The second Eurecat Congress has picked out the importance of investing in technological innovation in industry as a cornerstone to drive European competitiveness and stressed public-private partnerships to shift towards a high added value and technologically advanced industrial model to meet the sector’s challenges in terms of international competition, sustainability and the impact of new technologies on products and production systems.
“Reindustrialisation is an absolute, pressing priority to be sustained over time to ensure it is effective,” said Daniel Altimiras, Eurecat’s chair, at the opening of the congress. He underscored Eurecat’s mission “to help companies innovate as a technological partner to achieve an industry that is open to the world, sustainable, competitive, reliable and efficient.”
The Eurecat Congress, which brought together nearly 200 members of the Catalan economic, technological and business community, featured Jordi Hereu, the Minister of Industry and Tourism, who outlined the priorities and key strands in his portfolio’s policies for business growth and innovation. Hereu talked in greater detail about industrial policies, pointed out the need to pursue them in conjunction with the private sector, and stressed the crucial importance of technological innovation as a lever for competitiveness.
Miquel Sàmper, the Minister of Business and Labour, set out the key factors in his ministry’s policies for unlocking business growth and innovation. In his view, public-private partnership is essential to generate quality jobs and enhance social welfare while also driving technological innovation, continuous digital transformation and attracting talent.
“Industrial activity has regained a strategic and political relevance which it has not had over recent decades,” argued Xavier López, Eurecat’s Chief Operating and Corporate Officer. “Nowadays, no one questions the fact that the resilience, competitiveness, wellbeing and social equity of territories are closely related to their industrial operations.”
“This means that competition between global regions to gain industrial clout and relevance is fierce. The solution for Catalan, Spanish and European industry is to be technologically advanced, intensive in generating and applying knowledge and environmentally sustainable. In all these areas, Eurecat seeks to be a key partner for our enterprises.”
“As the leading technology centre in Catalonia, Eurecat is fast-tracking technological innovation in companies of all sizes and sectors to enable them to generate value and meet the challenges resulting from globalisation and the transformation of production models with sustainability and social progress on the horizon,” noted Miquel Rey, Eurecat’s Corporate Director of Business Development.
“The congress has set out the imperative need to nurture and enhance industry as a source of wealth and quality jobs. It is essential to target the factors that generate industry, especially in areas where we have promising opportunities.”
In her speech at the closing of the congress, Alícia Romero, the Catalan Minister of Economy and Finance, emphasised the pivotal role that Eurecat has to play in the Catalan research and transfer chain and the importance of connecting and sharing the knowledge generated with companies along with its crucial part in supporting small and medium-sized enterprises in their innovation strategies.
The event also spotlighted Eurecat’s potential as a partner for companies and governments to expedite innovation and as an orchestrator of the research, development and innovation ecosystem to transfer knowledge and generate impact.
Public-private partnership
Public-private partnership for the industry of the future was the topic of a discussion between Oriol Alcoba, Director General for Industry in the Catalan Government’s Ministry of Business and Labour, and Xavier López, Chief Operating and Corporate Officer at Eurecat, which was moderated by Xavier Ferràs, a lecturer in the Department of Operations Management, Innovation and Data Science at Esade.
The need for public-private partnerships to address the challenges facing industry and Eurecat’s capabilities as an orchestrator of initiatives that engage stakeholders across the value chain through innovation and knowledge were acknowledged.
Xavier Ferràs commented that the driver of globalisation has now shifted to internalising and controlling strategic technologies in Europe.
Oriol Alcoba noted that it is essential to generate the country’s own industrial base and industry as a powerhouse for productivity and competitiveness since it is one of the areas that generate the most quality jobs.
Likewise, Carles Cabrera, deputy chair of the Institut Cerdà Foundation, pointed to some of the biggest challenges for enterprises including the energy transition and decarbonising business activity, rolling out measures to cope with the effects of climate change, the complexity of operational management, geopolitical instability and the shortcomings of the labour market in finding specialised people for certain jobs.
New technologies, new answers
The congress showcased some of the technologies of the immediate future with the greatest impact on companies in a session dealing with the application and valuation of new technologies where Xavier Plantà, director of Eurecat’s Industrial Area, spoke about the impact that microwave-generated plasma technologies will have on the circularity and sustainability of industry. In turn, Miquel Rovira, director of Eurecat’s Sustainability Area, talked about new technologies for sustainability in industry including thermochemical technologies such as gasification or pyrolysis for circularity and decarbonisation.
In biotechnology, Antoni Caimari, director of the Biotechnology Area, looked at New Approach Methodologies, for instance organs-on-a-chip, organoids and 3D cultures, as alternatives to using animals in experimentation and for evaluating the health potential of ingredients and drugs and understanding mechanisms of action. Lali Soler, director of Eurecat’s Digital Area, addressed applied artificial intelligence, in terms of both specific and more cross-cutting artificial intelligence tools, coupled with generative artificial intelligence, with examples such as automatically summarising audio and video content.
Production efficiency and sustainability
Production efficiency and sustainability were the core topic of the second session of the Eurecat Congress. Sandra Casas, head of the Water Technologies Line at Eurecat, spoke about how embracing ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) criteria and compliance with sustainability legislation are now essential requirements for businesses seeking production efficiency and sustainable growth at the same time.
This section was rounded out by input from Clara Roig, head of Sustainability for Southern Europe at Carburos Metálicos; Jorge Pérez, head of Research and Development at Industrias Químicas del Ebro; Maria Tarrés, head of Sustainability Strategy at SEAT S.A., and Jordi Port, corporate director of Communication and Sustainability at Noel Alimentaria, in a debate moderated by Eurecat’s Miquel Rovira.
In their interventions, the companies set out the policies they are pursuing for putting their sustainability strategies in place and a number of actions geared towards decarbonisation, the circular economy and energy transition together with other aspects involving eco-design, water management and state-of-the-art solutions for capturing and reusing CO2
