Generalitat of Catalonia

3.1. Mission

The mission of the Research and Innovation Plan 2005­2008 is to position Catalonia among the leading research and innovation countries in Europe. It aims to do this by means of the implementation of an integrated public policy, involving public and private agents working in conjunction, which will foster the development of a society based on knowledge and entrepreneurship, and which will ultimately achieve sustainable economic development and ensure social wellbeing and cohesion.

3.2. Objectives

The Research and Innovation Plan for Catalonia 2005­2008 establishes a set of strategic objectives which, once achieved, will facilitate the realisation of the mission defined above. Catalonia will only be able to progress towards a growth model based on knowledge with a determined increase in the resources reserved for research and innovation and with policies that improve the area of innovation and the organisation of the research and innovation system.

Ten specific objectives are defined. The first three focus on increasing the quantity and quality of both research and technology development activities undertaken in Catalonia. The next three are concerned with the development of an environment favourable to innovation and the fostering of links and improvement of coordination between the different public and private agents in the Catalan research and innovation system. The seventh objective refers to the much-needed increase in the innovation capabilities of private sector enterprises in general, as a fundamental element in improving business competitiveness. The eighth objective highlights the importance of defining sectoral and technological priorities, to ensure that the productive structures in the Catalan economy are transformed with a view to increasing the relative weight of knowledge-intensive activities.

Finally, the last two objectives focus on defining and coordinating research and innovation policies and on fostering a scientific and technological culture in Catalonia.

1. To expand the research and development base by attracting new talent and facilitating the entry of young researchers into the system.

The leap forward that Catalonia requires in the field of research and development means attaining the system’s critical mass and increasing the size of the system with the aim of stimulating the generation of more scientific and technological knowledge. To make this possible, the number of researchers at universities and in public and private research centres must be increased, and the incorporation of the country’s young, highly trained researchers facilitated. Priority must also be given to attracting scientific talent and assuring equal opportunities for men and women.

2. To build up universities, educational centres and in­frastructures to the currently required level of advanced and high-quality research and development activities.

Catalonia must have a university system and a network of top-level research centres that are agile in structure and able to satisfy the growing and changing requirements of advanced, quality research. Today, scientific infrastructures and high technology centres are also an essential element of support for the quality of research both in the public and in the private sectors, and are also key elements in the processes of technological development and knowledge transfer.

3. To continue fostering improvements in the quality of research conducted in Catalonia as a prerequisite for attaining full integration in the European Research Area.

The research carried out in Catalonia must be fully competitive internationally and especially in Europe. The continuous impetus of the quality of research and development in our country will allow Catalonia’s full integration into the European Research Area and will secure its role as a driving force of the country’s innovation and economic development. The achievement of quality in research must include incorporating and promoting the perspective of gender in the contents of research and development activities and the establishment of instruments that make its implementation possible and guarantee the correct assessment of the results.

4. To foster the entrepreneurial spirit and the creation of technology-based enterprises by increasing the number of joint programmes between universities, research centres and businesses and by promoting the transfer of technology and knowledge.

The improvement of the Catalan economy’s ability to innovate requires better transfer of knowledge from universities and research centres to enterprises and an im­portant increase in the number of innovative, technology­based companies. Thus, there is a need to foment entrepreneurial spirit, because entrepreneurs favour productive change with the incorporation of new ideas into the economic fabric. To attain this goal, a new entrepreneurial culture and the necessary instruments to favour the transfer of knowledge and technology from the universities and research centres to companies must be acquired.

5. To promote the entry of researchers and qualified human capital into the private enterprise sector.

The research and innovation system must ensure the provision of human resources with high scientific and technical quality to the private enterprise sector. In this respect, people’s mobility is a fundamental means of knowledge transfer. Catalonia’s private enterprise sector is characterised by the far lower presence of researchers than in our neighbouring countries. The existence of highly qualified human capital at universities and research centres means that specific instruments must be created to favour their incorporation into enterprises, which brings great benefits to the scientific and technical level in companies and the strengthening of university­company relations.

6. To consolidate and unify the research, technology transfer and innovation system in Catalonia.

The results of a country’s research and innovation are in accordance with the efforts made but also with the interactions of the different agents, particularly universities, public and private research centres, enterprises and public bodies that make up the research and innovation system. Thus, the Research and Innovation Plan stimulates the co-ordination and consolidation of the research model, the transfer of knowledge and technology and innovation of Catalonia with the creation of structures and the definition of specific actions that allow a quantitative increase in the relations of the group of agents that generate, transfer and apply new knowledge and also an improvement in the quality of said relations.

7. To augment the innovation capabilities of businesses established in Catalonia and to foster internationalisation projects.

Companies’ capacity to innovate is a determining element of their productivity and competitiveness and, consequently, of economic growth. Catalonia’s productive fabric is characterised by a considerably lower level of innovation than in leading European Union countries. Hence, the Research and Innovation Plan promotes the increase, for the productive fabric as a whole, of the business resources reserved for innovation. Thus it takes into account the management and the capacity for technological and organisational innovation of enterprises in such a way that they can achieve new competitive advantages and a better international situation.

8. To draw up specific sectoral and technological strategies that will drive both the development of the economy and structural modifications in productive activities.

Actions concentrating on sectors with great potential for growth and based on the creation of knowledge and high technological intensity are conducive to the transformation of the productive structure, the generation of highly qualified jobs and heading resolutely towards the knowledge society. Thus, a technological strategy is stimulated based on the emerging technologies that favour the competitiveness of the strategic sectors in the medium term and give rise to new enterprises with high added value. The creation of technological capacities in the agents that make up the research and innovation system, and the effect of induced learning promote, by diffusion, their extension to the other sectors of the economy.

9. To improve coordination between Catalan research and development policies and economic, social and cultural policies, thereby making Catalonia a reference as far as coordinated research and innovation support policies are concerned.

The activities of the administrations in the field of research and innovation must be seen as a system given the diversity of agents and elements that come into play and the need for them to be suitably interrelated as to ensure their effectiveness. The use of the concept of the research and innovation system gives recognition to this fact and shows the need to consider it as a necessary condition for the achievement of the aims of government policies in this field. Thus, one of the aims of the Plan is an improvement in the co-ordination of the policies that are carried out by the ministries of the Government of Catalonia with regard to the area of research and development, economic development and innovation in all areas.

10. To promote the communication and publicising of developments in science and technology so that society as a whole becomes fully aware of the importance of research, development and innovation.

The importance of scientific dissemination is twofold. On the one hand, it makes the scientific and technological advances, many of which will affect people’s day-to-day lives, available to the population as a whole. On the other hand, it enables a better, broader perception of the importance of research and technology in such a way that it contributes to greater social recognition of research, development and innovation activities. This is why the Plan includes a set of measures aimed at stimulating scientific and technological communication and dissemination, some of which are specifically aimed at children and young people, with an aim to promote future vocations in the world of science and technology, as is required by the building of the knowledge society.

3.3 Key indicators

To mark progress towards the achievement of these objectives, a series of indicators have been defined for the Catalan research and innovation system. Reference figures for the European Union (2002) and current figures for Catalonia are provided, as also the figures to which Catalonia aspires once the Research and Innovation Plan has been implemented. Naturally, other circumstances not covered by the Plan may intervene. Despite this, the Plan aims, with the resources that will be made available, to act as a catalyst for substantial progress to be made in increasing the Catalan research and innovation capability. Among the goals defined below, of particular note are the proposals that, by the year 2008, expenditure on research and development and on business innovation will represent 2.1% and 5.2% of GDP respectively.

 

KEY INDICATORS FOR THE CATALAN RESEARCH AND INNOVATION SYSTEM
Nº	INDICATOR	LATEST FIGURES		GOAL 2008
		Catalonia	UE (15)	Catalonia
Research, development and innovation resources
1	Overall spending on research and development (1) Research and development spending as a percentage of GDP	1,38 (2003)	1,997 (2002)	2,10
2	Overall spending on business innovation (1) Business innovation spending as a percentage of GDP	2,42 (2000)	3,706 (2002)	5,20
3	Private sector spending on research and development (1) Research and development spending by private sector enterprises as a percentage of GDP	0.91 (2003)	1,307 (2002)	1.26
Science and technology human resources (10)
4	Researchers (1) Number of fulltime-equivalent researchers	18,387 (2003)	--	24.000
5	Researchers as a proportion of total labour market participation (1,2) Number of researchers per 1000 labour market participants	6,42 (2003)	5,607 (2000)	7,5
6	Researchers in private sector enterprises (1) Private sector researchers as a percentage of the total number of researchers in Catalonia	37,51 (2003)	50,97 (2001)	45
7	In-company research and development employment (1,2) Number of in-company researchers per 1000 labour market participants	6,29 (2003)	5,83 7 (2001)	8
Productive structures
8	Innovative businesses (2) Innovative businesses (10 or more workers) as a percentage of all businesses	25,80 (1998-2000)	44 4 (1998-2000)	40
9	High-technology contribution to the industrial sector (1) Industrial GVA for high-technology sectors as a percentage of total industrial GVA	7,50 (2002)	13,70 4 (2000)	10
10	High-tech employment (1) Employment in high-tech industries as a percentage of labour market participation	2,68 (2002)	3,574 (2002)	4
Science and technology results
11	Production of scientific publications (3) Number of indexed scientific publications	10.967 (1999-2000)	622.499 9	12.000
12	Quality of scientific publications (3) Citations during the two years subsequent to publication as a percentage of the number of articles published in a specific period	5,33 (1999-2000)	6,04 9 (1999-2000)	6,04
13	Theses (3) Number of doctoral theses submitted	1.200 (2003)	--	1500
14	Patents (4) Number of patents registered at the European Patent Office per million inhabitants	62 (2002)	1614 (2002)	160
15	High-tech exports (2) High-tech industrial exports as a percentage of total industrial exports	12,07 (2003)	--	18
Science and technology policies
16	Researcher success rate in Spanish State open competitions (8) Catalan researcher success rate in Spanish State open competitions	27 (2002)	--	30
17	Participation in EU programmes (5) Return on Catalan participation (millions of euros) in EU framework and research programmes	51 (2003)	--	75