The Eurecat technology centre has created the Inspira Lab service with a view to accelerating the technological innovation processes in companies. The service helps to explore and streamline the creation of new solutions to business challenges quickly, thanks to agile concept tests to create products or services, optimise production or incorporate new technologies.
This new methodology, integrating several cross-cutting disciplines and a multi-technological vision, is based on the generation of innovative proposals and the agile development of demos and prototypes, for the execution of proofs of concept in laboratories and pilot plants in cutting-edge technologies of Eurecat in a short period of time, with an average of three months depending on the level of complexity.
Its application in validating new solutions will allow the business ecosystem to face challenges in areas such as the implementation of digital technologies, the creation of new products or intelligent environments, the development of robotics and automation solutions, the improvement of sustainability with the application of circularity, experimentation with new materials and chemical processes and the application of biotechnology and personalised health solutions, among other things.
Inspira Lab “addresses large and medium-sized companies, SMEs and technology startups requiring a new approach to explore and accelerate innovative solutions to their challenges, in very agile time frames, to be able to make decisions quickly and with greater certainty”, says Eurecat’s Marketing Director, Carles Fradera.
The initiative, he points out, ranges “from the configuration of the business itself, the conception of its products and the value proposition to the optimisation of production processes, logistics or user experience, with a very market-focused approach”.
“Eurecat’s technological versatility enables the integration of diverse and complementary technologies into proposed solutions, a key and distinguishing factor in the support provided by leading technology centres”, adds Carles Fradera.
Eurecat currently applies the Inspira Lab methodology in projects including the improvement of processes in the preparation of beverages, the integration of interactive surfaces in kitchens, the incorporation of printed electronics in products for different sectors, the optimisation of the user experience in museums, the development of lightweight batteries for electric vehicles with faster charging, the creation of a new surgical cap with a recording system, streaming and gesture control, and integrated predictive quality control for textile machines, among many others.
“Based on our experience, we have identified that, in most companies, the bottleneck in technological innovation processes lies in the transition from ideas to tangible solutions to be able to evaluate their feasibility and the profitability of the associated investment. We want to help companies overcome this with Inspira Lab and with Eurecat’s knowledge of new technologies”, explains the manager of Inspira Lab at Eurecat, José Antonio Gago.
To this end, he explains, “we have adapted the Design Thinking methodology to technological innovation processes, creating a very agile process, which allows us to go from the identification of innovation opportunities to the validation of solutions through concept testing in about three months, depending on the complexity of the challenges”.
“We are committed to co-creation, creating mixed work teams between the company and Eurecat and, depending on the project, we hold sessions with the players in the value chain and with the end users themselves”, explains José Antonio Gago.
Open innovation ecosystem
To promote open innovation, Eurecat has created an innovation ecosystem with collaborators specialised in different fields. Examples include Peninsula Corporate Innovation, for the monitoring of startups with solutions that respond to business challenges, or the strategic design agency Tandem Company, leader in the creation of new concepts with a clear brand identity and differential user experiences.
| Website of the Inspira Lab service: eurecat.org/serveis/inspira-lab/ |
