The Director of Research and Technology at Eurecat, Myriam García-Berro, highlights Eurecat’s technological strength and its vocation to serve industry so that it becomes increasingly resilient and productive, while also driving the creation of new industrial fabric, in an interview in which she reflects on the transformation that Eurecat has embarked upon to continue staying one step ahead.
Coinciding with the new strategic plan and the first decade of the technology centre’s trajectory, Myriam García-Berro details the eight technological missions defined by Eurecat to address global challenges related to people’s health and well-being, industrial autonomy and technological sovereignty, climate resilience and the new digital era. To articulate these missions, she explains, Eurecat is building high-performance teams and expanding infrastructures in areas such as artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, semiconductors, decarbonization, precision fermentation and quantum computing, as it did years ago in the sphere of climate change or with technologies such as plastronics.
How would you define Eurecat’s activity at this point, coinciding with the centre’s first decade?
In 10 years, Eurecat has consolidated itself as a technology centre and we have managed to become known and recognized for what we do, for the impact we have on the industrial fabric and for our way of working within an ecosystem and through collaboration, both with companies and with research agents and universities. Now, after ten years, within the framework of the new strategic plan, we are evolving to adapt and continue moving one step ahead, because technologies and industrial demands are advancing very quickly. And to stay ahead, there are several technologies in which we believe we must be present, and which require a high level of multidisciplinary to be addressed with technological solvency, as we have been doing in recent years. I like to say that Eurecat is recognized not only for talking about what it does, but because it actually delivers impact and results, with technological strength.
How does Eurecat identify and address these cutting-edge technologies that companies will need to anticipate the market?
We have identified several technological trends that require a high level of multidisciplinarity, aligned with the technological missions we have set, because there are areas that we know will have a major impact in the medium term, such as quantum computing, generative AI, decarbonization, advanced robotics and semiconductors. These are technologies that we must address in a multidisciplinary way within Eurecat, but also in collaboration with the entire ecosystem in order to make rapid progress. Therefore, what we aim to do is to identify and form high-performance teams with very diverse technological knowledge that truly enable us to move faster.
What is Eurecat’s approach to providing real solutions to industry?
The idea is that when the industrial fabric has these needs, we already have sufficient knowledge. In the past, we defined flagship projects for a number of specific areas, in most of which we have become benchmarks, such as cognitive robotics, plastronics, water, industrial AI or precision nutrition. These are disciplines in which we have advanced very quickly and gained prestige. However, there are others where we not only need high-performance multidisciplinary teams, but also first-class technological infrastructures. In this regard, for example, we are strongly promoting quantum computing. We are creating a Quantum Lab, where we will have a quantum emulator and a digital annealer—truly advanced infrastructures with which we will experiment and generate knowledge in collaboration with other international and national ecosystem players, and then work with companies to generate impact. Likewise, in other areas such as robotics, decarbonization and precision fermentation, we are working to establish unique scientific infrastructures.
What are the prospects for applying these new technologies and capabilities?
Eurecat’s ability to develop new technologies is a differentiating factor. I am not only referring to the ability to use technology, but also to generate new technological assets, products and manufacturing processes that can lead to the creation of new technology-based companies. At the same time, we must support existing industry so that it becomes fully digitalized and sustainable. There is also a very important concept: Eurecat’s capacity and expertise to accompany start-ups in the industrialization process of new products. In order to reach the market, they must overcome a very delicate stage that is sometimes not sufficiently considered when it comes to creating new industries, new companies or new products.
Robotics is one of the areas where Eurecat is at the forefront. Where will it be heading in the coming years?
A few years ago, we made a strong commitment to cognitive robotics, combining our expertise in advanced robotics and AI. Today, we can say that we are an international benchmark in this field, especially in sectors such as agricultural robotics and assistive robotics. We will also support this momentum with first-class technological infrastructures, through the creation of an AI & Robotics Innovation Lab where companies will be able to develop their advanced robotics projects.
From what perspective does Eurecat approach innovation in decarbonization?
We are working from a highly multidisciplinary perspective. We do so within an ecosystem, collaborating with other research agents, industry and public administrations. We are working to develop infrastructures such as decarbonizations pilot plants where companies can test their pathways in order to implement them and activate effective decarbonization within their businesses. We are also making progress in testing, validating and transferring advanced technologies such as pyrolysis, for example, for industrial use.
How will the technological mission focused on health and well-being be articulated?
We have been working for some time on personalized nutrition, but in the health field we want to go one step further, developing technology to care for people with extreme personalization throughout their entire lives—from birth to old age—adapting health strategies for both prevention and care at each life stage, whether infants, adolescents, women in menopause, or people experiencing ageing or cognitive decline. Eurecat aims to develop technology to achieve personalized, participatory, predictive and preventive healthcare. One of the objectives we have set is to develop solutions in the field of mental health, which requires a multidisciplinary approach influenced by social, nutritional and neurological factors.
What types of projects will Eurecat prioritize in the field of artificial intelligence?
There has been a boom in demand regarding how generative AI can impact the daily operations of companies and also people’s lives. This undoubtedly has a major impact, but we must not forget that conventional AI still has a long way to go in developing advanced strategies to improve business productivity. At Eurecat, we are leaders in AI applied to industrial environments. Our strong background in working with industries and companies allows us to address a discipline such as artificial intelligence because we thoroughly understand the application domain—how a factory works, how a treatment plant operates, how flows function within an industrial company—combining domain experts with mathematicians and algorithm developers. We form high-performance teams that have enabled 500 companies to become clients of real, implemented AI projects in industry. While there is currently a boom in generative AI, I believe we must continue advancing in conventional AI applied to and impacting industry, in companies’ day-to-day operations and processes, while also integrating generative AI, which can enable an unprecedented increase in productivity.
How does Eurecat approach changes in artificial intelligence and aspects such as the impact of the EU AI Act?
We must continue working on issues such as the impact of AI and be prepared to address a directive that is strongly shaping the deployment of artificial intelligence in Europe, namely the EU AI Act, with the aim of ensuring that algorithms are trustworthy and explainable. Another aspect where I believe we must make strong progress in the future is disinformation and, above all, its impact on society. There are two issues that are very important to me: safety and cybersecurity. With the expansion of technologies such as generative AI, disinformation will become increasingly critical, and we must develop technology to ensure security and cybersecurity so that we are not affected by disinformation.
What is Eurecat’s role from the perspective of technological sovereignty?
Europe is going through a period in which it has seen its technological sovereignty threatened, as well as its dependence on external sources in areas as critical as raw materials. These are two separate issues, but both have a strong impact on the technological sovereignty we want to have as a country. In the case of semiconductors, we already have expertise in manufacturing, materials, coatings, photonics and microelectronics, and now we will create a high-performance team to tackle this challenge in an accelerated manner.
What research is Eurecat carrying out in the field of critical raw materials?
We are working to ensure the availability of critical raw material, resources that vary depending on the country or region of the planet. This dependence is already becoming evident in global geopolitics and in the concern to secure supply. At Eurecat, we work on the recovery of these materials, which are essential for batteries, for example, and on efficient methods for their recovery and traceability.
These challenges also require a great deal of talent. What is Eurecat’s vision for attracting and retaining it?
Yes, in addition to creating these high-performance groups, we need to strongly empower talented people so that they are trained in these concepts and adopt this different mindset focused on changing things.
What are the priorities in technologies linked to the planet?
We want to contribute to a clean, decarbonized planet, with efficient and circular use of resources. We also develop technology for water management, circularity and recovery. In the field of climate change, a few years ago we promoted the Climate Resilience Centre and created a specific technological unit focused on climate solutions. Our approach to this issue is multidisciplinary, as we work with very diverse technologies, ranging from bioremediation to Earth observation data processing.
What is the rationale behind the technological missions defined by Eurecat?
Eurecat’s technological missions make it possible to drive new concepts and help people feel that they are part of changing things. Overall, they will address innovation in personalized prevention and care, and the promotion of revolutionary advances to improve mental and cognitive health, as well as the application of new computational paradigms to design the next generation of digital experiences and sustainable industrial solutions. Promoting a more inclusive and fair society by ensuring that new computational methods increase security at all levels, and driving in-house technological developments that generate new initiatives to strengthen industrial leadership, are also among the missions, together with transforming existing industry to make it resilient, competitive and sustainable, accelerating the decarbonizations of industrial processes to reduce the ecological footprint and mitigate climate change, ensuring circular management of scarce and critical resources, and fostering environmental restoration and biodiversity.
