After concluding the interior construction stage and adjusting electricity and gardening details, the Digital Citizen Innovation Laboratory is ready to begin, this week, the installation of the technology that will allow it to open its doors on December 25.

Las Tunas, Cuba - Dayalé Torres Diéguez, vice-president of the Union of Cuban Informatics (UIC) in Las Tunas, in charge of innovation and projects, said exclusively to the Cuban News Agency that two interactive whiteboards and about twenty laptops are part of the technology donated by the collaborative project Innovation Laboratory for the Digital Transformation of Culture (CoLab).

The securing of air conditioning equipment, a task assumed by Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba S.A. and the Territorial Control Office of the Ministry of Telecommunications in Las Tunas, is also among the tasks to guarantee the comfort of the Laboratory.

As a result of Colab's actions in this eastern Cuban province and thanks to the support of the local government, which allocated a budget of 3.7 million pesos to carry out the work, Las Tunas continues to take firm steps on the road to informatization and digital transformation, the specialist pointed out.

Torres Diéguez explained that a distinctive feature of these laboratories at the international level is the need to articulate with local governments to fulfill their function of promoting and boosting innovation with citizens at the center.

In this sense, work is already underway on the design of a local development project under the name Tunas Citizenship Lab, aimed at making the space sustainable, which, thanks to the linkage with new economic actors, will also include gastronomic services.

Among the functions of the space are training courses, consultations with experts, the design of a system of activities that will allow the influx of diverse audiences with an inclusive approach, the possibility of developing devices or IT solutions, and more.

Several entities are involved in the implementation schedule of the Laboratory -he added-, among them Muebles Ludema in charge of the furniture with minimalist design required by the premises; the Post Office Company of Cuba, Radiocuba, Community Services, among others.

The Citizen Digital Innovation Laboratory breaks with the traditional format of computer labs to bet on a co-working model (cooperative work), in which those "crazy ideas" that can create solutions to everyday household problems, dream up an application or reuse electronic components have a chance.

Along with Las Tunas, the CoLab project will also benefit Camagüey, Cienfuegos, Mayabeque, and Pinar del Río, provinces that will benefit from the contribution of the UIC and the universities to promote their cultural environment from the gestation of citizen digital informatization processes.