Catalonia has a challenge for the next 25 years: to make knowledge a country project

Over the last two decades, Catalonia has led one of the most extraordinary scientific transformations in Europe. What was a bold commitment at the beginning of the 2000s to build a modern, competitive, and international research system is today a reality recognized throughout the world. We have created centers of research excellence, attracted global talent, developed first-rate scientific infrastructure, and positioned our institutions among the most competitive in Europe in terms of resource acquisition and scientific production.

This success has not been the result of chance, but the result of a shared vision; of an innovative institutional model and of principles that have become benchmarks: autonomy, international evaluation, professionalization of management, trust in talent, and results-orientation. The model promoted around the CERCA scientific excellence centers, the ICREA talent attraction and retention program, and the major scientific infrastructures has demonstrated that Catalonia is capable of competing with the best when it has the right tools.

But precisely because we have achieved this excellence, the time has come to ask ourselves a new question: what now? The answer is clear. Scientific excellence can no longer be considered the final goal; it must be the starting point for a new stage. The great challenge of the next 25 years consists of transforming this enormous scientific capital into more innovation, more prosperity, more social cohesion, and a greater capacity to respond to global challenges.

The future challenge

We live in a context profoundly different from the one that existed when the current system was launched. International competition for talent is more intense than ever. Artificial intelligence, quantum computing, the energy transition, precision health, or semiconductors will redefine the economies of the future. At the same time, societies demand solutions to major collective challenges: climate change, population aging, food security, access to energy, or new inequalities.

In this new scenario, research ceases to be solely a source of academic prestige to become a strategic country infrastructure. Knowledge is one of the main factors of competitiveness, technological sovereignty, and collective well-being. Therefore, the question we must ask ourselves is how we can ensure that the knowledge generated in Catalonia creates even more public value.

The vision for 2050 is ambitious but realistic: to convert Catalonia into one of the main knowledge societies in Europe. Not just a territory excellent in scientific production, but also an ecosystem capable of transforming ideas into solutions, discoveries into businesses, innovations into quality employment, and research into social well-being.

To achieve this goal, it is necessary to reinforce four major dimensions. The first is the construction of a shared system identity. Catalonia has universities, CERCA centers, reference hospitals, technology centers, innovative companies, and large scientific infrastructures. The challenge is not so much creating new actors as reinforcing their connection. We need an integrated knowledge network that multiplies existing capabilities and generates new opportunities for collaboration.

The second is talent. No country leads the knowledge society without attracting, training, and retaining exceptional people. It is necessary to promote a comprehensive talent policy that embraces all stages of the scientific and technological career, favors international mobility, strengthens diversity, and promotes female leadership. Talent will be the main differentiating factor of the future.

The third is the creation of large shared strategic platforms. High-impact research requires infrastructure, equipment, and testing environments that no institution can develop alone. We need spaces where universities, research centers, hospitals, and companies can share capabilities and accelerate the transfer to the productive fabric.

Finally, we must complete the knowledge value chain. In recent decades we have learned to generate excellent science. Now we must learn to better scale innovation, promote new technological companies, facilitate the industrialization of emerging technologies, and expand collaboration mechanisms with industry. The future will not only depend on generating discoveries, but on our ability to convert them into real impact.

All of this requires a stable framework. We need a more robust and diversified financial architecture, with a balanced combination of base public funding, competitive resource acquisition, patronage, and European instruments. Research requires a long-term vision, and vision is only possible when stability exists.

It also requires placing knowledge at the center of public policy. Science not only generates economic innovation; it also improves the quality of collective decisions. In a complex world, administrations must be able to incorporate scientific evidence in a cross-cutting manner to face challenges such as health, water, energy, climate change, or social cohesion.

The 2050 we imagine is that of a Catalonia that leads because it cooperates, that competes because it invests in talent, and that prospers because it turns knowledge into shared value. A Catalonia capable of attracting the best ideas, generating opportunities for new generations, and contributing to solving major global challenges.

The history of the last twenty years shows us that, when we have ambition and perseverance, we are capable of transforming the country. The 25 years ahead of us offer us an even greater opportunity: to move from scientific excellence to transformative excellence. Ultimately, to make knowledge a true country project.