5. Priority Areas and Sectoral Strategy
Given the importance of research and innovation for the development of a country, the enormous range of sectors and areas in which research and innovation can be applied, and the fact that resources are of necessity limited, prioritisation in terms of research areas and economic sectors is absolutely necessary. The positive aspect of prioritisation is that specific strengths and the benefits of concentration are taken full advantage of. This ensures the attainment of critical mass and effectiveness in resource deployment, among other advantages.
The measures provided for in the Research and Innovation Plan, therefore, focus on two main areas that will enable the creation and consolidation of ‘poles of excellence’ in a European and international context.
a) General progress in the science and technology fields via medium to long-term projects
The Catalan system of science and technology needs to continue fostering -as an undoubtedly attractive asset- general knowledge acquisition based on freedom in research. The Research and Innovation Plan, therefore, aims to foster all areas of science and technology whilst awarding special priority to quality and excellence, given that knowledge should be acquired long-term without being conditioned by short-term market or productivity demands. For this reason, the Government of Catalonia will take a particular interest in fostering quality and excellence in scientific and technological research in all areas of knowledge.
b) Determination of priority research and technological development lines in different productive sectors
With the twofold aim of ensuring optimum interaction between all kinds of research and knowledge generation and the profitability of productive sectors considered as priorities for Government of Catalonia policies, the Research and Innovation Plan will mobilise the resources allocated to research and technological development so as to develop the innovative capabilities of the Catalan productive system. The Plan, therefore, establishes priority research lines designed to improve the connectivity between research programmes and innovation development programmes in the private sector.
5.1. Priority Research Lines
The Research and Innovation Plan satisfies the demands of industry, of business in emerging fields in the knowledge-based economy, and of the government and its ministries. The ministries and bodies dependent on the Government of Catalonia develop strategies and priorities for applied research in areas that are the responsibility of the government, by means of plans such as this Research and Innovation Plan and with the support of the bodies generally responsible for science and technology, namely the Interministerial Council for Research and Technological Innovation (CIRIT) and the Ministry of Universities, Research and the Information Society (DURSI).
In relation to making general progress in the science and technology areas, the underlying goal of the Plan is to foster all areas of science and technology, and in particular, to foster fundamental research while applying criteria of quality and excellence. As stated above, progress in both general knowledge acquisition and in economic competitiveness requires a science and technology policy that is broad in scope, to foster the generation of knowledge in the long term without interference in the form of short-term market or productivity demands. For this reason, DURSI and CIRIT will take a special interest in fostering quality in scientific and technological research in all areas of knowledge.
This policy of promoting knowledge acquisition in a broad sense needs to be adapted, however, to initiatives and proposals for priority lines of research, in order to face the challenges posed by the need to develop a knowledge-based society.
For this reason, specific strategic lines of research for the productive sectors are identified, listed as follows:
This includes from genomics to predictive or regenerative medicine to environmental health through bioengineering, neurosciences or international health. Great emphasis is put on translational research. The Ministry of Health is deeply involved in this area to the extent that in the Ministry itself a guideline plan on biomedical research is being drafted.
This includes basic research into phonetics for application in optical communications, new network audiovisual technologies or virtual reality and specific uses such as biomedical, aerospace or educational applications.
Work will continue in order to boost the priorities that comprise from vegetable molecular genetics to other sectors such as agroindustry, food quality and safety or animal health, among others. The Ministry of Agriculture, Stockbreeding and Fishing is an important agent in this area.
It includes a variety of fields from the social sciences and humanities, such as economics, demography, archaeology or the history of Catalonia. Many are interdisciplinary, such as cultural heritage, multilingualism, paleoecology, tourism, research into public policy, educational research, multiculturality or governance. Different ministries work to boost research in these fields.
It includes from green chemistry or research into sustainable building materials to research into sustainable mobility or the ecoefficiency of housing, via waste recovery, water management and treatment or research into renewable energy. The Ministry of the Environment and Housing and the Ministry of Town and Country Town and Public Works are relevant agents in the promotion of this research.
Moreover, research in cross-disciplinary areas will also be fostered, for example, in the nanoscience and nanotechnology fields.
Research and development policies in the priority areas defined above will be implemented by means of the creation and consolidation of research centres, the funding of research groups and networks, and the financing of researchers and support staff. These measures will be complemented by the creation and development of largescale (by Spanish or European Union standards) installations and facilities, scientific infrastructures and technology platforms, such as for example, science and technology parks linked to universities, the Synchrotron Light Source facility (Laboratori de Llum de Sincrotró) and the Supercomputation Centre (Centre de Supercomputació). To this end, the Science and Technology Infrastructures Plan for Catalonia for the period 2005-2010 will be approved and implemented.
Likewise, in order to ensure that any research carried out adds to the potential of the economic sectors prioritised by this Plan, the Government of Catalonia will specifically support cooperation between large-scale infrastructures, universities, research centres, and private sector enterprises with a view to developing local productive sectors based on emerging and inter-disciplinary fields. In this respect, the creation of a catalan BioCluster will be actively promoted, to include public bodies (universities, research centres, hospitals, science and technology parks, etc.) and private enterprises (pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, service providers, etc.). The purpose of the BioCluster will be to produce highly competitive products and services in the biomedicine and biotechnology fields.
5.2. Sectoral and Technology Strategies
To progress towards a model of growth based on knowledge, it will be necessary, on the one hand, to improve the overall quality of research, development and innovation in the industrial sector, and on the other hand, to implement a process of structural change that promotes specialisation in Catalan industry in terms of both sectors and high value-added/high-tech products. Research and innovation policies, therefore, will need to foster innovation capabilities in the private enterprise sector in general by implementing cross-sectoral measures. Priorities should be established, however, by selecting strategic sectors and aiming specific actions at each of these sectors, so as to ensure that policies to foster innovation are genuinely effective. A policy of establishing sectoral priorities will allow the stimulation of a transformation process of Catalan productive structures with an increase in participation by the high potential growth sectors.
Sectors with a strong growth potential and high technology content include aerospace, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, processed foods, and renewable energies.
The capacity of these sectors for acting as a driving force for the economy, combined with their knock-on effects in the Catalan research and innovation system, will be built on by identifying specific technological competences that generate a competitive edge and that can be disseminated to the rest of the business fabric via the technology transfer infrastructures that make up the Catalan model described in point 4.1.4. (The Technology and Knowledge Transfer Support Programme).
The dissemination of differentiated technology and knowledge can only be achieved by devising the corresponding technology strategies; these will focus efforts in the area of achieving technological excellence and providing specific supports for business projects in the emerging knowledge fields fundamental to the overall medium-term competitiveness of productive sectors and the competitiveness of strategic sectors such as:
These include a whole range of fields of knowledge that come together to give rise to competitive, flexible, robust and environmentally sustainable processes. The new strategy in manufacturing requires flexible operations and the integration of the supply chains. Computerised control, concurrent engineering, automation, simulation, computer vision and the speedy elaboration of prototypes are essential in this new context.
The generation of composite materials, the development of highly resistant steel or technologies for surface thermal treatment and covering, as well as the characterisation of new processes that give rise to materials with specific characteristics or resistance, elasticity, hardness, conductivity or thermal transmission are considered fundamental.
Manufacturing control at molecular level shall revolutionise all fields of science, the economy and society in forthcoming decades. The applications foreseen are unlimited: monoatomic transistors, quantic computers, nanometric pharmacological vehicles or the telemetric transport of DNA.
Information and communications technologies must continue to determine business and social behaviour over the coming years. Broadband technologies, optical communications, new mobile applications, computer security protocols, e-business or e-learning are all key fields of knowledge for the productive sectors and for their effect on immediate social habits.
Renewable energy sources, energy diversification, the clean use of fossil fuels or the decentralisation of distributed systems of electrical energy constitute a prospective area whose aim is to generate new, highly competitive businesses due to the international context of the shortage of hydrocarbons and the necessary social demand for respect for the environment.
Biotechnology has some direct applications in the sectors of agrofoods, pharmacy and medicine. It is an emerging field that appears in the technological strategy portfolios of all developed countries and in which Catalonia has specific conditioning factors of competitiveness.
The management of organisations needs specific competencies in order to reach the top market positions. The scientific management of organisations, the training and integration of teams, industrial psychology or managerial capabilities are basic platforms for survival in sophisticated markets.
The cross-disciplinary nature of these technologies and the existence of a solid support infrastructure for technological innovation guarantee a knock-on effect on all the sectors of the economy, and particularly on those sectors most vulnerable to international competition. This transversality is expressed in the following matrix of technological dependence.
The fact that certain sectors are prioritised, the development of a technology strategy associated with these sectors, and the generic effects of horizontal actions will result in an integrated effect that does not exclude the promotion of scientific, technological and business quality and excellence in fields that range from the pure sciences to the social sciences.
From a systemic perspective, on the other hand, the technology absorption capability of the corporate sector needs to be enhanced by means of specific programmes and funding for business innovation. The creation of excellent supply infrastructures, moreover, will be complemented by the fostering of exacting in these areas of technology and knowledge.
In order to stimulate demand and encourage the research, development and innovation efforts of private sector enterprises, it will be necessary to implement measures that provide direct and specific economic and financial support to business investment in research, development and innovation.
This funding continues to be a fundamental element in the technology policies of advanced countries. Direct funding for businesses provides a boost for the realisation of research, development and innovation projects that improve businesses’ technological and productive capacities and try to guarantee that the private resources for research and development activities are not less than the social optimum.
These measures will have the following aims:
- To encourage the growth of strategic enterprises and sectors.
- To create knowledge stocks, strengthen technology development capabilities, and generate a knock-on learning effect among research and innovation agents working in the technologies mentioned above.
- To extend any technological competitive advantages acquired to the remaining economic sectors, particularly to those most vulnerable to international competition.
Finally, it is an undeniable fact that technological opportunities are more likely to arise when there is interaction between converging economic sectors or fields of knowledge. It is particularly important, therefore, to support cooperative multi-disciplinary, multi-business and multinational projects; in this way, synergies can be developed between technology fields, knowledge networks can be extended, interaction can be fostered, and knowledge can be transmitted - not to mention the feedback and learning cycle that is implied by the process. It will be necessary, therefore, to create research groups and joint research and development programmes between businesses and public and private research centres and technology centres. Thus, specific actions have been determined to act as an incentive for the realisation of joint research and development projects in industrial activities in which priority is given to the aforementioned technology fields, and especially a combination of them.
These aims will be achieved by: providing adequate funding (for the implementation of business research and development projects in strategic sectors, joint research and development projects in strategic sectors, joint research and development projects in sectors vulnerable to international competition, and research, development and innovation projects that prioritise the key technologies mentioned previously); through the technology centres and technology dissemination networks; through the XARXA IT (network of support centres for technological innovation); and through the creation of sectoral debating and forecasting groups (‘innovation circles’). Each business sector will have a committee of experts (academics, technologists, business people and entrepreneurs) which will propose the necessary actions to carry out operational plans for the invigoration of the sector and will foster the creation of a network and synergies between the different agents.
