If we want to build a truly efficient innovation ecosystem, we need to place companies at its centre. Without a more innovative and technologically advanced business fabric, our competitiveness and territorial resilience, and therefore the quality of life of our citizens, will not improve.
In this regard, technology transfer is a key challenge in the Catalan and European innovation system. However, despite scientific excellence, the conversion of research into innovation remains limited, as reflected in the article “Technology transfer: a different perspective”, which I authored in the latest issue of the Revista Econòmica de Catalunya (REC). The publication, entitled “The return of industrial policy in Catalonia. Strategic sectors”, was presented at the 2025 Economists’ Conference, organized by the College of Economists of Catalonia.
From this perspective, the model that considers technology transfer as a linear process is not efficient in improving the innovative performance of a territory as a whole. It is also important to highlight that innovation is not only the result of the “technology push”, but of interactions among the agents of the ecosystem, with companies as the main actors.
In the case of our business fabric, with a high concentration of small-sized companies, it is especially necessary for the innovation ecosystem to be more efficient and to provide more intensively the factors required for innovation, compared with other territories that have a greater number of large corporations.
These factors are diverse and range from the provision of specialized scientific or technological knowledge, access to technological infrastructures and team training, to adequate financing, support for the protection of intellectual capital, and advice on innovation strategies and management.
It is also essential to promote, through appropriate incentives, systemic relationships among the different agents of the ecosystems, from universities, research centres, educational institutions and technology centres to companies, funding entities, public administrations and citizens, and to orient them towards the goal of helping companies adopt innovation as a key and sustained strategy for competitiveness over time.
This approach must also be accompanied by the necessary resources and long-term stability, as well as by ecosystem governance that embraces a comprehensive vision, and particularly a greater business participation.
Based on this strategic vision, Eurecat aligns itself with the industrial and business fabric to provide technologies and differentiated capabilities with real impact on their activities, as reflected in the projects brought together in this newsletter.
Xavier López
Eurecat’s Chief Officer
