANIS, IPNA-CSIC and Centro Oceanográfico de Canarias) and many private initiatives.
