Catalonia shows off, whenever there is a forum, its capacity for innovation. Startups, hubs digital, international investments; are increasingly finding their home in the Principality. The technology figures, however, quantify a multitude of projects that, in the words of the director of ARA, Esther Vera, "work to seek not very complex solutions to very complex problems." To give voice —and bestow some well-deserved laurels— to a handful of these initiatives, the newspaper celebrated this Thursday the first edition of the FAR awards, dedicated to technology with an impact on society; in fields as diverse as education, health, or environmental preservation. The evening was hosted by journalists Laura Rosel and Cristina Sáez.

Barcelona comes close to hosting the International Astronautical Congress (IAC), the world's leading space congress, in 2029. The Barcelona bid was not selected by the organization to host the event, which will ultimately go to Geneva. It should be remembered that the Catalan capital was competing with the Swiss city and Houston to be the host of the event organized by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF). The decision was made this very Friday in Antalya, where this year's edition of the IAC is being held.

Catalonia maintains its status as a benchmark for entrepreneurship within the Spanish state. This is revealed by data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report, which shows that entrepreneurial activity in the country broke its historical ceiling in 2025. According to the study, the Catalan entrepreneurial activity rate (TEA, for its acronym in English) last year stood at 9.7%, a year-on-year increase of 1.1 percentage points and the highest value in the historical series, which began in 2004. Furthermore, it shows that the gender gap in the entrepreneurial world is practically closed.

A major problem for innovation to advance in Spain and for start-ups to make the leap is the lack of capital to finance this transcendental step to succeed in having technological giants. Furthermore, added to this is the fact that resources from investors – the funds and venture and private capital needed for this – are being directed massively towards defense, at the behest of demands from NATO and the United States, for countries to allocate a larger proportion of their budget to these activities.

The conversation about artificial intelligence has focused mostly on the product. ChatGPT (OpenAI) or Claude (Anthropic) have become ubiquitous on users' devices; and, with them, in the social conversation. Like all technological disruptions of the scale that is assumed for AI, however, widespread adoption is the key to any significant advance. This adoption is among the fields of study of Marta Serra-Garcia, a Catalan economist and professor of economics and strategy at the Rady School of Management at the University of California - San Diego specialized in behavioral economics, who has studied public trust in AI. Serra-Garcia receives ARA at the Ciutadella campus of the Pompeu Fabra University, where she studied and where she has returned to participate in the European Meeting of the Economic Science Association, organized by the center's department of economics.

Onalabs is a company founded in Barcelona ten years ago. A deep tech that has spent a decade focused on research and development of a technology to generate a "paradigm shift" in the healthcare field, in the words of CEO Elisabet del Valle. How? It proposes a new way of monitoring health: moving from punctual blood tests to an "intensive" and continuous "monitoring" of people through sweat.

The Generalitat has approved this Tuesday its new business innovation strategy for the period 2026-2030. The Government's new roadmap for innovative activity in the country will activate an investment package of 78 million euros this year alone, 30% more, to accelerate research and development in the territory, train and attract the necessary technological talent, or facilitate the business adoption of disruptive technologies. According to the executive's calculations, public investment dedicated to the sector will mobilize private capital worth 3.7 times more; that is, about 300 million euros. The first call, as explained by the executive, will open next week, with an available amount of 17 million euros.

The technology industry has become one of the central pillars of the Catalan economy. The economic figures of the ICT sector (information and communication technologies) have grown non-stop in the last decade, according to the 18 editions of the annual barometer published by the Technological Circle of Catalonia. The latest edition records an unprecedented business record: in 2025, technology companies in the Principality exceeded 30.6 billion euros in revenue. This is an increase of 13% compared to 2024, when the previous ceiling was also broken with more than 28 billion euros in income. Last year's total is equivalent to 9.1% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), half a point more than the previous year.

The European regulation of cryptocurrencies, known as the MiCA regulation, has reshaped the digital asset landscape on the continent. Far from the wild west that had dominated the early years of the industry, Brussels has managed to put fences around the field. To the point that the major player in the market, the giant Binance, has not been able to acquire the community permit to operate in the EU, and retired on July 1st. The new framework imposed by the European Commission aims to offer security to investors, and part of the sector crypto has taken the regulation as a business loophole. Catalonia is proof of this: the first cryptocurrency platform created in the country, Venga, received the MiCA license last week to operate in the region with a model far removed from the market's image. "We are an app for people who are new to the space. We built it from scratch so you can enter it easily," explains the company's executive director, Michael Stroev, in conversation with the "Companies.

The general blackout of April 2025, like all traumatic events for the population, changed many things. Spanish strategic infrastructures, from communication towers to power plants, and essential services such as hospitals, have strived to find alternatives to stay afloat when there is no electricity. Most of these hotspots have traditional diesel generators, which cover their short-term needs, but also place logistical limits on activity. Eliminating these obstacles is the raison d'être of Atom H2, one of the most acclaimed startups in the Catalan ecosystem, which closes the electrical wound with renewable generation and a patented hydrogen technology. "We want to be the new standard for generators," says Anna Martín, one of the project's co-founders, in conversation with ARA.

The Barcelona City Council, with the Barcelona Knowledge Hub of the European Academy (managed by the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation), annually awards the Barcelona Hypatia European Science Prize to a researcher based in Europe (not necessarily in the EU-27). The existence of the prize responds to a strategic choice by a city council interested in highlighting its city's scientific capital. Prizes give recognition and credit to those who receive them, but also to those who give them. There are many scientific prizes in the world, but they are typically international, national, or sub-national in scope. There are very few European ones. It is a surprising lack (the EU had them but, I don't know why, abolished them) and an opportunity for the Hypatia prize, which has already covered six editions, to establish itself as a European benchmark. The reputation of a prize is given by the list of its recipients. And here the prize's trajectory has been very good. In all six cases, the jury has chosen well. Among the awardees, László Lovász later received the Abel Prize (the Nobel Prize in Mathematics), Nancy Cartwright the BBVA Prize, and in September 2025 the jury conferred it to Philippe Aghion, a French economist, who a month later received the Nobel Prize. A positive side effect of the prize is that the awardees strengthen their ties with Catalonia. Thus, Aghion received the prize on June 15 in a solemn ceremony at the Saló de Cent, and on the 16th he gave a presentation at the Cercle d’Economia and on the 17th another, more academic, at the Summer Forum of the Barcelona School of Economics.

Philippe Aghion (Paris, 1956) won last year the Nobel Prize in Economics for his research on the impact of technology and innovation on economic development. Aghion, a professor at the prestigious Collège de France, Insead, and London School of Economics, currently focuses his work on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in growth and how Europe can improve its policies to reduce dependence on Chinese and American tech giants.

The technology center Eurecat has received the National Award for Knowledge and Innovation Transfer 2025, awarded by the Generalitat de Catalunya, in recognition of its continuous work to improve business opportunities and social welfare through applied research, technological transfer, and innovation.

Europe suffers from a technological lag. This seems indisputable. But when did it miss the boat? In reality, not so long ago. In the mid-20th century, it was still at the forefront, and in certain sectors, it maintained advantageous positions almost until the dawn of the 21st century. Then it collapsed.

The public center for technological research and development i2CAT presented its new headquarters this Wednesday. Located at Pier01, the Palau de Mar space managed by the technology employers' association Tech Barcelona, the new facility has an area of approximately 2,000 square meters. The relocation and adaptation of the offices and laboratories have involved an investment of around 10 million euros, coming mostly from European Next Generation funds through the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. According to the center's director, Sergi Figuerola, the move serves to unite i2CAT with "the digital ecosystem of Tech, to generate synergies with a hub of reference in southern Europe".

In Catalonia, we like to say we're a land of talent. And we are. We have brilliant scientists, leading research centers, top-tier hospitals, and networks like ICREA and iCERCA that have put the region on the European map. Our publication figures, our success in securing competitive funding from the European Research Council (ERC), and our research impact all attest to this. So far, so legitimate.

The Mobile World Congress is the world's most important event for mobile technology and telecommunications. Every year, companies, experts, and journalists participate to present new phones, networks, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and 5G/6G technology. These are three of the many innovations that were showcased this year.

Five seconds, one liter. Ten seconds, two. Fifteen seconds, three... and so the water is lost down the drain hole toward the sewer. This is the scene that repeats itself every day in most homes when someone is waiting for the hot water to come out in the shower, sink, or kitchen. To put an end to this, companies like those in Valencia AquaReturn and Ecoid They have devised devices that prevent this waste and aim to make reuse a daily practice, moving from an occasional gesture to something commonplace.

In recent years, China has managed to capture a significant portion of the market that until recently was dominated by the European pharmaceutical industry, displacing the Old Continent to third place globally in many aspects. This ranking is led by the United States, but the Asian giant continues to gain ground. In this context, Catalonia, the leading center for the sector in Spain, with 44% of the pharmaceutical manufacturing plants (79 out of 181), and one of the main centers in Europe, must play a key role in the effort to improve innovation in the industry and regain its position. Within this framework, the Catalan government (Generalitat) and the industry association Farmaindustria are working to boost competitiveness and increase innovation and patient access to new treatments. The last meeting between the two parties took place last month, attended by President Salvador Illa, before his medical leave, and the president of the industry association, Fina Lladós.

Concern and unease. This is what the European pharmaceutical sector feels in the face of the advance of the US and China. This was expressed by Carlos Gallardo, president and CEO of Almirante and second vice-president of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). During a conference at Matins d'Esade, the representative of the family that controls the majority of Almirante's capital asserted that Europe was, "literally, the pharmacy of the world," and that this characteristic has been lost in the last three decades. "In 25 years, it has gone from contributing half of the innovative medicines to producing only one in five," he explained. Gallardo called on the European Union (EU) to modify its policy and consider the biopharmaceutical sector strategic for the future of the European economy, instead of as a cost center. He explained that investment in research and development (R&D) has fallen by 25% in the last 20 years in Europe, which is delaying the global launch of drugs. He also explained that the regulatory process is also too slow in Europe. As an example, he said that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) takes an average of 426 days to approve a product, while in the US, through the FDA, it takes 244 days. And, in Spain, another 600 days are added. Therefore, companies only have about six years to recoup their investment before the patent expires. During the audience question period, Gallardo called for a commitment to a hub He argued that having a "superpower" research center in Europe, like the one in Boston, USA, instead of one in every country, fragments everything and creates significant inefficiencies. The decline he believes is affecting the European sector also impacts clinical research. "European participation in clinical trials has halved, resulting in 60,000 fewer opportunities for patients." Furthermore, he noted that US and Chinese industrial policies are "redirecting manufacturing investment away from Europe." He also stated that Almirall is committed to artificial intelligence (AI) and explained the process that led the company to focus on medical dermatology. To this end, they consider many variables, from dermatologists' perceptions to the number of patients treated, sales growth, employee satisfaction, progress on the R&D roadmap, and reducing their carbon footprint, he concluded. It has been agreed that its objective is to launch products prescribed by dermatologists, outside the realm of cosmetics or aesthetics.