"Companies must understand that innovation is risky, but not doing so is riskier."

BarcelonaFor Eurecat's general manager, Xavier López, the country's main challenge in terms of innovation and technology is for companies to understand innovation as a strategic component of their business. "The goal is for more and more companies to incorporate innovation as a key strategy, not just to do the occasional project: they need to recognize that innovation has a very clear impact on their competitiveness," López noted in an interview.Companies.

In fact, technology transfer to companies "is a deficit in Catalonia, Spain, and Europe, but we must not lose sight of the fact that the objective is not only transfer, but also innovation within companies." According to López, the focus should be on increasingly more start-ups innovating more intensely. "The goal shouldn't be for research centers to develop and companies to apply this knowledge, because companies also have a lot of knowledge. Ideally, there should be collaboration between the two parties and also with the government," he points out. Regarding funding, López points out that in Europe a commitment had been made to achieve 2% of GDP in R&D by 2020, "and neither in Spain nor in Catalonia has the goal been reached." "Many public and private resources are lacking; companies must understand that this is a good investment: it is an investment with risk, but it is riskier not to do it."

Promoting innovation is, in part, the role of Eurecat, one of the main technology centers in Catalonia, which this year celebrates ten years since its founding in 2015. It is, therefore, time to take stock. "We must evaluate the process we have followed to get to where we are, the integration of centers that have become part of Eurecat: this is a process that is not very common in Catalonia, where a growing critical mass agrees to create something so large," notes the general director. To date, Eurecat has reached nearly 16,000 technological innovation projects and services and has provided solutions to more than 3,200 companies "of all sizes and sectors," the organization notes. "We have not stopped growing in clients and revenue, and that, in a political situation that has been highly uncertain, is important to highlight," he adds. "It has also meant the integration of a technology center model with a clear mission to accelerate innovation in companies and other entities and territories in which we operate, and designed to try to offer solutions in various fields." However, López believes that what the country needs is "to promote more collaborative research with companies, universities, and other research centers."

Technological sovereignty

"We must improve our technological and industrial sovereignty: let's remember what happened with the pandemic: we didn't have enough technology and we weren't prepared in this sense because we weren't sovereign enough," he emphasizes. López also points out that artificial intelligence (AI), "not only generative intelligence, but also agentive models," will be the technology with the greatest transformative potential in the coming years.

"The uncontrolled use and the potential negative impacts it may have are somewhat frightening: we believe it must be regulated intelligently so that its uses are appropriate," he notes. And, in this sense, he believes that another danger, here too, is the "lack of technological sovereignty that exists in general in Europe, because it leaves us in the hands of large American companies or states like China."

However, when asked about the threat that AI could pose to the labor market, he states: "We would be disingenuous if we said that this technology will not take over some tasks or functions linked to certain jobs, but that is not so different from what has happened throughout history with other technological revolutions, and it is always likely that we are heading this way." And he repeats a phrase that is already a classic among professionals in the sector: "AI will not take your job, it will be taken by whoever knows how to master it." And, furthermore, he assures that "we cannot forget the enormous potential that AI has to bring very important advances in areas such as health and research."

"And we cannot forget quantum computing, which could revolutionize AI even further," points out López: "Thanks to quantum computing, AI can be developed at a faster speed than today." In this area, Eurecat has trained a group of researchers and technologists who are beginning to investigate quantum computing. "One of the great dangers is that it will be capable of breaking data encryption or current computer security, and we must begin to develop post-quantum protection," he asserts.

Strategic plan

The new phase launched by Eurecat includes a 2025-2027 strategic plan that seeks to "consolidate the organization as a leader in transformative technologies" and, among other objectives, to establish itself "as a strategic ally for companies in innovation activities."

In addition, the organization plans to expand investment in new technological infrastructure in areas such as robotics and decarbonization, because there is high business demand to develop projects in these fields, "which is good news, because if companies are asking for this, it is because they are aware of the importance of these technologies." Among the projects they have carried out in these ten years, López mainly highlights their line of activity linked to AI, not only generative but also in industrial environments. "Since 2016, we have developed more than 400 AI projects in industrial environments with the aim of optimizing processes and making them more intelligent," he explains. "We're applying the entire field of robotics, which is increasingly cognitive (traditional robotics combined with AI), to industrial and agri-food sectors, and we're seeing great progress."