One-liner: a planned Valencia Innovation Capital dual-tech accelerator (cybersecurity, drones, sensors, AI) offering real-environment validation with municipal public services and linkage to the Valencia Urban Sandbox. A dual-use (civil + defence/security) program aligned with VIC's 2026 strategy — not yet open.
Status: PLANNED — announced under VIC's 2026 plan; launch date and terms not yet published (
#status/verify). Watch VIC.2026-07-05 update: the official "Programación 2026 València Innovation Ecosystem" PDF (VIC's own program roster, downloaded from valenciainnovationcapital.com/comunicacion) explicitly lists a "Programa de Aceleración en Emergencias y Tecnologías Duales" on its 2026 agenda calendar, scheduled in the September-December 2026 window — this is materially more concrete than a bare "planned" tag; it is on VIC's committed annual calendar, just not yet open for applications. Separately, on 4 March 2026 VIC hosted (as an adhered partner, not owner) the formal signing of the "Hub de Defensa de la Comunitat Valenciana" at La Harinera — a cross-cluster industry coordination body for defence/security/dual-use tech, distinct from this accelerator. Sector news also confirms a planned international defence/resilience hackathon with Tallinn and Helsinki (28 May 2026 news item) and a "Hackathon de Defensa" (24-25 Sept 2026, per the same PDF) — these are adjacent open-innovation events, not the accelerator itself.
2026-07-05 update (from the AEI-clusters sweep): the "Hub de Defensa de la Comunitat Valenciana" signed 4 March 2026 (referenced above) dissolved its independent identity in June 2026 and folded into CEV's Comisión de Seguridad y Defensa (chaired by CEV president Vicente Lafuente) — see Cluster Defensa CV for the full, fast-moving defense-cluster landscape (also involving a separate standalone cluster, APOLO, led by S2Grupo's José Rosell, and a still-forming "Alianza Valenciana por la Seguridad y la Defensa"). This accelerator's eventual launch will likely need to coordinate with whichever of these bodies ends up as the primary business-side interlocutor — worth re-checking at next VIC touchpoint.
2026-09-11 live check — the Sept–Dec window has opened and the call has not.
valenciainnovationcapital.com/convocatoriasfetched today lists only VLC Startup Awards 2026 (closes 25 Oct) and a photography contest. No defense or dual-technology convocatoria. Either it publishes within weeks or it slips to 2027.url:corrected fromvalencia.es(wrong host) to VIC's convocatorias index. See Defense and Dual-Use in Valencia for the wider picture.The two hackathons named above, resolved 2026-09-11:
- The "Hackathon de Defensa, 24–25 Sept 2026" on VIC's PDF is the international City Resilience Hack in Tallinn, run inside Estonian Defence Week at the Energia Avastuskeskus, with Tallinn, Valencia, Helsinki, Lviv and Dnipro as partner cities. Prize fund €75,000 per the organisers (VIC's PDF says "hasta 100.000€" and VIC's own press release says the city allocated €50,000 — three figures, unreconciled
#status/verify). Applications closed 10 September 2026. Note this corrects the 2026-09-08 scan, which recorded the call as closed on 13 Jul 2026; Startup Valencia's page carried a 10 Sep deadline. Recurring — watch ~June 2027.- Separately and still open: the 5th EUDIS Defence Hackathon, 15–17 October 2026, onsite across eight European locations (Austria, Cyprus, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Portugal, Sweden — none in Spain), theme Autonomy on the Battlefield (GNSS-denied environments, autonomous swarms). Winners get a mentoring programme and a defence-innovation bootcamp.
eudis-hackathon.eu.
What it will offer (announced)
- Acceleration (training + mentoring) for dual-use / defence-tech startups — cyber, drones/UAV, sensors, AI, resilience.
- Real-environment validation with municipal public services, linked to the Valencia Urban Sandbox (AEI 07 "Emergency, security & defence" of the VIC Innovation Grants 2026 is the funding counterpart).
- Free (municipal), no equity expected.
Who it's for
- Dual-use / defence & security tech startups (cybersecurity, aerospace-drone, sensors, AI) that can validate in real urban/public-service settings.
How to engage (when live)
- Watch VIC (valencia.es) for the launch/call —
#status/verify. - In the meantime, dual-use founders can pursue the Valencia Urban Sandbox (AEI 07), the Cybersecurity Startup Program, and the Espai Aero UAV Testing drone testbed.
- National dual-use funding: INPYME 2026 (defence & security is an INPYME target sector) and CDTI/defence programs.
Key facts
- Planned VIC dual-tech accelerator · Sandbox-linked real-environment validation. Track for launch; use adjacent programs meanwhile.
2026-09-23 live check — something finally appeared, and it is not this. VIC published Coworking Tecnologias Duales Valencia 2026 on 18.09.2026, tagged Emergencia, seguridad y defensa: an EOI FSE+-funded pre-incubation coworking at La Harinera for city residents with early-stage ideas in the cognitive domain, critical-infrastructure defence, aero/space and 5G/6G secure comms — ~20 places, 13 Oct 2026 – Feb 2027. It lands in the promised Sept–Dec window with the right sector tag, so VIC may present it as delivering this line. But it is not an accelerator for dual-use startups (no startup-stage entry, no validation with municipal services, residency-gated). Status stays
planned— whether the Programa de Aceleración en Emergencias y Tecnologías Duales still comes, or has been reduced to this, is not stated#status/verify. Ask at the next VIC touchpoint rather than infer.
Relations
- Run by: Valencia Innovation Capital
- Requires: Valencia Urban Sandbox
- See also: Cybersecurity Startup Program
- See also: Espai Aero UAV Testing
- See also: Cluster Defensa CV
- See also: CEV
- See also: Coworking Tecnologias Duales Valencia 2026