Invest in Catalonia
Research and innovation
Promoted by the Catalan government, the National Agreement on Research and Innovation is a road map for research and innovation for the next 15 years in Catalonia.
TECNIO is a network of over 100 centres and technology-transfer agents whose aim is to favour the competitiveness and international projection of companies set up in Catalonia.TECNIO centres carry on their activities in the fields of biotechnology and health sciences, food technology, information and communication technologies, materials technologies, energy and environmental technologies, chemical technologies and production technologies.
Catalonia's extensive scientific infrastructures include the ALBA synchrotron (the first particle accelerator in southern Europe), MareNostrum (Spain's most powerful supercomputer and one of the most powerful in Europe), IDIADA, which works on developing products in the car manufacturing industry, and the National Microelectronics Centre ( Spain's largest public centre for microelectronics).
Catalonia has several science and technology parks, all of which are linked to recognised universities and hospitals. The following are of particular interest: Barcelona Science Park (BSP), Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (BBRP), UAB Science and Technology Park (BIOCAMPUS), and August Pi i Sunyer Institute for Biomedical Research (APSIBR).
Catalonia is outstanding with regard to clinical research in the field of human health and has a network of 215 hospitals, six of which are among the most efficient in Spain in terms of scientific production.
Catalonia's R+D is concentrated in health, healthcare and pharmaceutics, as well as ICT. |
The four largest Spanish pharmaceutical companies were founded and have their head offices in Catalonia, where seven of the world's leading multinational pharmaceutical companies are established. Pharmaceutical companies in Catalonia top the field in R+D and account for almost 50% of this sector in Spain. Catalonia is also home to 66% of fine chemicals companies. |
Two of the six innovation centres that Microsoft has in Spain are in Catalonia. Microsoft has chosen locations, which, despite not being major cities, have large numbers of ICT professionals and excellent facilities. The only R+D centre that Yahoo! has in Europe dedicated to web search and data mining is in Barcelona and has close links to the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. |
The Catalan multimedia and audiovisual production sector has associations, infrastructures, active and innovative companies and high-quality schools and universities offering the very latest courses. It is extremely active in terms of innovative and creative content and trends and future developments, such as intelligent content, interactivity, personalisation, technological changes (high definition, new formats and devices, etc.) and new business concepts and models. |
