by Josep Huguet
Catalonia is re-inventing itself as a hot-spot for research, development and innovation (RDI), not just to benefit the researchers who have flocked to this pole of scientific endeavour in recent years, but also to benefit society at large. As a result, the Catalan region is already embarking on its first big science projects and is able to compete with the big boys on the dynamic EU scene.
Our blueprint for the future is the Catalan Agreement on Research and Innovation (CARI). Drawn up in 2008, it was approved by government, political and civil society stakeholders, universities, parliament, trade unions and business associations. The CARI established guidelines for research and innovation until 2020 and underpins the commitments made by its signatories.
GROWTH IN INVESTMENT AND ACTIVITY
Catalonia’s success in blending private and public activity is evident from the data. It hosts more than 500,000 companies, including 3,100 foreign businesses. Some 98% are small and medium-sized enterprises, with more than 10,000 companies involved in innovation. Expenditure on R&D totalled €3.286m in 2008, of which two-thirds was private finance, with investment evolving rapidly since then.
In terms of infrastructure, there are 12 universities and 24 science and technology parks in the region. The Spanish High Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) has 21 centres in Catalonia, alongside a wide variety of research institutes, 39 of which are supported by the Government of Catalonia under the umbrella CERCA system of research centres. A further 100 TECNIO units are devoted to knowledge and technology transfer. The jewels in Catalonia’s research crown are the large-scale centres such as the Synchrotron Alba, the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre and the Clean Chamber for microelectronics. They share with the other organisations an enormous capacity to attract and promote talent. In total, this integrated system of RDI hosts more than 227,000 university students and around 25,000 researchers.
A LONG-TERM POLICY DESIGNED FOR THE FUTURE
The success of recent years has been built on a longer-term strategy, which began ten years ago when Catalonia started transforming its research landscape. The government put in place a policy to attract scientific talent by creating the Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) and founding and funding research institutes with their own legal identity and flexible working structures. As a result, we currently have 217 ICREA researchers, of whom 78 work in CERCA institutes.
Since then, this policy has been enriched with plans to attract large-scale research infrastructure. The result has been the creation of 24 new research institutes, while another 15 university institutes have been expanded and transformed. Prestigious names such as the Centre for Genomic Regulation, the Institute of Photonic Sciences and the Catalan Institute of Nanotechnology are all products of this policy. The quality of RDI in Catalonia is reflected in the high level of grants awarded to our institutions by the EU’s European Research Council (ERC). Collectively, the CERCA research centres, the universities and the other Catalan organisations have received 1.85% of all the competitive funds available from the ERC’s 7th Framework Programme (FP7). In addition, 40 Catalan projects have been awarded grants for being among the most groundbreaking in Europe, amounting to 60% of all such ERC grants to Spain. More than half of the 40 researchers who have received these ERC awards belong to ICREA.
LOOKING AHEAD
To fulfil the commitments of the CARI, the Government of Catalonia introduced significant changes to its RDI policy in 2009. For the first time, the 2010-2013 Plan for Research and Innovation (PRI) was designed as a truly inter-ministerial programme, with research and innovation integrated across all sectors of government. Organised into 10 strategic objectives, it provides a framework for publicly-funded research. The aim is to add economic value to RDI projects and to put talent – scientific, creative, innovative and entrepreneurial talent – into the driving seat. For private businesses, the PRI offers a more systematic, international approach, while also establishing that public contracts are aimed at innovative companies too. Wider society is not forgotten either, with some initiatives being launched to involve citizens in scientific progress as well.
THE EUROPEAN DIMENSION
RDI is a dynamic and highly competitive international sector. The European context, too, provides an incentive for regions such as Catalonia to adapt their local scientific structures. In this regard, Catalan science and innovation priorities have been organised into 17 areas, which will be developed into knowledge and innovation communities able to compete at the international level. They will target three main sectors: environmental resources and territorial challenges; people and society; plus scientific, productive and organisational challenges. Catalonia is also co-ordinating its actions with other administrations concerned with science policy, especially the European R&D programmes. With EU research funding growing, and the Catalan share already significant, the Catalan government has recently approved its official position regarding the next EU Framework Programme for research – known as FP8 – which will run from 2014-2020.
The first outstanding issue was to link the FP8’s priorities, and the Catalan PRI priorities, to the pressing socioeconomic challenges facing European society today. The Catalan government also needed to respond to proposals to allow regions to participate in the governance of the European Research Area, which would open up decision-making to places with a significant record in promoting, managing, evaluating and implementing RDI programmes. Sub-programmes of the FP8 are also due to be opened up to regional administrations. The Catalan position on the FP8 also backs the continuation of the Ideas Programme, in particular its support for young researchers, and stronger initiatives to ensure that RDI helps to make Europe more competitive. Catalonia is also well placed to benefit from another proposal for FP8 – to strengthen Europe’s RDI ties with third countries, particularly those in the Euro-Mediterranean region. When combined with local scientific excellence and emerging economic sectors, this can only support Catalonia’s on-going efforts to create a real research pole in the south of Europe, one with a growing influence in the Euro-Mediterranean area.
This section is sponsored by the Government of Catalonia.
www.gencat.cat/diue
No comments:
Post a Comment