In times of high interest rates, economic uncertainty, and geopolitical tensions, the innovative spirit of companies is waning. In Catalonia, private investment in R&D continues well below the EU country average. Unlike Europe, private investment in productivity improvement in the Spanish state is contracting. These are not good signs for economic growth, nor for the ambitions of industrial autonomy and technological sovereignty of the territory.
For the first time in recent history, persistent drought has forced the Catalan government to take drastic measures to restrict industrial and residential water use. At the same time, green hydrogen has been praised for years as the fuel of the future, but our wallets still rely on oil, natural gas, and electricity prices. The agri-food, energy, and transportation sectors in Catalonia are the most dependent on value chains outside the EU and require innovative solutions to gain industrial autonomy.
Are there not already promising solutions? Yes, they exist in laboratories or in medium-scale pilots. They are in the phase of identifying and trying to solve the technical, cost, infrastructure, and logistics challenges that will allow the large-scale deployment of profitable and sustainable solutions without raising costs, hindering, or disconnecting from value and supply chains, and without causing harm to people or the planet. The industrialization of research determines the technical and commercial viability of an innovation, as well as its ability to effectively, scalably, and safely meet market needs. However, it is not as glamorous as scientific discoveries or market successes, and therefore it is often overlooked in public discourse on innovation and relegated to the bottom of the priorities of companies and investors.
The industrialization of research is an investment not without risk; there is always a possibility of encountering unsolvable technical hurdles with current knowledge or barriers in the value or supply chain that prevent the deployment of technologies on a large scale. But no risk surpasses the certainty that not investing with determination and vision in industrial research and innovation is a direct path to a vulnerable economy dependent on external technologies and value chains.
Abstract In times of high interest rates, economic uncertainty, and geopolitical tensions, the innovative spirit of companies is waning. In Catalonia, private investment in R&D [...]
Industrial Autonomy and Technological Sovereignty: The Risk of Doing Nothing 
