First TECNIO conference: challenges in generating high-impact innovation in Catalonia
The TECNIO groups located on the UAB campus and Rosa M. Sebastián, Vice Rector for Innovation, Transfer and Entrepreneurship and director of the UAB Research Park, participated in the First TECNIO Conference, which debuted with the challenges faced by the knowledge transfer ecosystem to turn Catalonia into a technology innovation pole.
21/10/2022
Some two hundred people attended the conference, which brought together representatives from the research, administrative and business sectors to discuss the policies and mechanisms that allow businesses and research to work together to generate innovation in Catalonia.
In her inaugural speech, Nora Ventosa, President of the TECNIO Association, highlighted the responsibility of Catalonia's politicians and authorities to make knowledge transfer travel at high speeds and ensure that investment in research would lead to benefits for society. Following her speech, Xavier Aldeguer, General Director of Knowledge Transfer of the Government of Catalonia declared that he will “work to guarantee that the progress made in knowledge transfer is maintained throughout time and advances even more, regardless of political colour”.
Pere Condom, Head of the Office of Technology Research and Transfer at the UdG, spoke on the new tendencies in technology and innovation transfer by pointing out the role of the TECNIO Association as a large concentration of technology in southern Europe that helps in the innovation of corporations.
During the round table entitled "Time to Transfer: mechanisms to aid research in reaching the market", participants spoke on the need for the administration, research institutes and business networks to work together to create intensive collaboraiton policies that would allow research professionals to continue their projects until these reach the business market.
The second round table was dedicated to professional careers and focused on new tools and policies existing to foster knowledge transfer and collaborations with businesses, beyond papers and articles published in journals. The objective of what is known as a mixed career is for it to be recognised in both the academic and professional field.
In the second part of the conference, attendants debated on the need for businesses to collaborate with R&D centres to make Catalonia more competitive in a macroeconomic world in which emerging powers were gaining more and more ground. This session included the participation of ICREA researcher and director of the UAB Unit of Viral Vector Production (UPV) Miguel Chillón, who mentioned that “the use of public aid for collaborative projects between businesses and research groups is an underused tool of which we must take more advantage”.
Finally, another debate was offered on creating spin-offs, a formula research institutes have to transfer knowledge to the market. The debate was focused on entrepreneurial aids, the role of private businesses in the creation of spin-offs, and the role of technology transfer offices (TTO), among others.
In addition to these debates, the conference also include an exhibition hall in which TECNIO groups and centres displayed their projects and technological capacities.