The Eurecat Congress today brought together nearly 400 members of the Catalan economic, technological, business and institutional community at the third edition of the event, which coincided with Eurecat’s 10th anniversary and pointed to technological innovation as a mainstay for business competitiveness and industrial and social transformation against a backdrop of fast-paced global change.
This edition of the congress addressed the first decade of Eurecat’s history in a session entitled “10 years innovating for the common good” and looked at future scenarios in the new digital era with cross-cutting impact technologies which have been used for years in the industrial and business environment, such as artificial intelligence, and others with a future impact, including quantum computing and combining robotics and digital technologies.
It has also assessed transformations in people’s health and quality of life resulting in personalised medical care and better data monitoring platforms for patients and healthcare professionals alike.
“Industrial and technological sovereignty, climate challenges and the need for competitive local industry make it essential to play a cohesive and accelerating role in innovation,” commented Daniel Altimiras, Eurecat’s Chair, at the opening of the congress. He added that, over this decade, Eurecat has conducted almost 16,000 applied research projects and technological innovation services and has delivered technological solutions to more than 3,200 companies to fast-track their innovation and make them more competitive, with a multiplier economic impact for Eurecat in Catalonia that comes to 9.37 in terms of return on the government’s investment.
Over the last 10 years, “Eurecat has shaped a technology centre model which has bolstered the technological innovation ecosystem in Catalonia” while “the ability to build alliances to generate new ideas and technologies has also been crucial.”
Xavier López, Eurecat’s Chief Operating and Corporate Officer, moderated the first session of the event entitled “10 years innovating for the common good” which featured Joaquim Salvi i Mas, the rector of the University of Girona; Denia Martínez, vice president of Grup Carinsa; Jordi Aguasca, director of Innovation and Technological Transformation in the Government of Catalonia; Emilio Palomares, director of the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ), and Lluís Chico, CEO at NEOS Surgery.
“We have lots of things to build a very efficient innovation ecosystem,” said Xavier López, who believes that we need to promote “ecosystemic work with current and future businesses as the main players in turning knowledge into economic and social value in their environment.”
He underscored Eurecat’s value proposition anchored in technology convergence, a multi-sector approach, partnerships with ecosystem stakeholders and closeness to the business community, and stressed that more and more companies, institutions and organisations need to embrace innovation as a key strategy.
Miquel Sàmper, Minister of Business and Labour in the Government of Catalonia, wound up the event by pointing to vocational education and training, digitalisation, technological sovereignty, internationalisation, diversification and decarbonisation as essential factors for recovering industry’s leading role in Catalonia and also singling out the capabilities and competitiveness of the country’s business, university and research network and technology centres such as Eurecat.
‘10 years innovating for the common good’
During the opening session of the Eurecat Congress, Denia Martínez stressed the importance of innovation in her company and noted that as a result of the partnership with Eurecat, Carinsa has been able to work with a Korean research centre specialising in cosmetics. She also said that investment in R&D accounts for 20 per cent of Carinsa’s turnover, an effort that has enabled the company to take out numerous patents.
Joaquim Salvi i Mas described Eurecat as a partner with which the University has a very good understanding and works with to achieve a greater impact on the economic and industrial structure, as in the case of its joint additive manufacturing laboratory. He also underlined the significance of the ability to successfully adapt to the territory and pointed out the need to believe in and commit to innovation.
Emilio Palomares stressed Eurecat’s importance in fostering an ecosystem that helps research to be put to good use. He further argued that stakeholders ought to pull together to add value to university research with pilot plants and industrial projects which make it easier to generate new products and services and enable Catalan companies to compete better on a global scale.
In his speech, Lluís Chico, CEO of Eurecat spin-off NEOS Surgery, announced that the firm plans to be the first European manufacturer and the second in the world to produce a patented product that will be the solution to slipped discs. He mentioned Eurecat’s outstanding role as a founding partner which contributed people, knowledge and technology and was a key player in a process in which the technology centre, surgery and engineering came together. He added that Eurecat has also brought reputation and robustness to NEOS and provided funding for growth through its stake in the spin-off.
Jordi Aguasca commented that in the Catalan industrial structure, which is based on SMEs, Eurecat’s accessibility gives confidence to businesses. He also said that setting up Eurecat made it possible for technology centres to reach a sufficient critical mass to deliver better services to enterprises and compete more securely at home and abroad. In his view, what sets Eurecat apart is that it is company-driven and geared towards acquiring and developing technology to meet the needs of businesses as a technological partner.
In the talk “Preparing the future”, Cecilia Mosze Tham, founder and CEO of Futurity Systems, outlined the key factors in anticipating the transformation which digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence and its intersection with quantum computing, biotechnology and nature, will bring about in the coming years. She feels that “the cost of doing nothing is today higher than the cost of failing” and traced a continuous journey primarily shaped by research, testing and recombining diverse ideas and components to do new things.
