Goal: to become the Boston of Europe

The Mercat del Peix is scheduled to open next year, one hub for innovation and research that aims to become a hub for cutting-edge research and innovation in precision medicine. The goal is for the facilities of this 45,000 m² complex to become a leading center for innovation and research in precision medicine.², which has a cost of 104 million euros and which are located next to the Ciutadella campus of Pompeu Fabra University, will foster interdisciplinary research and become a magnet for researchers from around the world.

To this end, the new knowledge hub will bring together research centers, such as BIST and IRB Barcelona, ​​technology transfer units, companies, and innovation spaces. All of this with the aim of promoting interdisciplinary collaboration and connections with industry. Proximity to hospitals, universities, and companies will strengthen the environment to facilitate the leap from the laboratory to the market.

It is not the only one hub which will be launched in Catalonia in the near future. The Centre for Genomic Regulation is promoting a bioinformatics and biomedical data node focused on the massive analysis of omics data and the development of computational tools for personalized medicine.

These new hubs They create science and foster community, innovation, and entrepreneurial activity. They enable researchers to develop patents and find investors or industrial partners just a few meters away. Furthermore, they are the result of a process that began twenty years ago and has consolidated Catalonia's system of research excellence and its capacity to attract talent, placing Catalonia among the most scientifically productive regions in Europe.

In fact, according to the latest Regional Innovation Index (RIS) assessments, compiled annually by the European Commission using twenty-three indicators related to the level of innovation in 241 European regions, Spain will again rank second in 2025 as a region within Spain and, for the first time, will be ranked second in the Basque Country. For Luis Serrano, ICREA researcher and head of the CRG, one of Catalonia's flagship biomedical research centers, the international recognition of the R&D&I system is due to the strategic commitment of the Catalan government, and specifically the then Minister of Economy, Andrés Mas-C. This biologist believes it was then that the necessary foundations were laid, creating a series of leading research centers that formed the CERCA network of excellence—modeled after leading European and American institutions—to promote a meritocratic system. Another key element, as Lluís Torner, founding director of the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Castelldefels, considered another fundamental pillar of the Catalan research ecosystem, adds, was the ICREA program for attracting and recruiting international talent, as well as the implementation of new initiatives. "For a complex society like ours to create knowledge and economic value, an ecosystem that made it possible was needed," says Torner, who is also a professor at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC). "At the beginning, it was a very fragile ecosystem," continues this physicist, who emphasizes, however, that thanks to that initial impetus, and because over the last two decades "everyone has believed in it and all governments have supported it, we now have an ecosystem capable of producing excellent research." Investors have also joined this ecosystem. Fifteen or twenty years ago there were very few, but now they are present, especially in biomedicine and technology. This is the case with Ysios, Invivo, and Asabis, among others, which have raised significant funds and invested in the creation of new startups.

In fact, in the last seven or eight years, Catalonia has experienced a significant increase in startups, with disruptive and innovative ideas, especially in the biomedical sector. According to data from the Circle of Economy, There are more than 2,300 active ones, These join technology centers like Leitat and Eurecat. This boom has led Catalonia to occupy a prominent place in the European innovation ranking.

"Today we are a very powerful biotechnology and biomedicine hub in Europe, and as a result, we have attracted major companies like Sanofi and AstraZeneca," which contribute to creating skilled jobs, attracting investment, and increasing the competitiveness of biomedical clusters:

And now, where do we go from here?

For Torner, we are in a good place after several very productive years, during which the Catalan research ecosystem has benefited from European and state funding that has provided significant resources to certain areas. One example is the PERTE program, dedicated to climate change and the manufacture of next-generation photonic chips. "Unprecedented investments have been made, allowing us to build strength in many fields. The challenge is how we will continue until 2035," notes Torner, who argues that funding is needed for stable, deep-rooted technology that allows for scaling up results. And also for startups. Although we have some success stories, most of these startups created in Catalonia have between ten and fifty employees on average. "We need to scale them up to five hundred employees," Serrano believes.

TheReport on the state of science in CataloniaA report prepared by the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation details how promising projects remain at the pilot stage due to a lack of industrial funding or investors who understand the technological risks. Therefore, as this document argues, more specialized capital for deep technology and public instruments to co-finance its translation are needed. The report also highlights the need to improve intellectual property management and business culture, and to support Catalan businesses in adopting technology. Furthermore, it emphasizes the need for a shared strategic vision among the Catalan government, universities, research and technology centers, and industry, to prioritize sectors with a competitive advantage in which Catalonia already has a well-established track record.

"Territories like China and Europe have made significant concentrations in specific areas. We need to focus on not falling behind," he argues. "We have the capacity because we have the tools," but, as the Draghi report points out, "to have an economic impact beyond science, we need to focus." While continuing to support all areas, this means concentrating the most significant investment of resources in specific sectors. In the case of Catalonia: biotechnology, biomedicine, quantum physics, photonics, and supercomputing. In this way, Torner emphasizes, "we can transform knowledge and attract industry to have the capacity to reach the market and survive."

This is an example of it. The pilot line for quantum chip manufacturing, led at European scale by ICFO, PIXEurope, With a budget of 400 million euros, these integrated circuits are a key and strategic component in sectors as diverse as telecommunications and medical imaging technologies, as well as automotive and defense. The Catalan Center for Photonics will be responsible for building the infrastructure—the laboratories—over the next ten years and will serve both companies and institutions working with photonics to accelerate their development and demonstrate their products. It should contribute to accelerating development.

“We should be very proud of what we have achieved so far, of where we started and where we have arrived. We have demonstrated that we are competitive, but we cannot stop here,” Serrano believes. “We have to continue improving and make a firm commitment to the sectors in which we excel, such as biotechnology and photonics.” That is why he believes “more critical thinking” is needed to generate ecosystems like those of Harvard or Boston. “We have good universities, but they have funding problems and a lot of bureaucratic restrictions that lower the average scientific and innovation output,” he adds. Another pending challenge is funding. The Catalan R&D&I system is calling for financial support from the outset. “Laboratories need investment from the earliest stages so they can create a company that develops a drug that will cure someone,” says Serrano.

In Serrano's opinion, this would require centers with a proven track record of technology transfer to have additional funding earmarked exclusively for transfer. "Having a specific budget would help develop projects early and thereby secure venture capital to bring them to maturity," says this biologist, for whom Barcelona should be the Boston of Europe. "It doesn't take much: a firm commitment, financial autonomy for the centers, and support for early investments in research and technology," he summarizes.