It is necessary to integrate with more strategic vision to technology centres in the Spanish science and technology ecosystem. They are the key to Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan funds, at least that part of the funds earmarked for R&D activities, to give a leading role to SMEs, identified by the Spanish Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation 2021-2027 as the critical point of action for changing the production model.
Apart from some specific aspects of management that could be improved, for which universities and public research organisations cannot be exonerated either (let's see who dares to cast the first stone), we have a map of centres with regional presence and international actionwith high levels of research efficiency and an unquestionable impact on the business fabric... but without an overall vision from the central administration.
There are many manifestations of this evil that the collective has been trying to put an end to for years. From the difficulties for companies from other autonomous communities to access regional aid where the technology centres are located, and vice versa, to the fact that it is difficult for companies from other regions to access regional aid where the technology centres are located, and vice versa, to the fact that it is difficult for companies from other regions to access regional aid where the technology centres are located. It is easier to obtain funding for collaborative projects with European funds than with state funds. Business as usual.
Not to mention the farce staged by the political parties over the reform of the Public Sector Contracts Law introduced in the last Budget Law, so that companies that are part of the governing bodies can work with their own technology centre! and to solve the problem of orders of less than 15,000 euros.
The text of the amendment promoted by the PNV in the three-party budget agreement with PSOE and ERC arrived mutilated and disoriented. An attempt was made to remedy this in the Senate through the Compromís group, which played no part in the alliance of parties, and in the end it was diluted in the text of the law with neither pain nor glory. And there it is. All because there is no one in the government or in any of the parliamentary groups in Congress with the right criteria. to know that what was being put into the bill was barbaric.
That the time has come for technology centres, because there is a need to be covered, is so obvious that the technology sector employers' association Ametic has named its initiative Ricardo Valle Innovation Network as the 'Spanish Fraunhofer'. The German benchmark has an annual budget of 2.8 billion euros - big words, but the key is to know where we have to go.
After a few months of miscommunication, with no malicious intent on either side, it seems that Ametic has already built bridges with the technology centres, which have existed for decades, most of them integrated in the Fedit network, with powerful research infrastructures, in many cases at the forefront of the world. Together they are considering turning the project into a PERTE. (Strategic Project for Economic Recovery and Transformation). Perhaps this is the way to achieve the articulation of the model that Spain needs.
Not just because I say so. The report "Modelos de innovación abierta: una aproximación autonómica", by the Cotec Foundation, analyses the cases of the Community of Madrid, the Basque Country and Catalonia, and its conclusion is very powerful: "Unlike Catalonia or Madrid, the Basque Country is not a model of open innovation, In the design of policies in the Basque Country, the open innovation of companies has been further promoted by encouraging the activity of technology centres.The "Innovation and innovation projects" programme, which promotes the participation of many companies in innovation projects due to the offloading for them of the possibility of outsourcing part of the activities, including such complex issues (particularly for SMEs) as the identification of technological opportunities and the planning of projects.
The result of this commitment to technology centres is that "...".the open innovation strategy is comparatively more profitable, from the point of view of innovative performance, for companies in the Basque Country. Not only do they reach higher levels in terms of sales of new products (as a percentage of their turnover), but these higher levels are achieved with a higher degree of openness. In other words, at the point where the open innovation strategy begins to show diminishing returns in firms in Catalonia and Madrid, the performance of firms in the Basque Country takes off towards higher levels", continues the Cotec report, the most explicit on the subject of those published to date.
"The role of technology centres in the Basque Country is of the utmost importance in explaining the figures for this region, both in terms of its levels of business R&D and in terms of its networking behaviour for innovation (i.e. its open innovation strategy)," he stresses again. And he argues that the role of technology centres "in the knowledge value chain needs to be reconsidered as a practical solution in the construction of a more productive and innovative business fabric. In addition to the European cases that have relied on this strategy (such as Germany with the Fraunhofer Institutes, the Netherlands with TNO, or Finland with VTT, among others), the case of the Basque Country's innovation policy can illuminate our vision for the future of the role of knowledge intermediariesand on the opportunities and challenges that such a strategy presents".
The central government's distant attitude towards the technology centre model is not new; it is part of the erratic industrial policy our country has pursued for decades, at the behest of both the PSOE and the PP. But the time has come to think big.
Perhaps one of the ways to achieve this would be to replicate at national level the model of industrial promotion institutes that emerged in the autonomous communities during the 1980s, which were responsible in many cases for the flourishing of the technology centre formula. There is no equivalent at national level, only a Directorate General which does not even come close to fulfilling that role.
