Daniel Altimiras, Eurecat’s deputy chair, has taken over the leadership of the technology centre for a four-year term, a period in which he is committed “to continue working to drive technological innovation with an impact on business competitiveness, sustainability and the wellbeing of society in response to today’s economic, social and environmental challenges.”

Daniel Altimiras replaces Xavier Torra, who has been chair of Eurecat since 2015 and this year completed his two terms in the post as stipulated in the technology centre’s bylaws. Over these eight years, Eurecat has embarked on its journey and cemented its position as a flagship technology centre earning €55.8 million in revenue in 2022 and with a team of 750 professionals and more than 2,000 customers across all sectors, 71 percent of which are small and medium-sized enterprises.

“Eurecat partners the economic and social community to compete in a tough global market where it is essential to be technologically robust and sustainable,” said Daniel Altimiras. He added that he is passionate “about joining forces to continue making Eurecat a leader in technology transfer in Catalonia, Spain, Europe and worldwide so as to embed industry in the region and generate quality jobs.”

Meanwhile, Xavier Torra underlined “the generosity and hard work which has made it possible for Eurecat to be a powerful and significant technology centre in innovation recognised by the private and public sectors alike.” He said he fully believed in Eurecat’s “key role in helping businesses and institutions to unlock their innovation potential.”

Daniel Altimiras’s career

Holder of a degree in Business Management from Queen’s University Belfast and a certificate in Business Studies from IESE Business School, Daniel Altimiras is an entrepreneur and director of Dicomol, a family-owned industrial company in the tooling and plastic processing sector where he leads the business development and internationalisation divisions. He has been deputy chair of Eurecat since 2016 and is a board member at Eurecat Latam. At Dicomol he has taken part in numerous technology development and innovation projects in conjunction with Eurecat’s technology units.

He has been closely involved in business associations for over 25 years where he has driven the establishment of alliances and collaborative networks. He has also been chair and is currently deputy chair of ASCAMM (Catalan Association of Mould and Die Companies) and FEAMM (Spanish Federation of Business Associations of Toolmakers and Die Makers). He is a board member at the UPM (Metalworking Employers’ Association) and an expert adviser to the board of AMEC (Association of Internationalised Industrial Companies). He has served on the boards of directors of companies in various industries including food, professional cosmetics and retail.

Eurecat; technology innovation working for businesses and society

Eurecat has 11 sites in Catalonia in Barcelona, Canet de Mar, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Girona, Lleida, Manresa, Mataró, Reus, Tarragona, Amposta and Vila-seca. It additionally has a site in Chile which hosts Eurecat Latam delivering services across Latin America. With industrial, digital, biotechnology and sustainability specialisation areas, it is taking part in over 200 large national and international R&D and innovation consortium projects with high strategic value and has 181 patents and 10 spin-offs generating turnover coming to €14.6 million.

Eurecat is a leader in securing competitive R&D and innovation funding worth €31.7 million in 2022. It is the top private Catalan organisation by Horizon 2020 return rate and the fourth in Spain. Eurecat is also the Spanish research and technology centre with the largest number of participations in Digital Innovation Hubs funded by the H2020 programme. Here it achieved €78 million in returns in the H2020 Horizon Europe programme between 2014 and 2022.

Eurecat works with over 500 organisations worldwide and rolls out strategic partnerships with R&D and innovation stakeholders as a facilitator and a bridge between global knowledge and businesses to meet their innovation requirements and make them more competitive.

Technological specialisation

Eurecat’s activity encompasses applied research and technological development, advanced technological services, technological consultancy, specialised training and knowledge valorisation and transfer in four core specialisation areas.

The Industrial Area is mainly based at its sites in Cerdanyola, Mataró, Manresa, Girona and Tarragona and takes in advanced materials and new manufacturing processes, functional printing and embedded devices, collaborative and cognitive robotics, functionalised fabrics, chemistry, multiphysics modelling and simulation and product innovation.

The Digital Area is largely at Eurecat’s sites in Barcelona and Lleida and features technology units specialising in Applied Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Computing, Data Science & Big Data Analytics, Cybersecurity, Multimedia Technologies and Digital Health. The Biotechnology Area is in Reus and made up of technology units in Nutrition and Health and Omic Sciences. The Sustainability Area is at Eurecat’s Manresa site and has units specialising in Water, Air and Soil and Energy, Waste and Environmental Impact. Eurecat’s Climate Change Line is in Amposta while its site in Vila-seca hosts its tourism and digital operations.

Innovation ecosystems and strategic alliances

Eurecat supports technology and sector initiatives given the need to set up and structure innovation ecosystems and the importance of generating technology powerhouses for the future of the region. These joint initiatives designed to pull together the value of ecosystem stakeholders include the Battech centre for R&D and innovation in battery technology, the Centre for Omic Sciences (COS), and Metal Digital Manufacturing in conjunction with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). In recent years, Eurecat has also backed the Centre of Innovation for Data Tech & Artificial Intelligence (CIDAI), the CoE in Tourism Innovation and the Climate Resilience Centre.

It additionally has R&D alliances and networks in place with EIT Culture & Creativity, the Hydrogen Network, the Joint Platform in Food Technologies, FormPlanet Test Bed and Reimagine Textile. In Digital Innovation Hubs it is also engaged in initiatives in areas such as big data, applied robotics and artificial intelligence.