Coneixement I Societat Núm. 11

COBERTA 11 anglès 18/1/07 14:00 Página 1

11 11 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 Knowledge and Society

SUMMARY

ARTICLES

Ecology, a romantic science? 06 Josep M. Camarasa CONEIXEMENT Science and technology parks and universities in the technology business incubator system: a contribution based on the triple helix model 32 Josep M. Piqué, Sònia González, Joan Bellavista and Victor Alves

Cirit. 25 Years 48 Fina Villar i López CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT Knowledge and Society. Journal of Universities,

NOTES I

SOCIETAT Research and the Information Society. The Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB) 82 Number 10. January-April 2006. Jordi Camí, Reimund Fickert and Teresa Badia

Barcelona Science Park (PCB): http:// www.gencat.cat/universitatsirecerca/coneixementisocietat research and innovation exchange between universities and the private sector 90 Susana Herráiz, Rosina Malagrida and Fernando Albericio

Creating new technological knowledge: Analysis of a survey of inventors in Catalonia 102 Walter García-Fontes

Ecology, a romantic science? Science and technology parks and universities in the technology business incubator system: a contribution based on the triple helix model CIRIT. 25 Years The Barcelona Biomedical RESÚMENES EN CASTELLANO / RESUMS EN CATALÀ 117 Research Park (PRBB) Barcelona Science Park (PCB): research and innovation exchange between universities and the private sector Creating new technological knowledge: analysis of a survey of inventors in Catalonia. COBERTA 11 anglès 18/1/07 14:00 Página 2

. CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT Knowledge and Society. Journal of Universities, Research and the Information Society. Number 11. May-August 2006

ISSN (english e-version): 1696-8212 ISSN (catalan printed version): 1696-7380 ISSN (catalan e-version): 1696-8212 Legal deposit (english e-version): B-38745-2004 Legal deposit (catalan printed version): B-27002-2003 Legal deposit (catalan e-version): B-26720-2005

Chief editor Josep M. Camarasa i Castillo

Coordinator Blanca Ciurana i Llevadot

Editorial board Joan Bravo i Pijoan, Joan Cadefau i Surroca, Jacqueline Glarner, Xavier Lasauca i Cisa, Esther Pallarols i Llinàs, Emilià Pola i Robles, Alba Puigdomènech Cantó, Josep Ribas i Seix, Jordi Sort i Miret, Ignasi Vendrell i Aragonès, Josep M. Vilalta i Verdú, Fina Villar i López

Coordinating editor and production Glòria Vergés i Ramon

Design Quin Team!

Layout Inom,sa

English translation Gerardo Denis Brons, Alan Lounds Jones, Carl MacGabhann, Ailish M. J. Maher, Charles Southgate and Tobias Willett

The contents of the articles and notes are the sole responsability of the authors. CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT does not necessarily identify with the author Reproduction of articles and notes is allowed, provided that the original author and source are specified.

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CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT Knowledge and Society. Journal of Universities, Research and the Information Society. Number 11. October 2006. ARTICLES 04 Ecology, a romantic science? Josep M. Camarasa 06 Science and technology parks and universities in the technology business incubator system: a contribution based on the triple helix model Josep M. Piqué, Sònia González, Joan Bellavista i Víctor Alves 32

CIRIT. 25 Years Fina Villar i López 48 NOTES 81 The Barcelona Biomedical Research

Park (PRBB) Jordi Camí, Reimund Fickert i Teresa Badia 82 Barcelona Science Park (PCB): research and innovation exchange between universities and the private sector Susana Herráiz,

Rosina Malagrida i Fernando Alberico 90 Creating new technological knowledge: analysis of a survey of inventors in Catalonia Walter García-Fontes 102 RESÚMENES EN CASTELLANO / RESUMS EN CATALÀ 117 a rticles 06 32 48 Ecology, a romantic Science and technology CIRIT. 25 Years science? parks and universities in the Fina Villar i López Josep M. Camarasa technology business incubator system: a contribution based on the triple helix model Josep M. Piqué, Sònia González, Joan Bellavista i Víctor Alves CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 ARTICLES

ECOLOGY, A ROMANTIC SCIENCE?

Josep M. Camarasa*

Ecology is an unusual scientific discipline with characteristics which it shares with very few others (it is, for example, a science of synthesis, its multiple roots, holistic focus, etc.). These characteristics and the history of the discipline show ecology to be a science which is deeply marked by the Romantic thought of the late 18th and early 19th centuries and which has reached its high points in periods which coincided with a flourishing of Romantic thought –understood as a critique of contemporary civilisation from within, or a critique of modernity.

Contents

1. Justification 2. ‘Normal’ science and scientific revolutions 3. Ecology, a Romantic science? A science that differs from others Romanticism and modernity: an ongoing dialectic Science and Romanticism: the emergence of ecology 4. Holism and reductionism in the history of ecology The protohistory of ecology: from Humboldt to Haeckel Ecology’s view of itself: from the name to the thing The ecology of the inter-war period: the emergence of key concepts The ecological revolution of the 1950s and 1960s: matter, energy and information Not yet a fully? ‘normal’ science: recent developments 5. What now? When is the next revival due?

* Josep M. Camarasa is an advisor to the Scientific Secretariat of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans.

6 ECOLOGY, A ROMANTIC SCIENCE?

1. Justification ceda with Romanticism, not to mention Schubert, Schumann, Gericault and C. D. Friedrich. Howev- Ecology as a Romantic science? This affirmation er, few would manage to name even one Romantic will, no doubt, be greeted by many with a smile of scientist, despite the fact that the period generally condescension, confirming them in their view that associated with the Romantic movement (late 18th ecology is not a ‘serious’ science. Others, howev- century and the first half of the 19th century) pro- er, for a variety of reasons will choose to disagree. duced many outstanding scientists. Who, for ex- In all likelihood, few ecologists will agree; some will ample, would succeed in naming Alexander von hold that the last thing their field needs is such a Humboldt, Sadi Carnot, Richard Owen or Hans dismissal. The academic world in general will, at Christian Oersted, to name but a handful of the very least, have reservations, or at worst, will reject most distinguished scientists of that time, as Ro- it outright. More than a few readers will no doubt mantic scientists? Darwin himself, in his life and be surprised to find the name of a scientific discip- work, was a Romantic, albeit restrained in his later line in such close company with an adjective deriv- years by the staid hypocrisy of Victorian society. ing from a social, cultural and artistic movement of the past, held, by the majority, to be anti-scientific or, at least, concerned with issues far removed from the realm of science. Perhaps, there would be Few people would manage to name even one wider acceptance for the view that ecology is a science with Romantic roots; however, as will be- Romantic scientist. come clear below, the discipline has myriad and diverse roots, most of which date further back than the Romantic movement, although the Romantic period was perhaps the time when all these roots Perhaps we should not find this so unusual. For met and the discipline began to crystallise. most people would also be hard put to name one classical, modern, neo-positivist or post-modern However, any shock generated by the above affirm- scientist. For the majority of our society, the image ation is unnecessary to say the least. While true of science is that of a phenomenon without a histo- that in layman’s language the term ‘romantic’ has ry or, at most, with a history presented in terms of come to mean prone to sentiment and novella-like, indefinite progress, forever moving in the same and nothing could be further removed from a sci- well-defined direction, from which but a handful of ence –a body of methodically ordered doctrine heretics stray from time to time. Indeed, the image constituting a given field of knowledge, yet, any of science conveyed by academic and scientific in- reasonably well– educated person realises that this stitutions and by scientists as a collective in gener- is not what is meant by Romantic literature, music al is an anti-historic image which divests science of or painting, or Romantic philosophy. He or she will, its past development and ‘cleans’ it of any possible to some extent, succeed in relating names such as impurities associated with its origins, providing an Chateaubriand, Schiller, Lord Byron and Espron- image of a coherent, definitive body of theories,

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knowledge and techniques –solid, free of fissures demic norms, that the work is by its nature unfin- and devoid of history. Or if it has history, it is a histo- ished and always liable to further modification, ry with a set purpose, endeavouring since its in- the title tends to be interpreted in the sense of ception to reach the point it now occupies, a view THE vegetation or THE fauna (as if unique and which ignores the inherent contingency of any phe- cast in stone) of a given location, now and for nomenon developing over the course of time. One ever. The work however is merely an abstraction need only look at how any scientific manual pre- of the given moment in time in which the work sents its subject matter. Subject areas are never re- was written and published (dates that rarely co- lated to each other in terms of how discoveries in incide), and of the methods used in studying or one area stimulated research which led to further gathering data. Such an interpretation overlooks discoveries in another or the same area. Subject the following facts: matter is invariably ordered by means of more or less logical schema, discarding chronology and 1. That one thousand years ago (or ten thousand the personality of those who have contributed to years ago, or last month, or in one hundred the development of theories or descriptions. Only in years’ time) the vegetation or fauna or the loca- highly public cases (Darwin and evolution; Pasteur tion in question may have been or may be differ- and microbes; Einstein and relativity) do we find ent, given that all living things have a history. ‘heroes’ in science. Indeed, this often occurs in mistaken contexts; Darwin’s evolution, for exam- 2. That the interpretation of phenomena or ob- ple, is frequently presented in the context of popu- jects could be different if other criteria or meth- lation genetics which Darwin himself could not ods were used (for example, increased focus on even have dreamt of, or Pasteur is alluded to in a certain groups of animals rather than others or discussion on prokaryotic cell morphology, a con- use of more qualitative than quantitative meth- cept which was to emerge years after the French ods, or vice-versa). chemist’s death. In other words, if humans have a history, nature and all of its components also have a history, and science, like all human endeavour, has a future, Nature and all of its components also have a which makes it contingent; in other words, it is conditioned by what has gone before. history, and science, like all human endeavour, has a future, which makes it contingent. 2. ‘Normal’ science and scientific revolutions

Perhaps the problem lies in the fact that humans, This holds true both in Physical and Mathematical, despite the growing evidence to the contrary, are and Life and Earth Sciences. Take a book title still all too ready to see themselves as conceptu- such as The Vegetation of Andorra or The Fauna ally outside nature and it is therefore difficult for of Minorca, in which regardless of the fact that them to conceive themselves as part of it. This the authors warn us, in compliance with aca- applies to learning about nature, to mastering it,

8 ECOLOGY, A ROMANTIC SCIENCE?

exploiting or destroying it, protecting it and (in the The scientific revolution seems to be the price to supreme example of presumption) saving it. be paid in order to avoid the stagnation of research (or its becoming merely formalistic and All this despite the fact that centuries have passed monotonously repetitive). However, as in the case since Descartes observed, admittedly from a pure- of all revolutions, the process is not without casu- ly mechanicist perspective, that the movement of alties. Knowledge which, for one reason or an- the mechanism of a watch was no less ‘natural’ other, is not incorporated into the new corpus than the flight of migrating swallows.1 bound to the new paradigms is soon marginalised and destined to oblivion.2 However, the advance of knowledge and the transmission of this knowledge to society is not a simple process; it is neither linear nor accumu- 3. Ecology, a Romantic science? lative, but complex and subject to the general historical circumstances of a given period, not to However, let us ask again: can a science be ter- mention the specific circumstances of the scien- med Romantic (or Classical, or Post-modern, or tific community, at both local and global level. It Baroque)? More specifically, is there any justification is now some years since Thomas S. Kuhn for saying that ecology is Romantic? What does this (1922-1996), the North American science histor- science do that makes it different to others? ian, pointed out that the history of science (i.e., the history of the production of knowledge) com- A science that differs from others prises periods of two main types: The history of science shows ecology to be - Periods of what Kuhn refers to as normal science, characterised by a number of unique features. As in which knowledge is built up in line with the gen- remarked by Margalef (1974), the history of ecology erally accepted theories and methodologies of a «differs from that of other sciences for the latter in given discipline or field of research. These com- general tend towards analysis, circumscription and mon guidelines, shared by a scientific community, division of their field of study, while ecology is a sci- are what Kuhn terms paradigms. ence which synthesises, combining material from different disciplines under its own points of view.» To - Scientific revolutions, in which the prevailing rework a metaphor coined by Margalef –it is not so paradigms are questioned, leading to the much a branch emerging from a common trunk emergence of new paradigms, which are also shared with other linked disciplines as a trunk com- the subject of debate until some of them are prising various different, independent roots. Ecol- consolidated, and all the knowledge in the rele- ogy is the result of the confluence and synthesis of vant discipline is reordered in terms of the new knowledge from a range of diverse sciences, and paradigms. from fields which are not even scientific.3

1 «[…] And it is entirely true that all the laws of mechanics pertain to physics, in such a way that all things that are artificial, are also natural. […] And, undoubtedly, when the swallows come in spring, their action is like that of the watches.» 2 KUHN, 1962. 3 MARGALEF, 1974.

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What are these roots, then? Margalef sets out four; plethora of specialised sub-areas and schools, al- four «directions of study» which converged to form though nowadays it is essentially unified in terms of a new discipline towards the end of the 19th centu- concepts (ecosystem, succession, competition, ry. Firstly, description and classification of the geo- etc.) and theory. All of these factors have hindered graphical landscape; secondly, the practical fields coherent, clear and orderly historical reconstruction of agriculture, livestock farming, fishing, and so on; of the routes that led to our present-day knowledge third, physiology and etology, and finally, demogra- of the structure and functions of ecosystems, both phy and its associated mathematical perspective. at planetary and other levels. Margalef observed that the catalyst may have been the working together of scientists from different Romanticism and modernity: an ongoing fields in large-scale expeditions and laboratories, dialectic such as the first oceanographic or limnological stations. Perhaps, we could now add a further con- However, to answer the other two questions tributing field, the recognition of global biogeo- satisfactorily a number of issues require clarifica- chemical cycles at planetary level which underlies tion. Firstly, what should we understand by Roman- the emerging field of global ecology, to be de- ticism and, secondly, to what extent has Romanti- scribed below. cism infiltrated the roots of ecology and caused it to differ from other, more ‘traditional’ or ‘modern’ disciplines?

The caractheristics of Romanticism which have With regard to our understanding of what is meant a bearing on scientific endavour are: the by Romanticism, perhaps the most pertinent reflec- hostility towards the mechanicist natural tion in terms of scientific thought is that of Löwy and philosophy and descriptive natural history, Sayre in their Revolte et mélancolie. Le romantisme a contrecourant de la modernité.4 These authors the preference for dynamic and synthetic admit at the outset that the term ‘romantic’ seems approaches as opposed to static or analy- to defy all attempts at analysis, given the diversity tical ones, and the defence of the intuitive as and apparent contradictions it embodies, nor, they opposed to rational dimension of knowledge. hold, is any overall analysis of the Romantic phenomenon covering its entire range and diversity.

And, it must be added, from the perspective of the In addition, partly as a result of the diverse back- history of science, when such attempts at compre- grounds of the scholars and the diversity of the hensive analysis have taken place, it has proven media, organisms and reciprocal relations being extremely difficult to draw generally applicable con- studied, ecology, both over the course of its conclusions. For example, in the above-mentioned solidation as an independent discipline and even monograph given over to Romanticism and the today, has by nature been fragmented into a Sciences, and extending over more than 300

4 LÖWY & SAYRE, 1992.

10 ECOLOGY, A ROMANTIC SCIENCE?

pages, both the editors and the contributors shy chronology of Romanticism undoubtedly contin- away from offering a definition of Romanticism and ues to the present day in the shape of opposition to limit themselves to a simple description –albeit an globalisation, which, heralded in as the culmination accurate one– of certain of its characteristics of the development of modern capitalism by its de- which have a bearing on scientific endeavour (hos- fenders, is resisted on the basis of values that tility towards the mechanicist natural philosophy could be associated with any religious beliefs (defi- and descriptive natural history which characterised nitely premodern in origin) or with a neopaganism the Enlightenment, a preference for dynamic and based on respect for the forces of nature (and even synthetic approaches as opposed to static or ana- earlier in origin). lytical ones, a defence of the intuitive as opposed to rational dimension of knowledge, leading to a heightened value for direct observation of nature). Other equally distinguished scholars, such as Gus- Romanticism cannot be simply reduced to a dorf,5 limit Romantic science to the German Natur- literary or artistic movement, nor can it be philosophie and very little else. seen as restricted to certain countries, sphe- Löwy and Sayre, more daringly, claim that despite res of culture or historical periods. the views of some parties, Romanticism cannot be simply reduced to a literary or artistic movement, nor can it be seen as restricted to certain countries, spheres of culture or historical periods. In their The intellectual roots of this Romantic criticism of view, it comprises a view of the world embracing modernity, on the other hand, are not unlinked to literature, political thought, music, philosophy, eco- this same modernity. Indeed, Romanticism is born nomic thought, the plastic arts, the history of law, of modernity, of the anxiety and disappointment sociology and theology, and which has impregnat- that accompany some of its outcomes. Undoubt- ed certain spheres of industrial society since the edly, Romanticism rebels against modernity yet it mid-18th century until the present day, although does so on the basis of terms and instruments admittedly more noticeably during given periods, which it shares with modernity. It is, as it were, a especially the end of the 18th and beginning of the self-critique of modernity. For example, both Ro- 19th centuries and a great part of the first third of mantics and moderns attach a high value to indi- the 19th century. vidualism, linked to full development of the ego, a development rendered possible only by the emer- In their view, Romanticism comprises a critique of gence of modernity. modernity, that is, a critique of the modern capitalist civilisation engendered by the industrial revolu- However, the individualism of the Romantics is tion and the spread of the market economy from not that of modern liberalism. Unlike the latter, it the mid-18th century on. This critique is conducted is not a «numerical individualism» in which each in the light of values and ideals from the past. The individual is the agent of a given socioeconomic

5 GUSDORF, 1985.

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function yet entirely interchangeable in his or her Science and Romanticism. The emergence of function, a situation in which development of an ecology inner world, use of one’s imagination, the expression of subjectivity and affectivity, deviations from Returning to the question of the extent to which socially accepted behaviour patterns, are all regard- Romanticism impregnated the roots of ecology ed as suspicious, if not repressed outright. The in- and has caused it to differ from other more ‘tradi- dividualism of the Romantics is rather a «qualita- tional’ or ‘modern’ disciplines, we must turn again tive individualism», which places the accent on the to the opening pages of Margalef’s text for his defi- unique and incomparable nature of each personal- nition of the discipline and the observations briefly ity, leading to a revolt of the subjectivity and affec- alluded to above. Margalef holds that ecology is tivity which are repressed, conducted and de- the biology of ecosystems, ecosystems taken to formed by modern society. be «systems formed by individuals of many species, in a setting with defined characteristics, In that Romanticism is a critique of modernity and in a dynamic, ongoing process of interaction, «from within», it does not reject modernity out- adjustment and regulation, expressible either as right, rather it rejects only certain of its traits which the interchange of matter and energy or as a se- it sees as incompatible with the Romantic world- quence of births and deaths, the result of which is: view. These traits are firstly, the expulsion of all evolution at the level of species organisation and that is marvellous from nature by the determin- succession at the level of the overall system.» ism of the modern science of Newton and Lavoi- Margalef lays great emphasis on the multiplicity of sier, and the reduction of nature by technology strategies employed to study these systems, to a mere source of raw materials for industry. even before they were named as such or were even And secondly, the mechanisation of the world recognised as levels of organisation, and remarks, and of society, reflected in the destruction of the as outlined above, that the history of ecology «dif- organic bonds between humans and nature, and fers from that of other sciences for, the latter in also in the disappearance of all traditional activi- general tend towards analysis, circumscription ties from society, displaced, one after another, by and division of their field of study,» whereas, he machinism and also in increasingly ‘mechanical’ adds, «ecology is a science which synthesises, political systems, headed, metaphorically by the combining material from different disciplines under ‘machinery of the state’ or ‘party organisations’, its own points of view.» which hinder direct participation on the part of the individual or groups. Thirdly, the rationalist ab- For Margalef the various fields of study which con- stractionism inherent to capitalist economics, stitute the roots of ecology converged and began based on such abstractions as ‘jobs’ (without any to crystallise as one around the last third of the specific reference to any real job), ‘gross domestic 19th century, when ecology began to identify and product’ and ‘currency’. The fourth and final trait name itself. It should perhaps be pointed out that is the dissolution of social bonds, that is, the while this convergence process was completed solitude that reigns at the heart of human society, over the years between the 19th and the 20th cen- deprived of human links due to the destruction of tury, the process had begun several decades previ- traditional sociability patterns, by the lack of soli- ously and that one of the individual roots played a darity, by rejection, by marginalisation. pre-eminently driving role. That root was Hum-

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boldtian science, that is, the methods for descrip- Probably the first work in which Humboldt gave un- tion and study of the geographical landscape gen- ambiguous expression to his scientific project, a erally associated with Alexander von Humboldt work which should also be seen as seminal among (1769-1859) though also used by many other the roots of ecology, is his Essay on the Geography scholars and naturalists of that time. of Plants (Éssai sur la géographie des plantes), in which he justified his choice of the geography of Humboldt’s life ambition was to «encapsulate in a plants, as the primary expression of the physical single work the entire material universe, all we setting and because it also conditioned human life know of the phenomena of sky and earth, from the in both material and spiritual terms. For Humboldt, stellar nebulosae to the geography of mosses and «the geography of plants, a science which until granitic rocks» and all this in «a vigorous style, now has only existed in name [...] is an essential which would excite and captivate the sensibility.» part of general physics,» which is, in turn, «one of This work was to be Cosmos, aptly subtitled the most beautiful fields of human knowledge», the «Sketch of the Physical Description of the Uni- object of which is study of nature as a whole.7 verse», published in the last years of his life.6 In fact however, since his youth Humboldt had conceived all the works he published as stepping stones on the way to this major culminating work, therefore Humboldtian science, that is, the methods for wielding an influence over numerous scholars in a description and study of the geographical wide range of subject areas. It is in this sense that landscape generally associated with Alexan- one can talk of Humboldtian science –a science which, setting out from the characteristically Ro- der von Humboldt (1769-1859) is one of the romantic objective of «exploring the unity of nature», ots of Ecology. discovering the interaction of its forces and the influences of the geographic setting on plant and animal life, established an innovative scientific practice, the main features of which are, among This holistic approach implicit to ‘Humboldtian sci- others, the explicit aim of studying large groups ence’ serves to distinguish the work of Humboldt and interrelating all the phenomena found therein, from that of earlier botanists who were interested in including those deriving from human action; sys- the geographical distribution of plants, and is also tematic use of measures of all types, an attempt to one of the main features of what was to become the relate them to each other and with observations on science of ecology. This holism was also, undoubt- plant and animal life, and the introduction of obser- edly, clearly Romantic in nature, given that Romanti- vation networks as a means of study and of iso- cism, in addition to or perhaps even more so than lines (beginning with isotherms) as a means of individualism, tends to attach a high value to the overall expression of phenomena which present unity or totality of the ego, both in relation to the en- gradual and continuous variations in the location tire universe (nature) and to humankind (society, the being studied. nation). These values are also clearly in opposition

6 HUMBOLDT, 1845-1862. In fact the final volume was published posthumously, three years after Humboldt's death. 7 HUMBOLDT, 1805.

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to the prevailing values of modernity. The view that not be explained simply in terms of their parts but nature was a totality in which the individual must rather by how they interact (and, in reality, this seek to integrate himself harmoniously is in stark holds true for all sciences concerned with study contradiction with the capitalist principle that natu- in one way or another of living matter, whether at ral resources must be exploited to the utmost. the level of the individual cell, the organism or the entire biosphere).

The protohistory of ecology: from Humboldt The object of study of ecology –ecosystems– to Haeckel have properties which cannot be explained The tension between holism and reductionism is simply in terms of their parts but rather by not, in any case, a recent development or a pas- how they interact. sing fashion. The first flourishing of ecology, as an as yet nameless discipline, stemmed from the work of Humboldt and continued throughout practically the whole of the 19th century. It advanced with 4. Holism and reductionism in the studies of botanic geography laying emphasis on history of ecology vegetation as opposed to flora, on biological life forms as opposed to nomenclature; with the con- Holism was one of the most outstanding traits of tributions of travelling naturalists (with Darwin and ecology in its inception and today it continues to Wallace to the forefront) and scholars of marine lie at the heart of the tension between the two and lake waters; with the contribution of geogra- main trends in modern ecology: the holistic ap- phers and thoughtful lay travellers who reflected on proach characteristic of ecology in its inception the transformations undergone by the landscape and the reductionism demanded by the academic over the course of history. world if it is to be seen as a ‘normal’ science, a science like all others. This does not mean that ecol- The discipline was not to grow without difficulty, ogy must reject reductionism outright. Criticism of since it had to confront the positivism prevailing the implicit organicism and idealism of many holis- among the scientific community throughout most tic approaches has been well-founded and it is of that century and the rigid dogma of the econom- true that the accumulation of data on species or ic and social system. Nevertheless, the first half of individual organisms of an ecosystem on a rela- the 19th century –a high point for the Romantic tively modest scale cannot be avoided. However, movement in art and letters, saw the emergence of reductionist approaches to the problems addressed some of the basic concepts and theories which by ecology will have a greater chance of success if were to form the future basis for ecology. To the they bear in mind how various parts of the ecosys- seminal contribution of Humboldt’s Éssai sur la tem combine on a wider scale. Nor is holism a géographie des plantes (published in 1807 though panacea, especially if limited to the clichéd claim dated 1805) must be added, albeit from very differ- that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, ent perspectives, the contributions of Sadi Carnot yet it must be accepted that the object of study of to the development of thermodynamics (another ecology –ecosystems– have properties which can- Romantic science closely linked to ecology), those

14 ECOLOGY, A ROMANTIC SCIENCE?

of Charles Lyell to the popularisation of «the econo- (1809-1882) was to collect the bulk of the data my of nature» of the Enlightenment naturalists and which would form the basis of his theory of evolu- the outcome (above and beyond the theory of evo- tion by natural selection on that voyage. The date lution) of Charles Darwin’s Beagle voyage. of publication of The Origin of the Species (1859) serves as the symbolical closure to the great Ro- In 1824, Sadi Carnot (1796-1832) published his mantic flowering of the first half of the 19th century. Reflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu, a brief pamphlet outlining a completely new image of the world on the basis of the practical knowledge of the engineers who built and regulated steam en- The first half of the 19th century –a high point gines and a very simple idea: in an energetically for the Romantic movement in art and letters, isolated system, temperatures spontaneously tend saw the emergence of some of the basic con- to uniformity and entropy tends to increase. Carnot did not yet express it in these terms (the concept of cepts and theories which were to form the fu- entropy was to develop at a later stage), yet ture basis for ecology. «Carnot’s principle», according to which «the efficiency of a reversible engine depends only upon the temperatures of the heat source and heat re- ceiver» is in reality the first formulation of the sec- The voyage of the Beagle also brings us to another ond principle of thermodynamics.8 field which provided the roots for ecology: the study of the biology of marine and continental wa- The Scottish geologist Charles Lyell (1797-1875) ters. Since the time of the first microscopists, in the published his Principles of Geology between 1830 mid 17th century, the existence of microscopic or- and 1833.9 In the second volume, published in ganisms had been observed in water. However, it 1832, he reflected on the «economy of nature», that was in this Romantic period that study of these mi- is, on natural balances and cycles in relation to liv- croorganisms began to develop, especially when ing things. Unlike the earlier naturalists (such as Lin- John Vaughan Thompson (1779-1847) discovered né, for example), who left regulation of these bal- that he could catch a highly varied range of micro- ances and cycles in the hands of the Creator, Lyell scopic organisms in a fine net drawn over the sur- did not attribute the mechanisms ensuring constant face of the water on the Irish Sea in 1828.10 This proportions between naturally occurring popula- discovery was soon confirmed by Johannes Müller tions to providence. For Lyell, the natural balances (1801-1858) in the seas around the island of He- had material as opposed to providential causes. ligoland, in the North Sea.

Lyell’s book was by Charles Darwin’s bedside Johannes Müller’s role in establishing the basis for when he embarked on the Beagle for his round- later development of ecology has not yet been fully the-world voyage between 1831-1836. Darwin appreciated. Though trained in the values of the Ro-

8 CARNOT, 1824. 9 LYELL, 1830-1833. 10 THOMPSON, 1828-34.

15 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 10 ARTICLES

mantic Naturphilosophie, his career took a more Yet, in marine biology, the most important ad- positivist approach in terms of method. Although vances were not to begin until the creation of the predating Claude Bernard’s study of «experimental first coastal laboratories or stations and the con- medicine», that is, physiology based on observation sequent proliferation of oceanographic cam- and experimentation with animals (the first volume paigns. This began in the 1840s with creation of of Müller’s Handbuch der Phisiologie der Menschen the marine laboratory of Ostende (1843) by Pieter- dates from 1833,11 30 years before Bernard’s Intro- Josef Van Beneden (1809-1894) and the zoologi- duction à l’étude de la medicine experimentale12), cal station of Konk-Kerme (Concarneau in Müller did not by any means reject the specificity of French), in Brittany, by Jean-Victor Coste (1807- living systems and adhered to an organicism which 1873), but did not become widespread until the was fully rooted within the Romantic tradition, con- 1870s, coinciding with the Challenger expedition templating organisms as a whole: (1873-1876) and the final acceptance of ocean studies. The laying of underwater cables and their «Organic bodies are not only distinguished recovery for repairs in the mid-19th century re- from the inorganic by the particular nature of vealed the existence of life in the deepest depths their assembly from simple elements; they also of the sea, which naturalists had previously be- present a permanent activity, manifest in living lieved impossible. matter, which creates in accordance with the rules of final goal. The parts are organised in Both Van Beneden and Coste were distinguished terms of the whole and it is precisely this which embryologists who developed a secondary inter- characterises an organism.» est in marine biology, mainly due to the advan- tages to their studies of the external fertilisation Nor did he limit his studies to human physiology occurring in many marine organisms, especially but devoted great efforts to discovering the devel- the echinoderms, whose radial symmetry held a opment patterns of numerous organisms, includ- special fascination for zoologists. This growing ing many marine organisms, and was the first to knowledge of the species inhabiting the seas, how draw the attention of other scientists to what is they lived and developed and their embryos, was nowadays known as plankton, the term given to it to open many doors for young scientists, including many years later by Victor Hensen (1835-1924). those who would bring about the full consolidation Müller’s followers included, among others, Ernest of ecology. None of the marine laboratories found- Haeckel (1834-1919), who first used the term ed in the 19th century was so fundamental to the ‘ecology’ to refer to the new discipline, and Karl emergence of ecology as those of Naples and Möbius (1825-1908) who introduced the term bio- Woods Hole. The former, founded in 1873 by An- cenosis to designate what today is generally ton Dohrn (1840-1909), and the latter, the same known as ecosystem, and undertook a full-scale year by Louis Agassiz, first on the small island of study of one such ecosystem: oyster banks on the Penikese, in Massachusetts, and later moving to German North Sea coastline. Woods Hole in 1886.

11 MÜLLER, 1833-40. 12 BERNARD, 1865.

16 ECOLOGY, A ROMANTIC SCIENCE?

Ecology’s view of itself: from the name to the Haeckel’s role in ecology is limited to having pro- thing vided it with its name, although even this merit would be denied him today had it not been that Despite the relative eclipse of Romanticism and those who really did practice the discipline accept- Humboldtian science in the mid 19th century with ed the term, for, at practically the same time, others the rise of positivism and the growing professional- authors also put forward terms which did not pros- isation of science, the Romantic –or Humboldtian– per. Möbius himself, for example, who in 1877 be- perspective discreetly held ground, until finding an gan study of what he termed the biocenosis in his opportunity to emerge, amidst the prevailing posi- Die Auster und die Austernwirtschaft (The Oyster tivism, and sometimes amalgamated with it. In and Oysterculture):13 short, what happened to the Romantic approach in science mirrored what was to occur in other fields: successive revivals after long periods of marginalisation under the various versions of official culture, The growing knowledge of the species inhabi- especially towards the end of the century with the ting the seas, how they lived and developed prevalence of modernism and symbolism. and their embryos, was to open many doors for At the height of positivism, in 1866, Ernst Haeckel, young scientists, including those who would the main German follower of Darwin, and not at all bring about the full consolidation of ecology. vulnerable to the influences of Naturphilosophie or «Romantic mists», introduced the term ‘ecology’ to denominate: «A community in which the sum of the species «The science of the set of relations between and individuals mutually limited by the average the organism and the external world surround- external living conditions, is maintained, by ing it, the organic and inorganic conditions of means of reproduction, occupying continuous- existence; what is called the «economy of na- ly a given area.» ture», that is, the mutual relationships among all organisms that live in a given place, their Möbius’ study of the oyster banks of Schleswig- adaptation to their environment, their transfor- Holstein is one of the most characteristic examples mation through the struggle to live, and espe- of the holistic approach of Humboldtian science cially parasitic relationships, etc. It is precisely, and represents a curious updating of it, filtered these manifestations of the «economy of na- through positivism and Darwinism, and imbued ture», which the layman, superficially, consid- with the old Naturphilosophie spirit. Möbius, a ers the wise dispositions of a creator who acts great admirer of Humboldt and a student of Jo- in accordance with a plan, that are, with deep- hannes Müller, included all the factors that could be er analysis, seen to be the necessary conse- reasonably considered to have a bearing in his quences of mechanical causes.» study to draw a surprisingly innovative conclusion

13 MÖBIUS, 1877.

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which is perfectly coherent with the Romantic spir- coastal stations began to proliferate, the first limno- it: the cause of the apparently irremediable decline logical studies were published, botanic geography of the oyster banks of the northern-most part of the began to develop rapidly, demographers perfected German coast was trains. Trains, and of course, their mathematical instruments, thermodynamics the social, economic and political conditions which was consolidated as a new method of analysing accompanied the building of a single railway net- the phenomena of heat energy and some chemists work throughout Germany, some few years after intuitively pointed to what we now refer to as the proclamation of the German Reich by Bismark and greenhouse effect. In 1881, Karl Semper (1832- Wilhelm I (1871). The improved transport had 1893), in his Die natürlichen Existenzbedigungen transformed the oyster markets of Northern Ger- der Tiere (The Natural Living Conditions of Ani- man into national as opposed to local markets; the mals),14 outlined a theory of quantification of mate- local oysters were no longer only sold in Kiel and rial flows from one trophic level to another, and other nearby cities but rather in Berlin, Frankfurt, pointed out that the ratio between plant biomass Munich and Strasbourg. Demand grew and prices and that of herbivores was approximately 10 to 1 and profits rose, leading to intensification of oyster as is that of herbivores to carnivores. These pro- farming. The unavoidable consequence of over- portions underlie representation of the biomass of exploitation did not take long to appear and the de- different trophic levels in the form of the broad- cline in the number of oysters soon set in. This un- based, narrow-tipped pyramids now known as El- derstanding was obviously tantamount to a critique ton’s pyramids, it being the British ecologist of the booming modernity rampant in 1870s Ger- Charles Elton (1900-1991) who first drew attention many and its full-hearted acceptance of the mod- to them in his Animal Ecology.15 ern capitalism that developed with the industrial revolution. The critique was in the name of values If we were forced to choose a date for ecology’s and ideals of the past, maintenance, for example, recognition of itself as a scientific discipline it would of the traditional ways and means of life: those of have to be around 1895 or 1896, the years of pub- the oyster farmers of northern Germany, of the bal- lication of the first work explicitly stating ecology to ance that had been preserved over thousands of be the basis of its content. This was Plantesam- years, of a biocenosis, the first to ever have been fund. Grundträck af den ökologiske plantegeografi described as such, which had now suffered the by the Danish botanist Eugenius Warming (1841- consequences of irrational human intervention. Yet 1924) published in Danish in 1895 and translated all this was solidly based on rigorous study and on to German the following year.16 In this work Warm- a then-innovative doctrine, Darwinism. ing drew a clear distinction between what he called floristic geobotany, the aim of which is to establish However, ecology’s recognition of itself as a scien- the flora of a given territory; division of space into tific discipline would have to wait a little longer, until flora zones and study of the essentially geographi- the end of the century. In the meantime, the first re- cal and historical factors which delimit extension of sults of the Challenger expedition began to appear, each taxon’s territory, and what he termed ecologi-

14 SEMPER, 1881. 15 ELTON, 1927. 16 WARMING, 1895.

18 ECOLOGY, A ROMANTIC SCIENCE?

cal geobotany (or plant ecology), the objective of umental Das Antlitz der Erde (The Face of the which is to study how plants and plant communi- Earth),17 published in 1908. Suess defined the bio- ties adjust their shape and behaviour to environ- sphere as the solidarity between all living things and mental factors such as available heat, light, food the factors which made life on the face of the Earth and water. Ecology’s self-recognition as a disci- possible, issues which he had previously studied in pline emerged between the time of publication of the earlier volumes of his work almost as exhaus- the Danish original and its German translation and tively as Humboldt had in his Kosmos more than half 1909 when a revised and much extended English a century earlier. Suess did not talk of ecology, yet version appeared, entitled Oecology of Plants; An there can be no doubt that his concept was to be- Introduction to the Study of Plant-Communities. come the foundation of global ecology during the This led to a measure of respectability as a scientif- last third of the 20th century. Whether ecology ic discipline, although many laboratory biologists recognises it or not, the discipline began to advance continued to see it as mere entertainment for natu- in its own right in the years spanning the end of the ralists and unworthy of the attention of genuine positivistic scientists, while many field botanists and zoologists saw it as the frivolity of young colleagues who refused to subject themselves to the At the beginning of the XX century, many lab- systematic learning of the field. oratory biologists continued to see ecology as a mere entertainment for naturalists and In any case, the 19th century was a time of a value crisis in all fields and in all countries. Those years unworthy of the attention of genuine positiv- saw the emergence of new concepts amidst an im- istic scientists. placable critique of the hitherto reigning values in ethics, politics, literature, arts and science. In particular, criticism of scientific positivism and mechanism became widespread, both from spiritual and idealis- 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, coincid- tic and more materialistic perspectives. One out- ing with the fin de siecle fall of positivism and the standing case, which was to wield a great influence resurgence of intuitive rather than rational thought, over later development of the concept of biosphere, and the neoRomantic revival of symbolism in the was the intuitionism of Henri Bergson (1858-1941), plastic arts and literature of Catalan modernisme, who published several of his most outstanding the German Jugendstil, art nouveau in France and works, replete with an anti-intellectual vitalism, be- Belgium, and the British Liberty movement. tween 1896 and 1907. Bergson rebelled against positivism, yet he also tried to open the method em- The main protagonists of those early days of ecol- ployed by positive sciences to a role for intuition. ogy were the heirs to the older geobotanic tradi- These were also the years in which the Austrian ge- tion, of which Warming is but one of the more dis- ologist Eduard Suess (1831-1914) advanced his tinguished exponents. His compatriot, Christen concept of biosphere in the final volume of his mon- Raunkiaer (1860-1938), in the same spirit, also

17 SUESS, 1883-1908.

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defined plant life forms at that time, which, in the view latter on the lakeside dunes of Lake Michigan, es- of the new ecologists were to replace the specific tablished, between 1898 and 1907, the basis for a forms which had traditionally been the object of dynamic ecology with their theory of plant commu- botany. The Alsatian Andreas Schimper (1856- nity succession.19 Between 1904 and 1913, 1901) went even further in his Pflanzengeographie Charles C. Adams (1873-1955) and Victor E. auf physiologischer Grundlage (Physiological Geo- Shelford (1877-1968) added the animal compo- botany),18 which argued for relatively less impor- nent,20 (which had, until then, been overlooked, with tance to be attributed to general climate for plant life the exception of some pioneering work such as that in differentiating a physical drought (due to climate) by the above-mentioned Semper), to what from from a physiological drought (due to the soil) and that time began to be known as study of the «biotic in establishing plant formations of comparable community» or «biome». Decisive steps were also physiological conditions according to soil types taken in 1913 for the institutionalisation of ecology (hygrophiles, xerophiles and tropophiles), within as a ‘normal’ science with the foundation of the the framework of the formations characteristic of British Ecological Society. This society undertook each general climate. publication of the discipline’s first scientific journal, the Journal of Ecology, still in publication today.

The ecology being studied by freshwater scholars Ecology began to advance in its own right in was also far from static at that time. Of particular the years spanning the end of the 19th and the significance, from today’s perspective, was the work of the American, Stephen A. Forbes (1844- beginning of the 20th century, coinciding with 1930), The Lake as a Microcosm.21 Forbes sees the fall of positivism and the resurgence of in- the lake tuitive rather than rational thought, and the «as an organic system, in an equilibrium be- neoRomantic revival of symbolism in the plas- tween synthesis and decomposition, in which tic arts and literature. the struggle for existence and natural selection have led to a balance and a continuum of interests between predator and prey.»

The ecology of Warming and Schimper was still a and conceives it as a ‘microcosmos’, that is: static ecology, not yet having incorporated a tem- poral dimension. Two American geobotanists, «a little world within itself, –a microcosm within Frederick E. Clements (1874-1945) and Henry C. which all the elemental forces are at work and the Cowles (1869-1939), on the basis of observations play of life goes on in full, but on so small a scale by the former on the prairies of Nebraska and by the as to bring it easily within the mental grasp.»

18 SCHIMPER, 1898. 19 COWLES, 1899; CLEMENTS, 1905. 20 ADAMS, 1905; SHELFORD, 1913. 21 FORBES, 1887.

20 ECOLOGY, A ROMANTIC SCIENCE?

Forbes was not alone; those same years also saw ative highpoint of ecology. The ‘roaring’ 20s, with proliferation in Europe of small limnological labora- their expressionism, surrealism and all the forms of tories. Yet, the main milestone marking the birth of avant-garde art (together, unfortunately, with the contemporary limnology was the work of the Swiss rise of fascism –one of the unpleasant sides of the François A. Forel (1841-1912) on Lake Geneva, irrational dimension of Romanticism) was a time in published in three volumes between 1892 and which key concepts in ecology either emerged or 1894, under the title Le Leman, and his Handbuch were reformulated, including the concepts of the der Seenkunde. Allgemeine Limnologie (Handbook ecosystem and biosphere. of Lake Studies. General Limnology), published in 1900.22 We owe the modern concept of biosphere, a development of that of Suess, to the Russian The ecology of the inter-war period: the Vladimir I. Vernadsky (1863-1945), a man who emergence of key concepts never saw himself as an ecologist, yet through his contributions was to establish the conceptual By the outbreak of the First World War, ecology and even methodological foundations of what to- was an emerging discipline which had begun to day is known as global ecology. Trained in a set- become institutionalised. It had more in its favour ting which was particularly sympathetic to Hum- than the fact that Haeckel had given it a name, yet boldtian science, –the University of Saint it was not yet sufficiently confident of its own para- Petersburg, Vernadsky’s teachers included the digms. On the one hand, geobotany, from which chemist Dmitri I. Mendeleiev (1834-1907), dis- ecology can be said to have developed, broke up coverer of the periodic table of the elements, and into multiple schools, often extremely local in na- the geologist Basili V. Dokutxàiev (1846-1903), ture, until the inter-war period saw the Zürich- founder of soil science. Although, essentially a Montpellier (SIGMA) phytosociological school gain geologist and mineralogist, Vernadsky developed a dominant position in continental Europe, while in an early interest in geochemistry and, especially, the United States the successionist school of in the cycles of elements in nature, and realised Clements prevailed. On the other hand, the theory the importance of living matter in many of these of biotic communities or biocenoses gathered mo- cycles, to the extent that he considered life as mentum and incorporated statistic population one of the main geological forces. His ideas were quantification and mathematical modelling of pop- shaped during the course of a stay in Paris, from ulation dynamics from demographics. Limnology, 1922 to 1925, in contact with a particularly effer- for its part, contributed a model for study of a self- vescent intellectual setting. His main interlocu- contained system which was to serve as the basis tors at that time were the mathematician and for the future concept of ecosystem. philosopher Édouard Le Roy (1870-1954) and the Jesuit palaeontologist Pierre Teilhard de Yet, one has to wait until the 1920s and 1930s - Chardin (1881-1955). Édouard Le Roy was a again a time of resurgence of Romantic ideas, and student of Bergson and had succeeded him in a flowering of thought and arts, for the next cre- the chair at the College de France, he also

22 FOREL, 1892-94, 1900.

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shared the idealistic and vitalistic thought of his limnologists in the United States between the master and contributed to the development of 1930s and 1940s. Also, the importance of Tans- the concepts of biosphere and noosphere in two ley’s teacher, the extraordinary European, and again of his books, published in 1927 and 1928, in British, ecologist: George Evelyn Hutchinson (1903- parallel to Vernadsky’s The Biosphere, published 1991) must not be overlooked. Hutchinson –an in Russian in 1926 and in an extended and re- Englishman who never really settled into life in vised French version in 1929.23 Teilhard de New England (after retirement and several years Chardin, within the framework of the doctrine of as an emeritus professor, he returned to his native the Catholic church, had begun to develop an England to spend the last years of his life), was the evolutionist line of thought and although he was teacher of, among many others Raymond L. Lin- a firm believer in scientific method, he main- deman (1915-1942), a promising biologist who, tained his faith in God and in the spiritual tran- before his premature death at the age of 27 years scendence of the human being. Silenced by the from hepatitis, had published two articles which ecclesiastic hierarchy and by his order, yet ad- were decisive for the future of ecology. His Sea- mired by those who shared his twofold faith in sonal Food-Cycle Dynamics in a Senescent Lake God and science, he developed formulations of appeared in 1941, in which, on the basis of earlier the concepts of biosphere and noosphere which work by Chancey Juday (1871-1944), he de- were close to those of Vernadsky and Le Roy. scribed the role of primary producers in the functioning of ecosystems and the relations between The concept of ecosystem, on the other hand, the different trophic levels, which he measured in emerged from the radical rejection by the English terms of calorie equivalents of the average weight botanist Arthur G. Tansley (1871-1955) of the or- corresponding to the groups making up the bio- ganicist conception of natural communities ad- cenosis. In 1942, the year of his death, he pub- vanced by Clements and his school in the United lished «The Trophic-Dynamic aspect of Ecology» States. A conception in which, these communi- in Ecology (though he did not live to see it in print), ties, were considered as analogous to organ- in which he generalised his conclusions of the previ- isms. Tansley opposed this analogy and pro- ous year for a senescent lake to any ecosystem posed the concept of ecosystem in 1935, which and formulated a conception of ecosystem which integrated the plant community (Tansley was a has survived to the present day: a fundamental terrestrial ecologist who had received a tradition- ecological unit which includes a biotic community al geobotanical training) and the complex group and its environment, in complex interaction, char- of physical environmental factors into a single acterised by a flow of energy from certain parts to system.24 other parts of the same system and a practically self-contained food cycle. Paradoxically, a concept put forward by a Euro- pean ecologist in opposition to the stance of some No less paradoxically, these articles today recog- of his American colleagues was only to meet with nised as milestones in development of the disci- full acceptance when embraced by a number of pline, were to pass unnoticed and were largely

23 VERNADSKY, 1929. 24 TANSLEY, 1935.

22 ECOLOGY, A ROMANTIC SCIENCE?

rejected by the scientific community to which In contrast, ecology was to develop at a spec- they were addressed. Lindeman’s second article tacular rate throughout the 1950s and 1960s. was rejected by four referees and was only pub- The first milestone was laid by the Odum broth- lished on the initiative of the editor of Ecology ers in 1953, with their Fundamentals of Ecology. (Thomas Park), thanks to the indefatigable insis- Eugene P. Odum (1913-2002), initially an or- tence of Hutchinson, in October 1942, when Lin- nithologist but having studied at Yale with deman had died. A parallel, if not identical con- Hutchinson, has himself described the lack of cept, also appeared in 1942 in Soviet Russia: the understanding among his colleagues at the Uni- concept of biogeocenosis, which Vladimir N. versity of Georgia and how the university en- Sukatxev (1880-1967) described as a combina- gaged him to write a programme for ecology tion, in a given area of the earth’s surface, of ho- studies together with his brother Howard T. mogenous natural phenomena (atmosphere, sol- Odum (1924-2002), better versed in physics. id substrate, organisms, waters) among which Fundamentals of Ecology did not include deci- there was a specific type of interaction together sive theoretical advances, however it was the with a defined type of exchange of matter and energy between these and other natural phenomena (solar radiation, for example). The ecosistem is the fundamental ecological The ecological revolution of the 1950s and unit which includes a biotic community and its 1960s: matter, energy and information environment, in complex interaction, charac- The differences between the concepts devel- terised by a flow of energy from certain parts oped by Sukatxev and Lindeman are largely to other parts of the same system and a prac- matters of words as opposed to truly conceptual issues. Both are in fact developments of the bio- tically self-contained food cycle. geochemical conceptions of Vernadsky concerning the biosphere. This development was more clearly obvious in the case of Sukatxev, Linde- man’s work having passed through the Hutchin- first handbook of ecology per se and converted son filter, Hutchinson being well versed in the the discipline into what Kuhn terms «normal sci- thought of Vernadsky –he even translated sever- ence», in other words, science with established al of his works to English.25 However, appearing paradigms which are confirmed by studies car- as they did at an unfavourable time (at the height ried out in accordance with equally established of World War II) and with Lindeman’s early death, methods, until a feature which does not fit into the development went largely unnoticed and it these paradigms forces a search and discovery was not until after the war that these contribu- of new paradigms, generally after a period of con- tions would be recognised as basic elements in frontation between various schools of thought, contemporary ecological theory. ending with rupture and rapid acceptance of new

25 A son of Vernadsky was a history professor at Yale and a good friend of Hutchinson.

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paradigms which are incompatible with those 3. Animals and plants without chlorophyll27 de- which preceded them (what Kuhn terms a «sci- pend on green plants, which produce proteins, entific revolution»). carbohydrates and fats through photosynthe- sis; plants are controlled by animals, and both The contribution of the Odum brothers was un- are influenced by bacteria. doubtedly a scientific revolution. In the aftermath 4. Organisms also have an influence on the abi- of publication of their handbook26 nothing would otic medium. ever be the same again. The handbook begins 5. Humans have the capacity to alter ecosystems with a redefinition of the ecosystem along the drastically. lines of Lindeman, Sukatxev and Hutchinson: It is no mean feat to have concentrated in so few «any natural entity or unit which includes liv- principles not only the basis of ecological sci- ing and inert parts, which interact to produce ence but also that of the ecologist movement, a stable system in which the exchange of which no one in 1953 could even have imagined materials between living and non-living parts would ever exist. follows a cyclical pattern is an ecological system or ecosystem. The ecosystem is the There was yet a third strand to be integrated into largest functional unit in ecology and in- the theoretical framework of biogeochemical and cludes both organisms (biotic communities) energy flows; for an ecosystem comprises not and the abiotic medium, both of which mutu- only matter and energy, but also organisation. ally influence each other’s respective proper- The outstanding contribution in this regard was to ties and are necessary for maintenance of life arrive in 1957 from a Catalan ecologist who did on Earth as we know it. A lake is an example not even occupy a chair from which to advance it of an ecosystem.» –Spain not establishing any chair of ecology until 1967. The ecologist was Ramon Margalef. Five main principles are set out in the first pages of the book: In his entry speech to the Reial Acadèmia de Ciències i Arts of Barcelona in 1957,28 Margalef 1. The largest ecosystem is the entire planet, the described the trophic relations and energy flows biosphere is the part of the planet in which of ecosystems in terms of «feedback circuits».29 In smaller ecosystems operate. fact, Margalef had presented his ideas at a scien- 2. Ecosystems may be of a wide range of sizes, tific meeting at the Scripps Institution of Oceanog- ranging from the entire biosphere to the small- raphy in La Jolla (California) the previous year, est of pools. where he had found agreement from Howard T.

26 ODUM & ODUM, 1953. 27 At the time of the publication of the Odum brothers' work, fungi had not yet been recognised as constituting a separate kingdom to that of plants and animals and were considered to be plants without chlorphyll. 28 Based on an idea of Henry Quastler (1908-1963), who in 1953 had published a collection of contributions to a symposium on information theory in biology. He suggested that information theory, developed by Shannon and Weaver, provided the basis for measurement in terms of information of an enzy- ne's specificity with respect to its substrate. 29 MARGALEF, 1957.

24 ECOLOGY, A ROMANTIC SCIENCE?

Odum, John Cantlon (a plant ecologist at Michi- they were the decades in which the most spec- gan State University), Louis Kornicker (a colleague tacular advances took place in ecology, from the of H. T. Odum at the University of Texas) and oth- contribution of the International Biological Pro- ers. Margalef identified the concept of information gram (IBP) to the first formulations of the Gaia with that of organisation or ‘form’ of systems, with hypothesis, to the emergence of the ecology the measure of the internal ‘order’ or ‘disorder’ of movements aiming to base their doctrine and these systems and he related it to various of the political action on the findings of ecological sci- ecosystem’s own processes, such as succession, ence, a feature distinguishing them from similar or with the processes of its living components, previous social phenomena. This energy contin- such as evolution. In any case, since the 1960s, ued into the early 70s but yet was to wane in the information or organisation is as fundamental an context of the successive petrol crises, as the re- element in description of an ecosystem as is mat- sult of the changing position of political, financial ter or energy.30 and industrial powers in the developed world.

The developments of the 1940s and 1950s, with their outright rejection of the organicism inherent to the approach of Clements and his followers, The ecologist mouvement served as a catalyst the search for support in physics and mathematics and the formalisation of ecology as a normal for a rather ill-defined but widespread social science meant a distancing to some extent from unease in the light of the indifference or the discipline’s Romantic roots and some could arrogance of the powers that be vis à vis the even see it as a move towards reductionism. So destruction and maiming of our natural heri- be it; it is by means of such contradictions –the natural outcome of shared conceptions held at tage, not to mention human health and life. given moments in time, that scientific disciplines, not to mention social institutions, the arts and even fashion, advance and renew themselves. In the 1960s, ecology was to move again in the di- The first manifestations of what was then known rection of its Romantic and holistic roots and, via as the ‘ecological movement’ date back to publi- quantification of information (or organisation, or cation in the United States of Silent Spring in diversity), was to recover on one hand the old or- 1962, a book which served as a catalyst for a ganicist metaphor and, on the other, the holistic rather ill-defined but widespread social unease in approach dating from the days of Humboldt. the light of the indifference or arrogance of the powers that be vis à vis the destruction and Undoubtedly, the 1960s, together with the «roar- maiming of our natural heritage, not to mention ing 20s» would count as the most ‘Romantic’ –as demonstrated with all the required rigour by decades of the 20th century. And, inevitably, Rachel Carson– human health and life.31 At the

30 MARGALEF, 1968, 1974, 1980a, 1980b. 31 CARSON, 1962.

25 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 10 ARTICLES

time of its emergence in the United States, the the struggle against pollution (pollution being ‘ecological movement’ was another manifestation equivalent to destruction of natural resources, of the hippy movement or the rejection by North and the result of the accelerated economic American youth of the war in Vietnam which, growth that had triumphed in the aftermath of consequently, spread quickly around university World War II) led to a certain reluctance on the campuses, especially in California. However, the part of orthodox Marxist-based left-wing politi- movement also took less radical forms (though cians in Europe (the socialists and communists) not necessarily less effective in terms of achieving to take up the cause, which they dismissed as specific objectives), with the extension of activi- ‘ecological ideology’. However, there was no ties to include objectives which had been neg- shortage of support among the new left emerg- lected by the numerous consumer organisations ing as a result of the urban campaigns and stu- then active in the United States. These objectives dent movements –’66 in Spain, ‘68 in France included ensuring the quality of water, air and and other European countries, which saw the food. The Romantic urge to return to and fuse potential of ecologism as the basis for radical with nature widespread among many hippies, criticism of the capitalist system. and drawn from the thought of Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), merged with the radicalism However, care must be taken to distinguish be- of the civil rights or anti-Vietnam War movements. tween ecology and ecologism in that confusing, chaotic and equivocal, albeit tremendously cre- In Europe, the movement was slower to emerge ative period, in which both either merged as one and first began to manifest itself as an extension of or clashed outright with each other depending residents associations struggling to improve condi- on the perspective taken by the observer, in- tions in poorer areas of the large industrial cities evitably subject to a range of scientific and ideo- and fight against the ‘internal colonialism’ prac- logical interests. ticed in many marginal or less developed areas of the state by the government or multinationals. In terms of science, for ecology the sixties were a time of consolidation of the concept of ecosys- By the end of the 1960s, the majority of politi- tem and of a search for new unifying concepts, cians, including even some members of the tra- the most outstanding of which being those asso- ditional right, in most democratic countries ciated with information theory. Great efforts were (though not of course in the Spain of the late also made in the terrain of unifying ecology with Franco years), had incorporated ‘ecological’ other theoretical fields of biology (evolution, ge- tinges into their discourse. To the fore, was US netics, physiology), Earth sciences (global ecolo- president Richard Nixon, who gave over most of gy, the Gaia hypothesis), and even physics (ther- his State of the Union address of 22 January modynamics) and mathematics. As a result, the 1970 to environmental issues. Practically coin- IBP had an important ecological component, in ciding with this, in February of the same year in particular regarding the functioning of ecosys- Strasbourg, the Council of Europe proclaimed tems, and fostered a more interdisciplinary ap- the European Nature Conservation Year. This approach to research in ecology. The titles of the parent appropriation on the part of the right of seven sections in which it was organised (Pro- the discourse of environmental protection and ductivity of Terrestrial Communities, Production

26 ECOLOGY, A ROMANTIC SCIENCE?

Processes in the Terrestrial and Aquatic Media, tect any possible extraterrestrial life on Mars. Conservation of Terrestrial Communities, Produc- However, Lovelock decided to pose the problem tivity of Freshwater Communities, Productivity of the other way around by asking how would a hy- Marine Communities, Human Adaptability and pothetical visitor from another planet perceive Use and Management of Biological Resources) the existence of life on Earth’ His conclusion was provide ample evidence of this. The great effort that the presence of life would be deduced from made in research in the sixties was also reflected the chemical composition of the atmosphere. in the expansion of studies of systems theory and Only with the presence of life could such a reac- its application to living systems, and in particular tive gas as oxygen be found in the atmosphere. to ecosystems, a process which was to give rise To postulate that the Earth’s atmosphere was a to a highly sophisticated mathematical ecology. In product of the presence of life was but a short 1968 Ramon Margalef’s Perspectives in Ecologi- step, which Lovelock duly took in 1967.32 Rather cal Theory was published, later to be translated into Spanish and other languages.

The 1960s also saw the space race between the For ecology the sixties were a time of consoli- United States and the Soviet Union, thanks to which dation of the concept of ecosystem and of a in early 1970, a photograph which was to mark a search for new unifying concepts, the most milestone in human history appeared on the covers of numerous magazines around the world: the first outstanding of which being those associated ever photograph taken from space of the entire with information theory. planet. All of a sudden, it was clear for all to see how limited and fragile the material support for all life and humanity was. The metaphor of the Earth as spaceship and the human race as crew quickly than an organic product, he saw the atmosphere caught on and soon observation of the Earth from as a biological construction, not alive as such in space, beyond its military applications (the original itself, but an extension of the living system, de- purpose for which it was developed) became an signed to preserve a given environment from cer- almost routine tool in studies of natural resources tain aggressions, similarly to a mammal’s fur or a and soil uses, and today such images are com- bird’s feathers which ensure corporal homeosta- monplace on our television screens thanks to a sis. Finally, he presented his conception of the plethora of satellites. Earth’s living system, encapsulating living crea- tures, the atmosphere, the oceans and terra fir- It was precisely in this context that James E. ma in Princeton (New Jersey), and gave it the Lovelock (b. 1919) was to develop his Gaia hy- name Gaia or Gea, the Greek earth goddess.33 pothesis. Lovelock, an English chemist and in- The Gaia concept has gained in biological con- ventor who worked for NASA during the sixties sistency thanks to the contributions of the North as a scientific advisor in finding methods to de- American biologist Lynn Margulis (b. 1938), the

32 LOVELOCK, 1967. 33 On the advice of his friend, Nobel literature laureate, William Golding.

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creator of the symbiogenic theory of the origin of hand, a fragmenting postmodernism that led to the eukaryotic cells. Recent years have seen de- multiplication of case studies which, with few ex- velopment of global or planetary ecology, the po- ceptions, did not give rise to any general conclu- litically correct version of the Gaia theory, devoid sion, and on the other hand, the holistic tradition, of the ‘new age’ mysticism with which it seemed tended to merely reproduce, with much less in- to be initially burdened. tellectual vigour, the debates of the 1930s between reductionists and holists. Not yet a fully ‘normal’ science: recent developments In fact, this situation is not unique to ecology. Many scientific disciplines today, in searching for The first oil crisis in 1973 marked a sea change. autonomy and identity, take the route of hyper- The late 1970s and especially the entire decade specialisation and endogamy, leading to isola- of the eighties were distinctly non-Romantic in tion and alienation from all that surrounds them nature, with the ‘conservative revolution’ headed that is not strictly within their terrain. There is by Ronald Reagan in the United States and Mar- much talk about interdisciplinary approaches, garet Thatcher in Britain. The years immediately yet it is far from frequent to come across works after also followed suit. Spain, immersed during which genuinely break down the borders be- those years in its transition to democracy, was tween different disciplines. Specialisation, it is slow to take positions. However, once complete claimed, is the precondition for high-quality and the transition, Spain swiftly moved from the truly competitive research and no time should be struggle for democratic freedom to the pelotazo lost in working collaboratively with specialists or «get rich quick» culture. from other disciplines, who are potential com- petitors in the battle for the resources needed to Ecology, which in the 1960s seemed to be des- consolidate one’s own grouping. Increasingly, tined for a fruitful theoretical synthesis of physics there are ‘experts’ who know practically every- and biology (between thermodynamics and evo- thing about one small area, while those knowing lution), via information theory, found itself facing something about almost everything are becom- the need to provide solutions for a range of ur- ing an endangered species. gent, more limited, short-term problems: what Margalef termed ‘brush and dustpan’ ecology. Yet when the object of study is the entire bio- Therefore, while the presence of ecology in pub- sphere (even in the case of a small-scale ecosys- lic debate seemed to grow, the development of tem), what approach can be taken other than a ecological theory seemed to have become stuck holistic one, even if different aspects of the same in a rut over recent decades, with a handful of ecosystem must be addressed separately for ex- exceptions. Post-modern thought may manage pressive purposes? How can such a study be to be just about anything it wants, yet it can nev- undertaken without deference to a history partly er claim to be holistic; its essential characteris- determined by changes in the distribution of land tics include relativism and a fragmentation of re- masses, seas and ice over the course of time by ality. Thus, we see that the ecology of the what are usually termed geological factors and eighties and much of the nineties, divided as it partly determined by the action of humankind in was between two opposing trends –on one more recent times? How can one define global

28 ECOLOGY, A ROMANTIC SCIENCE?

warming oblivious to the high consumption of This confusion has served over recent years to re- fossil fuels over the last 200-300 years, and es- move all studies of organisms and systems from pecially over the last century? What else other research priorities –precisely the area in which than consumption of CFCs can explain the Catalan science has traditionally excelled and still weakening of the ozone layer? excels despite adversities. Margalef, it must be re- membered, saw himself as a naturalist and as such– in essence he was an observer and student 5. What now? When is the next revival due? When ecology or the ‘environmental scien- As Margalef wisely pointed out, the inclusion of human beings in the field of study of general ecol- ces’ are reduced to mere public hygiene, ogy has not only served to cast light on the eco- much of what could be gained is jettisoned logical problems of the human species, but also and we are left once again in the perillous to provide a more accurate view of general ecology. Problems such as those outlined above and confusion of ecology and environmentalism. others concerning horizontal transport, flows or succession are more clearly visible in systems which are relatively untouched by human action. of nature above all else– he succeeded in his theoretical syntheses. This article should not be read Yet it is also true that, as has tended to occur in as the epitaph of a science which, being Roman- many cases in recent years, when this inclusion tic, is dispensable. On the contrary, nothing could serves exclusively to highlight perturbing effects be more indispensable to science than a Roman- on ‘ecological balances’ which are seen as tic (self-)critique of modernity (or post-modernity) somehow sacred, and when ecology or the ‘en- and reductionism. Rather, it should be read as a vironmental sciences’ are reduced to mere pub- cry of hope: hope that a Romantic revival akin to lic hygiene on a relatively large territorial scale, those of the 1920s and 1960s or the years span- much of what could be gained is jettisoned and ning the turn of the previous century will take we are left once again with the reductionism replace, with a consequent renovation of the com- quired for dealing with specific cases of danger- monly accepted ideas regarding science and sci- ous pollution or potentially harmful processes. In ence policy which will contribute to revitalising a short, the perilous confusion of ecology and en- field which in Catalonia has traditionally proven vironmentalism. most productive and qualitatively important.

29 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 10 ARTICLES

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SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PARKS AND UNIVERSITIES IN THE TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS INCUBATOR SYSTEM: A CONTRIBUTION BASED ON THE TRIPLE HELIX MODEL

Josep M. Piqué*, Sònia González**, Joan Bellavista***, Victor Alves****

The aim of this article is to analyse the role of science and technology parks and universities in technology business incubation within the regional innovation system. The study is based on the business situation in Catalonia in the period 2001-2003, and aims to use the triple helix model to analyse the technology business incubator system in Catalonia.

Contents

1. Technology business start-up within regional innovation systems 1.1 Innovative environments, regional innovation systems and technology business start-up 1.2 Science and technology parks, universities and technology business start-up systems 1.3 The case of technology business start-up in Catalonia 2. The figures 3. The distribution of roles in the incubation process between universities and science and technology parks 3.1. The origin and motivation of business initiatives 3.2. The technology base for the innovation 3.3. The state of development of the initiatives

* Josep M. Piqué is director of La Salle Technology and Business Innovation Park of the Ramon Llull University and chairman of the Network of Scien- ce Parks of Catalonia (XPCAT). ** Sònia González is director of Business Innovation and Start-Up at the Research Park of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. *** Joan Bellavista is commercial manager of the Barcelona Science Park and Manager of the Network of Science Parks of Catalonia. **** Victor Alves is head of the international area of La Salle Innovation Park of the Ramon Llull University.

32 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PARKS AND UNIVERSITIES IN THE TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS INCUBATOR SYSTEM: A CONTRIBUTION BASED ON THE TRIPLE HELIX MODEL

3.4. The profile of the entrepreneurs 3.5. Finance routes and incubating actors 3.6. Location and incubating actors 4. The triple helix model (university-industry-government relations) applied to technology business start-up 5. A model for analysing technology business start-up within a regional innovation system 6. Conclusions

1. Technology business start-up decisive for countries and regions, and the within regional innovation mechanisms for transferring this knowledge to systems the market are decisive for generating technological and business innovation.

1.1. Innovative environments, regional innovation systems and technology business start-up The stock of scientific knowledge is decisive and the mechanisms for transferring The sociologist Manuel Castells and the town this knowledge to the market are decisive planner Peter Hall1 define an innovative environment as a system of social, institutional, organi- for generating technological and business sational, economic and regional structures that innovation. creates the conditions for a continuous generation of synergies, creating an additional value both for the units of production, which are part of this innovative environment, and for the envi- The creation of regional innovation systems for ronment as a whole. systemising the relationship between the actors involved in developing business initiatives, and The development of an innovative environment of the establishing of routes to maximise the effi- this type for technology business start-up is a ciency of the contributions by all these actors, key instrument for wealth creation in the region. are key elements for setting up a technology The stock of scientific knowledge is once more business start-up system.

1 CASTELLS and HALL, 1994.

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According to Castells and Hall, there is a para- 1.2. Science and technology parks, universities dox in the fact that in a world economy with a and technology business start-up systems productive infrastructure based on flows of information, cities and regions are increasingly be- In the official definition of science and/or technolo- coming decisive actors in economic develop- gy parks, the International Association of Science ment: Goodman’s «last entrepreneurs».2 Parks (IASP) establishes that one of the goals of the parks is to facilitate the creation and growth of inno- Therefore, regions must organise themselves not vation-based companies through incubation and only to attract foreign investment but also to foster spin-off processes.3 Piero Fòrmica and Luis Sanz4 endogenous growth generated by local compa- identify a key role of science parks in fostering entre- nies that are able to take advantage of the exter- preneurship and innovation. This requires links with nalities offered by the region to increase their the various actors involved in technology business competitiveness. This is particularly the case with start-up, such as universities and the government, regard to new, knowledge-based companies. with companies that are consolidated in the market, and with financial institutions.

Philip Cooke5 confirms the good results of system- One of the goals of the parks is to facilitate atically transferring science-based innovation to the creation and growth of innovation based the market through marketing and the creation of companies through incubation and spin-off new innovative companies. In relation to the con- processes. cept of «regions» he stresses the important role of regional institutions (chambers of commerce, industrial associations, public organisations and regional ministries) that have the means to lend sup- The creation of technology-based companies port to companies and to innovation, particularly in within the regional innovation system is one of the the case of small and medium-sized companies most important objectives for reinforcing the qual- and therefore of the new technology-based com- itative and quantitative growth of regions. The panies. Science and technology parks will play a routes systemised for entrepreneurs and innova- key role if they understand that they are an interaction, the spaces provided and the financing of tive innovation system in which they must provide new companies in their incubation processes en- a mediation and connection structure and act as sure that the actors involved can make the best poles of innovation for the region. One can find ex- contribution to the growth of these companies. amples of success such as Sophia Antipolis6 that

2 GOODMAN, 1979. 3 International Board of Directors of the IASP, 6 February 2002. (www.iasp.ws). 4 FÒRMICA and SANZ, 2003. 5 COOKE, 2001. 6 Sophia Antipolis is a science park created by a private non-profit institution with the cooperation of the French Department of the Alpes-Maritimes, the French state and some municipalities. It has operated continuously for 30 years and today has over 1,260 companies, has created over 25,911 jobs and is in constant expansion. It comprises many laboratories and research institutes of the University of Nice-Sophia-Antipolis, the CNRS, technical institutes, engineering schools, research institutions and training institutes, and many companies working in the fields of health science, biotechnology, fine chemistry, geoscience, environment and new energies, information technology, electronics and telecommunications (www.sophia-antipolis.org).

34 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PARKS AND UNIVERSITIES IN THE TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS INCUBATOR SYSTEM: A CONTRIBUTION BASED ON THE TRIPLE HELIX MODEL

are connected to research departments and in- talises knowledge and creates new companies volve an active policy of generating spin-offs. and services.

These policies should promote interaction between the various actors of innovation, such as universities, technology-based companies and lar- The action of universities is divided into three ge companies, as occurs in Scandinavia and spheres: teaching, research and knowledge Germany. transfer. As sources of knowledge, universities play a key role in the innovation value chain in creating a stock of knowledge and transferring it to the 1.3 The case of technology business market through the creation of technology-based start-up in Catalonia companies. They also provide training to give entrepreneurs good management skills. Within the 2001-2004 Innovation Plan, the Gen- eralitat of Catalonia created the Network of Tech- Henry Etzkowitz7 identifies, in addition to teaching nology Trampolines,8 a network of university incu- and the research, a third mission: the incorpora- bators intended to bolster technology business tion of an enterprise initiative and the commitment start-up and comprising the incubators of seven of universities to the economic and social devel- higher education institutions (ESADE, IESE, La opment of their environment. The action of univer- Salle-Ramon Llull University, the Technical Uni- sities is thus divided into three spheres: teaching, versity of Catalonia, the University of Barcelona, research and knowledge transfer. Technology the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the business start-up should be included in the area University of Girona). Five of these seven institu- of knowledge transfer, in which the innovative fac- tions have associated science and technology tor plays a important role. parks, in addition to cooperation agreements with other technology parks such as the Vallès The entrepreneurial university needs efficient Technology Park. All the parks mentioned are mediation structures between scientific knowl- members of the Network of Science and Tech- edge and the market. One of these structures is nology Parks of Catalonia (XPCAT).9 the incubation of technology-based companies carried out by science and technology parks. In This article analyses the contribution of the vari- addition to managing risk, the entrepreneurial ous actors involved in the development of tech- university transforms ideas into innovation, capi- nology-based business initiatives, based on the

7 ETZKOWITZ, 2002. 8 Technology trampolines are units of support to the creation of knowledge-based or technology-based companies and are organised as a network. In addition to detecting new projects and providing advice for their conversion into companies, the trampolines also include a series of initiatives designed to provide business support from the classroom, such as courses on how to set up one's own company within university syllabuses, talks by alumni on their experiences in setting up companies, and competitions on business plans. They also offer legal advice, assistance with the creation of the company plan, support for projects in the seed, launch, take-off and growth stages and advice and support with regard to finding the most suitable financing. www.cidem.com/cidem/cat/comunitats/xtrampolins/index.jsp. 9 www.xpcat.net/.

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study of some eighty business initiatives sup- laid down in the agreement were to foster tech- ported by the Generalitat (government) of Cat- nology business start-up and the enterprise spir- alonia and by the technology trampolines in the it of professionals located in Catalonia and to at- period 2001-2003. It considers the triple helix tract international entrepreneurs to realise their model,10 showing the role of universities and sci- ideas in Catalonia. ence and technology parks, and puts forward a model of incubation of technology-based com- On May 13 2003, when the network had been panies that is applicable to other regions of the operating for two years, a total of 57 projects had world. been advised and financed. Of the 79 projects that applied for financial support, 57 were approved and 22 were rejected, though the latter 2. The figures continued to be incubated by the incubator. Fig- ures were available for 71 of the 79 projects (56 At the time when the study was carried out, the approved and 15 rejected ones). Of these 71, six Network of Science and Technology Parks in- were at the start-up stage, one had suspended cluded seven parks set up by universities (La payments and three were in stand-by. Detailed in- Salle-Ramon Llull University, the Autonomous formation was therefore available on 61 projects. University of Barcelona, the University of Bar- celona, the University of Girona, Pompeu Fabra The information used in this article is the result of University, the Technical University of Catalonia, a report commissioned by the CIDEM. It was and the Rovira i Virgili University) and four parks gathered between 1/7/2003 and 15/10/2003 set up by the public authorities (the Vallès Tech- through 34 electronic surveys, 23 personal inter- nology Park, the Reus Tecnop@arc, the Mataró views and 14 phone interviews. Tecnocampus and the Lleida Agri-Food Science and Technology Park). A response was obtained for 43% of the electronic surveys, and 39% of the personal interviews The universities that had both science parks and and 24% of the phone interviews were complet- incubators were La Salle-Ramon Llull University, ed. In 3% of the cases the interview was not pos- the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the sible and 1% were rejected by the CIDEM. University of Barcelona, the University of Girona and the Technical University of Catalonia. The figures obtained from the surveys by the CI- DEM were complemented by field work on the In early 2001, the Centre for Business Innovation geographic location of the companies, and on and Development of the Generalitat of Catalonia the academic and professional background of the (CIDEM) signed a framework agreement for col- entrepreneurs. The source of the first series of laboration between various Catalan universities figures was contrasted with information provided to foster technology business start-up by setting by the network of Catalan university incubators. up a network of university incubators. The goals The information on the academic and professional

10 ETZKOWITZ, H. and LEYDESDORFF, L. (2000).

36 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PARKS AND UNIVERSITIES IN THE TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS INCUBATOR SYSTEM: A CONTRIBUTION BASED ON THE TRIPLE HELIX MODEL

backgrounds of the entrepreneurs was obtained were not university spin-offs, 59% were ap- from the figures they provided to the CIDEM. proved and 41% were rejected.Only one initiative was a business spin-off. The entrepreneurs had The set of figures obtained formed the basis for created the company after a multinational closed the quantitative and qualitative study of technol- its research centre in Spain. ogy business start-up in Catalonia during the period. These figures also provided essential in- The Generalitat created the Entrepreneurs Award formation for identifying the actors involved in as a catalyst for developing technology-based the incubation process and for characterising business initiatives. In 2002, the companies that the technology business incubator system in won the first and the second prize were being in- Catalonia. cubated by the network of trampolines and received funding from a public body in the form of concept capital.11 Three of the four with guaran- 3. The distribution of roles in the teed capitalisation were being incubated by the incubation process between network of trampolines and had received con- universities and science and cept capital finance from the Generalitat. technology parks

The information obtained can be used for a separate analysis of the different aspects of business Most technology-based business initiatives initiatives: the origin and motivation, the technology originate in a university research group or base used, the development of the initiative, the profile of the entrepreneurs, the financial itinerary centre among persons doing postgraduate and the location. courses.

3. 1. The origin and motivation of business initiatives Competitions and awards by local governments, The main types of business initiatives are those universities and chambers of commerce also arising from university spin-offs, business spin- stimulate entrepreneurs and foster an enterprise offs, academic enterprise programmes and en- culture. These awards have become «land- terprise competitions. marks» in the development and public recognition of business initiatives, and act as catalysts An analysis of the figures shows that 38% of the for the exchange of ideas. Incentives of this type projects presented were university spin-offs. Of may stimulate the process of creativity, and the 57 projects financed by the CIDEM, 93% make an important contribution to the launching were spin-offs. Of the 62% of the projects that of a technology-based business.

11 Concept capital is a participatory loan for technology-based companies of up to two years' duration, which provides funds directly aimed at promoting the growth of new companies. The CIDEM has developed a line of funding of concept capital to meet the needs of technology-based business in order to foster the creation of quality university projects by increasing the financial capacity of entrepreneurs.

37 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 ARTICLES

Most technology-based business initiatives origi- cences as the purchase of technology. Almost all nate in a university research group or centre the companies in the Biotechnology and Food among persons doing postgraduate courses. sectors sold technology. With respect to the measures for the protection of intellectual prop- 3.2. The technology base for the innovation erty, 48% of the initiatives had protected the brand, 39% had registered a patent and 23% The projects were classified in accordance with had taken no protective measures. the SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) codes, and the technology base and patents used were Though Spanish law provides tax incentives for analysed. R&D and technological innovation, 61% of the companies studied had not requested any tax in- As shown in Table 1, 43 projects of a total of 79 centives. This is therefore a key area in which incu- were in the sector of SIC code 001, Electronics, bators can be useful as a source of information for Information Technology and Telecommunications companies. (ICT). The projects with SIC codes 006 and 007, Biotechnology and Food, were the ones It is interesting to note that Barcelona is classi- with the highest percentage of approved projects. fied as one of the forty science and technology The companies with the highest turnover were poles of the European Union. Marta Riba Vilano- those in the ICT sector, whereas the sector in va has pointed out that the correlation in Catalo- which most companies were created was nia between scientific productivity and techno- biotechnology. logical activity (in the form of patents) is not reflected as a dynamic integral regional system.12 A total of 48% of the companies had bought li- She states that there is no significant innovation cences and 74% had sold licences. ICT compa- system in Catalonia and that the value chain nies understand the purchase of software li- from science (scientific productivity) to technology

Table 1 Numbers of projects by categories according to the SIC codes* Total Number Percentatge Number Percentage number approved approved rejected rejected

SIC 001 43 27 63% 16 37% SIC 006 i 007 18 17 94% 1 6% SIC 002, 003, 004, 008 16 13 81% 3 19% Unclassified 2 2 100% - - Total 79 57 72% 22 28%

*1 Electronics, information technology and telecommunications; 2 Industrial production, materials technnologies and transport; 3 Other industrial technologies; 4 Energy; 5 Physical and exact sciences; 6 Biological sciences; 7 Agriculture and marine resources; 8 Agri-food business; 9 Measures and standards; 10 Protection of persons and the environment; 11 Social and economic affairs

12 RIBA and LEYDESDORFF, 2001.

38 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PARKS AND UNIVERSITIES IN THE TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS INCUBATOR SYSTEM: A CONTRIBUTION BASED ON THE TRIPLE HELIX MODEL

(patents) is not efficient. For technology business current situation. Three were considering the start-up, patents should be taken into account as possibility of selling the company in the future. a form of protection, particularly in the negotiation of venture capital funding. The figures obtained Of the 61 companies that responded, 14 ex- show that new technology-based companies are ported, and 9 of these exported more than 20% aware of the importance of protection in some of of their turnover. its forms, and use it. Measures aimed at protecting intellectual property are examples of the first level of transfer of knowledge to the market. Even though they represent an evolution of the know- In Catalonia, the value chain from science ledge, they have no value until a company buys (scientific productivity) to technology or licences them. (patents) is not efficient. Before knowledge can be transferred to the market, there must be a stock of scientific knowledge. Universities and research centres play a key role in creating this stock. The number of shareholders working in the companies in 2001 was 173, but it had fallen to 145 3. 3. The state of development of the initia- in 2002. The number of employees in the first tives year was 88, compared with 244 in the second year– a 177% rise. The average number of work- The development of the initiatives was analysed ers per company was 4.4. The number of entre- according to the type of organisation, the preneurs involved in the 61 projects was 219, turnover and the number of workers. representing an average of 3 to 4 per project.

Eighty-eight percent of the respondents initially The jobs created were highly qualified, 75% be- created a limited company (LC), whereas only ing for university graduates and 15% for college 10% created a public limited company (PLC). graduates. Both the Catalan and Spanish gov- These percentages reflect the legal costs arising ernments offer subsidies to incorporate re- from setting up a company: at least €3000 for a searchers in companies, the former through the limited company, compared with at least Beatriu de Pinòs researcher training programmes €60,000 for a public limited company. There and those of the Catalan Institute for Research was only one case of a cooperative, in which and Advanced Studies (ICREA), and the latter 51% of the company was worker-owned, be- through the Torres Quevedo and Ramón y Cajal cause it was the result of a business spin-off in programmes. which the workers used their unemployment benefit to set up the company. Only one compa- The entrepreneurs state that one of their main ny changed from an LC to a PLC. goals is to increase turnover by finding new customers, to enter new markets and to increase Ninety percent of the respondents intended to customer fidelity. Other goals are to internation- continue the business project, regardless of its alise their operations and to secure the second

39 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 ARTICLES

round of financing. In the ICT sector priority is tors that contracted most general managers were given to seeking strategic alliances. biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.

These actions show the degree of commitment In Barcelona there are several business schools by universities and science and technology of international prestige. All the universities with parks to supporting the economic development associated science parks offer postgraduate of the region by fostering the fundamental role courses in business management (MBAs). of new companies in job creation, economic growth and potential for innovation. 3.5. Finance routes and incubating actors

The finance routes of the initiatives studied were analysed step by step, beginning with the sources of None of the projects of the trampolines linked finance, whether public or private: concept capital, to business schools (IESE, ESADE, La Salle) had business angels, seed capital and venture capital. contracted a general manager from outside the initial group of entrepreneurs. In the first two years of operation of this network, up to May 13 2003, a total of 57 projects received support in the form of advice and financing. During the period studied (2001-2003), the CIDEM assigned €3.8 mil- 3. 4. The profile of the entrepreneurs lion to finance 57 projects, with a maximum investment of €100,000 for each project. The profile of the entrepreneurs –their skills, their experience and their professional backgrounds– Of the total of 57 projects approved, 14% failed to was analysed. lead to the creation of a company and one was termi- nated. Seven companies (of the 61 of the ICT, Whereas 62% of the entrepreneurs had previous biotechnology and agri-food sectors) had a turnover experience in the sector (38% had previously set of more than €300,000 in 2003. The approved proj- up their own company), 20% did not. The com- ect with the highest turnover in 2003 (in the biotech- panies of entrepreneurs that had previous expe- nology sector) grossed €857,972 and had 18 em- rience in the sector had higher turnovers than ployees. The rejected project with the highest the rest. turnover in 2002 (in the ICT sector) grossed €1,400,000 and had 4 employees. Only 28% of the companies had contracted a general manager from outside the initial group of The Spanish Department of Science and Technolo- entrepreneurs. None of the projects of the tram- gy has financed new technooogy-based companies polines linked to business schools (IESE, ESADE, through the Centre for Technological and Industrial La Salle) had contracted a general manager from Development (CEDETI), a body that finances innova- outside the initial group of entrepreneurs. The sec- tive business projects, and its NEOTEC initiative.13

13 www.neotec.cdti.es.

40 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PARKS AND UNIVERSITIES IN THE TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS INCUBATOR SYSTEM: A CONTRIBUTION BASED ON THE TRIPLE HELIX MODEL

Finance from the NEOTEC fund was requested by In 41% of the cases in which companies re- 21 initiatives, of which 12 were approved, three were ceived external financing, it was from industrial rejected and 6 were pending a reply at the time of the companies. Partnerships are one of the mecha- survey. The NEOTEC makes co-investments of up to nisms of growth of initiatives. €300,000. Of the companies that had received concept There is a systematic relationship between the capital, 89% also obtained external financing. Catalan and the Spanish governments. Only three of the rejected projects obtained some form of venture capital, and always from External financing was obtained by 27 projects. industrial companies through partnerships. None of the rejected projects obtained finance through venture capital, business angels or private investors (except by the system of Friends, Family and Fools). The capital market identifies Of the companies that had received concept financing with concept capital as an initial step capital, 89% also obtained external financing. linked to previous venture capital investments.

Figure 1 Finance routes of business initiatives in the Catalan system at the time of the study

Accumulated investable amount (in thousands of €) Required returns 100% private 10,000 – – 30% Private VC 1,200 – Private Barcelona Empren, R&G, FINAVES, Innova31, Invertec, Catalan Research Foundation (CIDEM participation) – 16% 900 – – 15% INVERTEC, SA 600 – Private Co-investment + 300 – CDTI - NEOTEC “Informal” public Network of Private Investors (Business Angels) (CIDEM mediation) – 7% 160 – – 6% Concept capital 100 – Seed 60 – FFF 30 – I + O – 0% T-3 T-2 T-1 T=0 T+1 T+2 T+3 T+4 T+5 100% public 100% public Seed Launch Take-off Growth

CIDEM instruments Market instruments CIDEM instruments with collaboration agreement

41 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 ARTICLES

Financing through the venture capital system is Number % present in all sectors, but a higher percentage of Location of companies was observed in the area of biotech- initiatives nology. Financing through the business angels Owned or rented property 43 27 system is used above all in the ICT sector. On Municipal incubators 18 17 the other hand, none of the projects related to Science and/or technology parks University environments 16 13 companies in the industrial sector obtained ven- The initiative was not set up 2 2 ture capital. Seven projects combined various types of external finance. TOTAL 22 28%

Figure 1 shows the finance routes of the business initiatives identified in the Catalan system at Forty-one percent of the business initiatives were the time of the study. It has been found in other inside science and/or technology parks or within studies14 that neither venture capital funds nor university environments. Of the initiatives evaluat- science parks have a significant impact on the ed by the CIDEM only 8% were located in mu- indicators of regional technology. Wallstern also nicipal incubators, whereas 37% used owned or states that science parks tend to encourage rented property. business incubators, but finds no correlation between science parks, job creation and venture In the case of Barcelona. Activa,15 the municipal capital. incubator of the city of Barcelona, there are two specific facilities for the incubation of companies: In the case of Catalonia, it has been confirmed the Glories Incubator and the Barcelona Nord that all universities that have incorporated tech- Technology Park. A 70% of the companies were nology-based incubators and have a science settled up by university graduate entrepreneurs. park show higher productivity in business start- Barcelona Activa has agreements to access the up. The development of networks of business facilities of other science parks in the city of angels and the culture of corporate venturing by Barcelona. The Vallès Technology Park also has large companies complements the existing ven- agreements of this type. ture capital system. The conclusion has been reached that business 3.6. Location and incubating actors initiatives are set up in incubators of science parks, technology parks and local governments. The location of business initiatives and the role of In each stage of development they receive in incubating actors (universities, science and tech- these incubators the physical and technological nology parks, local government incubators, etc.) resources necessary for their development. were analysed

14 WALLSTERN, 2001. 15 www.barcelonactiva.es

42 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PARKS AND UNIVERSITIES IN THE TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS INCUBATOR SYSTEM: A CONTRIBUTION BASED ON THE TRIPLE HELIX MODEL

4. The triple helix model (universi- The differences between the various configura- ty-industry-government tions of university-industry-government rela- relations) applied to technology tions are currently the object of regulatory de- business start-up bate. The Triple Helix I model has often been considered as a failed model of development. It Our model of the technology-based incubation left very little margin for the creation of business system in the framework of the regional innova- initiatives, so rather than fostering innovation it tion system is based on the triple helix model discouraged it. The Triple Helix II model has and on the results of the above study of the been associated with a laissez-faire policy Catalan system. It also incorporates the various somewhat like a shock therapy to reduce the actors that participate in the process: universi- role of the government in the earlier model. One ties, science and technology parks, the financial way or another, most countries and regions are system, the government (local, Catalan, Span- currently trying to achieve a total implementa- ish and European) and the market. tion of the Triple Helix III model.

One of the most important changes that must be made in higher education institutions lies in research policy.16 Successful knowledge-based The linear model only expressed in terms of economies must be led by science and tech- market pull or technology push is insufficient nology, and a key factor for achieving this is the contribution to innovation poles by universities. to induce knowledge and technology transfer. In order to achieve this, universities must be re- defined to allow them to return to their role as places of research and not simply educational institutions. The common aim is to be aware of the innovation of our environment. This consists in univer- The triple helix is a powerful mechanism that is sity spin-off companies, tri-lateral initiatives to rapidly expanding and becoming articulated promote knowledge based on economic devel- with other areas. According to its authors,17 the opment and on strategic alliances between Triple Helix III model is capable of generating an companies (large, small and medium-sized infrastructure of knowledge in which, as one companies specialised in different areas and can see in Figure 2, institutional spheres are su- with different levels of technology), research perimposed on each other. Each one takes the and technology transfer groups, university incu- role of the other, and hybrid organisations such bators and science parks. The aim of the insti- as science parks and university incubators tutional innovations is to promote closer rela- emerge in the interfaces. tions between universities and industry.

16 LARÉDO, 2002. 17 ETZKOWITZ and LEYDESDORFF , 2000.

43 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 ARTICLES

The linear model only expressed in terms of mar- ness start-up is proposed that brings together ket pull or technology push is insufficient to in- information from the various stages in the devel- duce knowledge and technology transfer. Publi- opment of a business initiative, including the ori- cations and patents represent part of the value gin and motivation of the initiative, the skills and chain of knowledge and technology transfer in experience of the team of entrepreneurs, the products that can be sold on the market. Stan- technology base and development, the develop- dards and regulations should be brought up to ment and maturing of the company, the location date and an interface strategy should be devel- of the company, and the financial base. oped to integrate market pull and technology push within the organisational structure. By means of this system, several roles can be assigned in the incubation process.

Figure 2 1. Competitions and awards for business initiatives The triple helix model and university-industry- government relations aimed at developing an enterprise culture and stimulating new business start-up. By universities, government and sponsoring companies. Tri-lateral network and hybrid 2. University enterprise and business manage- organisations ment programmes aimed at training and form- ing teams of entrepreneurs. By universities.

Industry 3. Statistics on the number of workers and turnover from the official registration of the company to the present. By universities, government and sponsoring companies.

4. The technology base for the development of Universities Public business initiatives with value on the market. administration Protection of intellectual property. Reports on technological feasibility and the state of the product. By universities and science parks.

5. The infrastructures and facilities needed to satisfy the changing needs of the technology platforms. By universities and science and technology parks. 5. A model for analysing technology business start-up within a re- 6. Investment programmes to satisfy the chang- gional innovation system ing financial needs of the companies. By a public-private venture capital system co-devel- Based on the triple helix (university-industry-gov- oped by universities, government and private ernment), a dynamic system of technology busi- financial institutions.

44 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PARKS AND UNIVERSITIES IN THE TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS INCUBATOR SYSTEM: A CONTRIBUTION BASED ON THE TRIPLE HELIX MODEL

As the three main actors (universities, industry There are several ways of transferring scientific and the government) develop their role in the knowledge to the market. Technology business triple helix, they also create new mixed struc- start-up incorporates new a model, in which tures that help to make the value chain of inno- universities, science and technology parks, in- vation more efficient. Science and technology cubators, the government and financial institu- parks that incorporate incubation models are a tions contribute to the growth and development clear example of this, as shown in Figure 3. of business initiatives.

The following subjects have been analysed in Figure 3 A model of analysis of technology business start-up this article: within a regional innovation system Universities as a source of technology-based knowledge. CONSOLIDATED COMPANIES Science and technology parks: innovation systems acting as mediation structures.

Trained and skilled entrepreneurs with good ac- FINANCING ademic and professional track records that de- LOCATION MARKETS cide to set up their own technology-based com- DEVELOPMENT CAPITAL panies. UNIVERSITIES TECNOLOGY MARKETS

COMPANIES ENTERPRISING CUSTOMERS MOTIVATION The degree of commitment of technology-based SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PARKS COMPANIES companies that, according to market needs, develop new concepts, new products, new production and/or commercial processes or univer- PUBLIC sity knowledge. ADMINISTRATION The various stages of financing. From the earliest to the most advanced.

The physical and logistic incubation of business 6. Conclusions initiatives carried out by university incubators and science and technology parks. Regional innovation systems maximise the contribution of the various actors in the value chain The role of the government as a promoter and of innovation. The entrepreneurial university is catalyst of the various actors and a financer of the first step in a chain that guides companies the earliest stages through suitable legislative towards the main sources of venture capital that measures, the creation of tax incentives and the will help them to finance their activities. protection of intellectual property.

45 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 ARTICLES

Consolidated companies that manage innovation Technology business start-up can be considered strategically by developing partnerships, incor- as an important factor for wealth creation in soci- porating new companies (spin-ins) and/or intro- ety. Regions that are able to take advantage of ducing new companies to the market (spin-outs). their internal enterprise spirit have an important source of endogenous assets for facing the challenges of economic globalisation from a position of leadership. A fundamental role is therefore played by entrepreneurs; by universities as facto- Technology business start-up incorporates ries of technological opportunities; by the gov- a model, in which universities, science and ernment through financial instruments and inno- technology parks, incubators, the govern- vation management; by business angels and venture capital funds as sources of finance; by ment and financial institutions contribute large companies that wish to incorporate and to the growth and development of business create new companies; and by science and tech- initiatives. nology parks as means of introduction, development, consolidation and possible leverage of technology-based business initiatives.

References

BELLAVISTA, J. et al. Los parques científicos y tecnológicos en el centro del sistema de innovación. Málaga: Apte Ed., 2003.

BOSCH, N. «El modelo catalán de apoyo a las empresas de base tecnológica: los trampolines tecnológicos». Iniciativa emprendedora. 41 (2003), pp. 89-101.

CASTELLS, M. and HALL, P. Technopoles of the World: The Making of 21st Century Industrial Complexes. London: Routledge, 1994. CIDEM (Centre d’Innovació i Desenvolupament Empresarial). Estudi Emprenedors 2003. Informe final. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya, 2003.

COOKE, P. «From technopoles to regional innovation systems: the evolution of localised technology development policy». Canadian Journal of Regional Science, 24 (2001), p. 1.

FORMICA, P. and SANZ, L. (eds.) Frontiers of entrepreneurship and innovation: readings in science park policies and practices. Málaga: IASP, 2003.

FORMICA, P. Innovating the Agents for Innovation. The Role of the Entrepreneurial Universities. IASP on line Bulletin. July 1998.

ETZKOWITZ, H. and LEYDESDORFF, L. «The dynamics of innovation: from National Systems and ‘Mode 2’ to a Triple Helix of university-industry-government relations». Research Policy, February 2000, Vol. 29, Nº 2, pp.109-123.

46 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PARKS AND UNIVERSITIES IN THE TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS INCUBATOR SYSTEM: A CONTRIBUTION BASED ON THE TRIPLE HELIX MODEL

ETZKOWITZ, H. «The Triple Helix: The Entrepreneurial University and the industrialization of Research». In FRÄNGSMYR, T. et al. Science and Industry in the 20th Century. Stockholm: Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 2002.

LARÉDO, P. «Six major challenges for public intervention in higher education, science, technology and innovation». Copenhagen: IV Triple Helix Conference, 2002.

RIBA, M. and L. LEYDESDORFF, «Why Catalonia cannot be considered as a Regional Innovation System». Scientometrics, Vol. 50, Nº 2, 2001.

PARK, S. Y. and L. WOOBAE, «Regional Innovation System Built by Local Agencies: An Alternative Model of Regional Development». Darwin, Austràlia: RAPI National Planning Congress, 1999.

WALLSTEN, S. «The Role of Government in Regional Technology Development: The Effects of Public Venture Capital and Science Parks.» Working Paper, March 2001.

47 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 ARTICLES

CIRIT. 25 YEARS

Fina Villar i López*

The Interdepartmental Research and Technological Innovation Commission (CIRIT), now the Interdepartmental Research and Technological Innovation Board, was created 25 years ago last November. Despite the obstacles encountered over this period of our history, particularly in the field of research and innovation, the CIRIT has shown an infrangible and determined will to lead a project for the future of Catalonia in this field that, if it was necessary at the time of its creation, is all the more so today, albeit for different reasons.

This paper gives an account of the key developments in the evolution of the institution and provides some of the most relevant data regarding this evolution.

It consists of five sections. The first, entitled «First steps», tells of how the institution was set up, the social context, the personalities involved, the organisational instruments, the goals set, and the first measures that were taken. The following section, «Key developments», highlights the episodes that had an important influence on the evolution of the institution.

The sections «New impetus» and «Four-year plans» set forth the main features of the activities carried out in two differentiated stages, including relevant data and measures.

* Fina Villar is a sectoral monitoring analyst at the Technical Bureau of the Department of Education and Universities.

48 CIRIT. 25 YEARS

Contents

1. Reflections 2. First steps 3. Key developments 4. New impetus 5. Four-year research plans

1. Reflections firsthand accounts (especially Anna Formiguera, Anna Llovet and Sílvia Coba), and also the pres- I must confess that it has been very gratifying for ent members of the CIRIT team. me to write this paper, as I have experienced a large part of the history of the CIRIT in person. I was rather surprised to discover that no history of 2. First steps this institution had been published, and I saw the fact as an opportunity. The Interdepartmental Research and Technologi- cal Innovation Commission (CIRIT) was created on However, it is no less true that this paper is in- 5 November 19801, by Decree 217/1980, with the tended as no more than an outline, and I think the support of the Institute of Catalan Studies, profes- effort should be made to gather together system- sional associations and also the main political par- atically and thoroughly all the documentation and ties. Article 9.7 of the 1979 Statute of Autonomy information that is still available, and above all to grants exclusive power over research to the Cata- take advantage of the opportunity provided by the lan government, without prejudice to the powers testimony of the actors in this part of the story that Article 149.1.15 of the Spanish Constitution with reference to coordination, planning and the grants to the Spanish government over the gener- promotion of research and innovation. al promotion and coordination of scientific and technological research. In this regard, I would like to thank those who worked at the CIRIT for their invaluable help, with The President of the Catalan government chaired both the supplying of documentation and their the CIRIT, and its first vice-president, appointed

1 DOGC (Official Journal of the Autonomous Goverment of Catalonia) No. 93, of 12/11/1980.

49 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 ARTICLES

by Decree 227/1980, was Gabriel Ferraté i Pas- science both in the times of the Mancomunitat cual2. It also had eight members (in representation and during the period of the Catalan government of the Departments of Education, Industry and in the 1930s, which took the form of, for example, Energy, Economy and Finance, Regional Policy the creation of the Institute of Catalan Studies and Public Works, Health and Social Security, (IEC). It also meant promoting research in technol- Trade and Tourism, Agriculture and Fisheries, and ogy in a situation of scarce raw materials and in- Employment), designated by their respective min- sufficient energy resources. isters, the director of the Catalan government's Central Institute of Statistics and Documentation, The inherited situation showed a loss on two and a secretary. counts. Traditionally central government had lent hardly any attention to the subject of research, a fact reflected in the percentage of the GDP invested in research, which at 0.3% stood as one of the The foundation of the CIRIT was the first step lowest in Europe. Furthermore, the situation was exacerbated by a serious shortage of resources towards promoting and establishing a research and perspectives that lacked definition. The sec- structure in Catalonia, and sought to bring ond issue was that the few resources that were together and coordinate the research work available tended to accumulate in Madrid, a serious problem for an industrialised country like Cat- of several institutions and departments. alonia awaiting entry into the EEC.

In this context, given the deficit that existed, the scheduled devolution of powers did not in itself of- The ceremony for the constitution of the Interde- fer a solution. The scarce resources had to be ad- partmental Research and Technological Innovation ministered better, and they had to be coordinated Commission (CIRIT) was held on 11 February together with the Spanish and international scien- 1981, with a speech by the President of the Cata- tific community. One of the objectives that were set lan government, the Rt. Hon. Jordi Pujol3. His was to lever investment by central government in speech highlighted the situation of science and research up to 1% of the GDP in five years. technology, and described the functions, lines of action and objectives of the CIRIT. He interpreted The foundation of the CIRIT was thus the first step science and technology as a part of culture, at the towards promoting and establishing a research same time recognising the need to face a profound structure in Catalonia, and sought to bring togeth- transformation of their economical and social er and coordinate the research work of several in- structures in order to adapt to a world in crisis. stitutions and departments.

The point of departure of the recovery of home The following are just some of the many measures rule first of all meant retrieving the work done for that the CIRIT planned to implement:

2 DOGC No. 95, of 19/11/1980. 3 Published in the periodical Ciència. «La Constitució de la Comissió Interdepartamental de Recerca i Innovació Tecnològica». Special edition 1981, No. 5/6.

50 CIRIT. 25 YEARS

– To bring the entire infrastructure then existing nity and research institutions, which was made pos- in Catalonia into a position in which it could sible through the Science and Technology Board, as work normally and effectively. provided for by Decree 217. Joan Oró i Florensa – To push for the scientific community to offer chaired this board initially, in accordance with De- decent working conditions for researchers, in cree 225/19804. The duties of the Board were: keeping with their responsibility, experience and professionalism. – To advise the Catalan government and provide – To devote special attention to the network of whatever recommendations or reports on sci- scientific institutions and that of ancillary ser- ence policy and research were requested of it vices such as libraries and databanks, docu- by the departments of the Catalan government. mentation centres and test and control labora- – To study Catalonia's scientific and technologi- tories, and to combat regional imbalance. cal goals and research priorities, according to the country's needs. The specific lines of action were as follows: – To assess scientific and technological activity and propose evaluation and selection criteria – To work in order to study and implement leg- for general research programmes. islative measures ensuring that research in the – To raise to the Interdepartmental Research world of production and services meets soci- and Technological Innovation Commission a ety's needs. project for the rational distribution of resources – To encourage cooperation between public re- dedicated to research in Catalonia. search institutions and the industrial and ser- – To serve as an informative body in relations vice sector, cooperative research, and the es- between the Spanish and Catalan govern- tablishing of potential priority sectors. ments on matters of scientific and technologi- – To harmonise the world of science and tech- cal research. nology and pursue a policy of decentralisation – To inform on cooperation agreements between in all spheres. the Catalan government and the universities, research centres and other public and private According to the decree whereby it was set up, institutions. the goal of the CIRIT was to coordinate all the af- – To study the relationship between research fected sectors in order to programme scientific and the economy, in order to establish the priorities, set evaluation criteria and foster re- most appropriate scientific methods leading to search, with a view to achieving beneficial results greater efficiency and economic promotion of in devising an appropriate science policy in Cat- fundamental and applied research. alonia, supporting scientific research in all its aspects, and encouraging technological research. The executive body of the Board was the Techni- cal Bureau for Research, which also acted as the In order to be able to fulfil its objectives, the Com- Secretariat of the CIRIT. It was organisationally mission was to be advised by the scientific commu- attached to the Department of Education.

4 Decree 225/1980, of 6 November 1980, (DOGC No. 94, of 14/11/1980).

51 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 ARTICLES

In turn, the Directorate-General of University Ed- was organisationally and functionally attached to ucation (DGEU) was created in accordance with the Department of the Presidency, and assumed Decree 232/19805 on the organisational struc- the duties until then performed by the Technical ture of the Department of Education. According Bureau for Research. Narcís Majó i Clavell was to Article 5 of this decree, the duties of the Di- appointed as its first secretary8. The necessary rectorate-General were: economic resources for its functioning were provided by the Department of the Presidency. – To plan and coordinate university teaching and research. The first measures taken by the CIRIT responded – To devise policies and action plans for teacher to its foundational goals, and thus supported retraining and retraining at all levels of education. search through the awarding of grants, although – To inspect and evaluate the whole of the uni- the method used in most cases did not involve versity system of Catalonia. public announcements. – All those duties derived from the exercise of the powers conferred on the Catalan govern- Some of these measures were taken on the initia- ment by Article 15 of the Statute of Autonomy, tive of the CIRIT, while in others the CIRIT acted in corresponding to the level of university educa- collaboration with other bodies. As the President tion, as powers were devolved from the Span- of the Catalan government had stated in his inau- ish to the Catalan government. gural speech, some of its most significant measures were aimed at ensuring that the existing in- Subsequently, in accordance with Decree frastructure allowed work to be carried out 282/19806 on the development of the organisation- normally and efficiently. Furthermore, it was impor- al structure of the Department of Education, the tant to push for the scientific community to have Universities Service and the Teacher Training and decent working conditions, and to devote special Retraining Service were set up within the DGEU, attention to ancillary services such as libraries. and at the same time the Technical Bureau for Re- search came under the DGEU as a third service. Among the measures aimed at fostering human resources, the following stand out for their contin- The Technical Bureau for Research was empow- ued relevance, as they are still in operation today, ered to establish and implement the research and for the promotional role they have played. promotion policies of the Department of Educa- tion, primarily in connection with research done Prizes for encouraging the scientific spirit in young at Catalan universities, and in this respect it people. These were first called in the 1981-1982 played a leading role, together with the CIRIT. academic year, with the intention of encouraging young people, together with their teachers, to The CIRIT Secretariat was created in 1981, by perform study and research. The aim was to bring Decree 476/19817, with the level of service. It young people closer to the world of science, not

5 Decree 232/1980 of 18 November 1980 (DOGC No. 96, of 26/11/1980). 6 Decree 282/1980 of 1 December 1980 (DOGC No. 101, of 17/12/1980). 7 Decree 476/1981 of 14 December 1981 (DOGC No. 193, of 22/01/1982). 8 Order of 15 March 1982 (DOGC No. 215, of 16/04/1982).

52 CIRIT. 25 YEARS

as mere spectators but as protagonists of a sci- Several different types of scholarships have been entific experience. As a result of the success of given in the intervening years, including scholar- that first edition, the CIRIT Prizes have continued ships for «third-cycle» or postgraduate research to be called every year, in 2006 reaching the 25th activities, postdoctoral scholarships, and scholar- edition. The value of the prizes has risen gradually ships for teaching and research staff. The length of over the years; they were and still are modest, al- the scholarship has also varied; as well as long- though this has done nothing to undermine their term scholarships, short-term ones have occa- popularity. Thus, the prizes for the best projects sionally been awarded. The format of the an- and the best schools, which stood at 25,000 and nouncements has sometimes been that of a single 30,000 pesetas respectively in 1982, now stand public announcement with different types of schol- at €500 and €2,000. arships, while on other occasions there have been a number of different announcements within the The requisites demanded of the projects that are same edition. More than 2,000 researchers have presented for the prizes have also remained con- benefited from this programme which has entailed stant throughout this period, as regards both purely total spending in excess of €12 million to date. formal matters (such as length) and content, as has the requisite of the use of the Catalan language, an important point at such an early stage as 1982. In the 1981-1982 academic year the Prizes for About 100 projects and schools have been encouraging the scientific spirit in young awarded prizes each year. Since the first edition people were first called. These prizes have more than 7,000 projects have been presented, of which more than 2,000, from over 250 schools, continued to be called every year, in 2006 have received a prize. reaching the 25th edition.

Over the years, the prizes have had the highest institutional recognition, through the participation of the highest authorities at the prize-giving ceremo- In the area of support for research infrastructures, ny. This has undoubtedly given it an added ap- in 1981 service improvement grants were offered peal, and has helped to reinforce the objective of for institutions with incomplete equipment or facil- the prizes: to nurture the scientific spirit in young ities due to lack of resources or insufficient infra- people. structure or management (DOGC No. 170, of 28 October 1981), with the aim of enabling them to Study abroad scholarships. These were created function normally and effectively. with the aim of promoting a researcher training plan designed to cover all areas of knowledge, in- In the field of devoting special attention to ancillary crease the depth of that knowledge and optimise services such as libraries, a competition was available resources while awaiting the correspond- called to establish collaboration agreements with ing devolution of services. The scholarships were science libraries to complete bibliographical col- first offered in 1981, and have continued to be lections. The purpose of this competition was to awarded until the present. help to narrow the gap in the necessary bibliogra-

53 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 ARTICLES

phy and scientific and technological documenta- new publication set out to be an information tion, and to make up for shortfalls in mechanisa- platform and the first vehicle for the populari- tion, depending on the provisions of the agree- sation of science in the Catalan language. It ments reached. was intended as a serious yet attractive and readable periodical, and as a mouthpiece for in- Among other measures taken on the CIRIT's own ternational scientific advances. A tribune for initiative, its research grants were paramount. In information and debate on the scientific and order to encourage scientific research, it was nec- technological problems facing our national essary to act on areas of interest for the develop- community and an effective tool in the process ment in Catalonia of science and technology in of the normalisation of Catalan as a language the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. In this for scientific expression and teaching at the way, grants were awarded for research projects service of the cultural reawakening of the by university graduates or collaborators linked to country. Catalonia and engaged in a specific task of inter- – White paper on research in Catalonia. An initia- est for the scientific and technological develop- tive of the Institute of Catalan Studies, with ment of Catalonia. which the CIRIT signed an agreement. The objective was to gain an in-depth picture of the Grants were also given for scientific meetings and human and material resources existing in Cat- congresses. Subsequently, in 1984,9 a procedure alonia in the field of R&D, by taking a census of was established for applying for these grants by researchers. means of a public announcement.

The CIRIT had the possibility of acting through pri- 3. Key developments ority research lines. Specifically, the following lines were defined: genetic engineering and biotechnol- In the course of these first years of life, the CIRIT ogy, microelectronics, and the integrated study of worked to ensure that the infrastructure then ex- ecosystems. isting in Catalonia was in a position to function normally and effectively, to improve the opportuni- Simultaneously the CIRIT started up a line of col- ties of the scientific community in keeping with laboration with other institutions in order to pro- their responsibility and experience, and to devote mote their initiatives. The following are some of special attention to the network of scientific insti- the most important: tutions and ancillary services.

– Specialist courses organised by the Institute of As a consequence of the awarding of the various Catalan Studies and given by scientists living grants and scholarships, this work had caused a abroad. considerable increase in the budget. By 1982 the – Support for the journal Ciència. This journal CIRIT had multiplied its 1980 budget fivefold, from was first issued in the period 1926-1933. The 50 to 250 million pesetas.

9 DOGC No. 423, of 6/04/1984.

54 CIRIT. 25 YEARS

Following the lines of action initially laid down, and General Coordination of Scientific and Tech- and with the intention of setting forth a general nological Research. framework, Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) promoted a private bill in 1983 which was pre- The Catalan government appealed against this sented by all the parliamentary groups and fol- law on the grounds of unconstitutionality, alleging lowed up by the Bureau of the Parliament. that it did not provide for neither the correct distribution of powers nor the coordination of their ex- The aim of the law was to establish the conditions ercise, and furthermore that, with regard to those enabling efficient, quality scientific and technologi- bodies created under preconstitutional legislation, cal research to take root in Catalonia, taking this it did not establish their adaptation to the struc- research as a creative process and an instrument ture of the State of autonomous communities. at the service of the progress of society. The law The appeal was dismissed in 1992. also sought to provide research policy with the human and financial means to achieve an increase in knowledge and to evaluate and apply the results obtained; an increase in industrial, The initiative for promoting a catalan re- health, agricultural and service potential; and the search and innovation bill in 1983 was cut dissemination of scientific and technological information. Lastly, it also aspired to encourage the short by the subsequent passing by the Spa- spirit of research and technological innovation in nish parliament of Law 13/1986, of 14 April 1986, all citizens, and to enable them to participate, on the Promotion and General Coordination each according to his or her ability, in the development and dissemination of scientific and techno- of Scientific and Technological Research. logical culture.

According to the provisions of the 1983 research and technological innovation bill, the CIRIT was to In this context, the Institute for Food and Agricul- be the government body responsible for drafting tural Research and Technology (IRTA) was created and planning scientific and technological innova- in 1985, by Law 23/1985.10 The Institute took the tion policy and its budget, coordinating the reform of a public body and its objectives were to search measures taken by the various depart- promote technological research and innovation in ments of the Catalan government, and performing the agri-food sphere, and to facilitate both the the primary coordination of all scientific activity rapid and effective transfer of its technological ad- carried out in Catalonia. vances and also the coordination and collaboration of the public and private sectors in these ar- However, this initiative was cut short by the sub- eas, including the mobilisation and stimulation of sequent passing by the Spanish parliament of public and private investment and the furtherance Law 13/1986, of 14 April 1986, on the Promotion of technological improvement. Its work complied

10 Law 23/1985 of 28 November 1985 (DOGC No. 621, of 4/12/1985).

55 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 ARTICLES

with the principle of non-discrimination against the universities as a whole were the bodies responsi- private sector by the public sector. ble for executing research, subject to the promotion and coordination of the central government. Nevertheless, the devolution of powers ceased after the completion of those necessary for the cre- The science policies of the Catalan universities ation of the IRTA, and thus the research centres of and the Department of Education coincided for the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) the most part, with the exception of the powers were not devolved. invested in the Catalan government for laying down guidelines. The universities set forth in their Specifically, in the university sphere, Organic Law statutes, implicitly or explicitly, the main program- 11/1983 on University Reform (LRU)11 stated in its matic points of their science policy, which dealt second final provision that those autonomous with the fundamental need to increase human, communities that acceded to autonomy via Article material and financial resources for research. 143 of the Spanish Constitution would assume the powers provided by this law in the periods From a general perspective, the Department of fixed by their statutes of autonomy. Education (more specifically, the Directorate-Gen- eral of University Education) sought through its research development and promotion programme to advance in the following lines of action: The devolution of powers ceased after the completion of those necessary for the crea- – To achieve more decision-making power in the tion of the IRTA, and thus the research centres orientation of science policy in Catalonia. – To provide support for the strategic coordina- of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research tion and planning of university research. (CSIC) were not devolved. – To promote priority lines and centres of excellence within universities. – To continue the policy of creating and assisting common research support services and work- The passing of the LRU paved the way for the shops. devolution of the universities, by means of Royal – To assist in the evaluation of the results of uni- Decree 305/1985,12 of 6 February 1985 and with versity research. effect as of 1 February. Decree 83/1985 allocat- – To foster relations between university and society ed the devolved services to the Department of – To provide support for training and retraining Education. programmes and scientific exchanges for researchers. However, the universities were only fully devolved – To gain insight into the reality and needs of with regard to their teaching activity, as the immi- university research and to encourage partici- nent Science Law was to establish that Spain's pation in the programmes and projects of the

11 BOE (official Spanish government bulletin) No. 209, of 1/09/1983. 12 DOGC No. 522, of 20/03/1985.

56 CIRIT. 25 YEARS

European Economic Community. Considering the state of affairs described above, – To deal with the repercussions of the develop- the CIRIT decided to base its activity on two main ment of the new Law for the Promotion and aspects: General Coordination of Scientific and Techno- logical Research. – Complementary action aimed at promoting the country's scientific activity and technological research. 4. New impetus – Emphasis on those aspects of scientific and technological activity that central government In spite of the circumstances mentioned in the policies did not take into account and yet was section above, the initiatives that the CIRIT had of relative importance in Catalonia. developed from its creation up until that moment had enabled it to make its presence felt in all the After the turning point represented by the year areas that made up the Catalan scientific and 1984, in 1985 the CIRIT was given new impetus: technological fabric. Its activities, together with it was raised to the rank of directorate-general by those of the Directorate-General of Universities, Decree 365/1985, of 13 December 1985, on the rendered these two bodies the main public fun- reorganisation of the CIRIT.13 Its budget was back ders of scientific research in Catalonia. in keeping with the initial trend.

In 1984 the steep rise in the CIRIT budget In order for the CIRIT to be able to carry out its –which in three years had grown tenfold– was in- tasks more effectively and efficiently, it was as- terrupted. The resources for executing science signed, as a body with decision-making powers, policy in Catalonia had not been transferred, and responsibility for defining, in accordance with furthermore, as a result of a deficient funding Catalan government guidelines, the appropriate system for the autonomous communities, the fi- science policy for Catalonia, and for supporting nancial situation of the Catalan government was and promoting research and technological innova- difficult. tion. According to these principles it was the duty of the CIRIT: The scenario was entirely different from that initially envisaged, and required a new approach to – To establish the general lines of action regarding CIRIT activity. research and technological innovation in Cat- alonia. This marked the beginning of a long period, which – To coordinate the various activities and pro- opened with some disquiet and uncertainty but grammes of the departments of the Catalan eventually recovered an upward trend and culmi- government in the field of scientific research nated in the creation of the Universities and Re- and technological innovation. search Commission in 1992. During these years, – To represent the Catalan government in the cor- the CIRIT underwent some far-reaching changes. responding general functions, with regard to

13 Decree 365/1985 of 13 December 1985 (DOGC No. 631, of 31/12/1985).

57 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 ARTICLES

science and technological innovation policy. in getting its Fine Chemicals Programme14 accept- – To draft an annual proposal for CIRIT expenses ed as being of interest for the National Scientific and reach an agreement on their distribution. and Technological Research Plan, out of the 10 – To make a proposal for the distribution of represented by Catalonia through the CIRIT and the sources destined for the performance and pro- 16 presented by the totality of Spain's au- motion of research and technological innovation tonomous communities. in Catalonia. The announcement for the Fine Chemicals Pro- It was therefore the responsibility of the CIRIT not gramme was published in 198915 and entailed only to coordinate Catalonia's science policy but funding for projects worth 2,633 million pesetas also to undertake all the necessary coordination over a total period of seven years, as shown in with the science and technology policy of the Table 1. Spanish government, in accordance with the principles and regulations of the Law for the Promo- In 1986, in order to improve its funding, the CIRIT tion and General Coordination of Scientific and Secretariat underwent internal restructuring, Technological Research. through Decree 141/198616, and new initiatives continued to be promoted. Specifically, in 1987, despite limitations in the application of Article 6.2.c) of the aforementioned One of the most significant of these initiatives was Law 13/1986 on the Promotion and General Co- the creation of the Biotechnology Agency of Cat- ordination of Scientific and Technological Re- alonia, by Decree 140/1986, as a body attached search, Catalonia succeeded, through the CIRIT, to the Department of the Presidency and grouped

Table 1 Figures for the Fine Chemicals Programme Year Action 1* Action 2** Requested Awarded Requested Awarded Applications Funding Applications Funding Applications Funding Applications Funding

1989 32 468,505,635 17 170,250,000 11 360,895,000 3 35,606,097 1990 19 233,122,297 15 139,100,000 4 94,000,000 3 47,800,000 1991 42 933,854,188 27 682,451,000 2 72,500,000 2 71,200,000 1992 63 1,011,555,671 26 340,000,000 3 86,900,000 1 31,200,000 1993 79 1,315,206,338 43 327,987,000 6 175,700,000 4 112,700,000 1994 70 696,216,832 32 186,377,000 5 158,900,000 1 28,000,000 1995 72 988,167,944 41 362,636,000 4 130,500,000 3 98,000,000 Total 377 5,646,628,905 201 2,208,801,000 35 1,079,395,000 17 424,506,097 * Research, infrastructure and special action projects. ** Concerted projects.

14 BOE No. 167, of 14/07/1989. 15 DOGC No. 1171, of 21/07/1989. 16 Decree 141/1986 (DOGC No. 692, of 30/05/1986).

58 CIRIT. 25 YEARS

within the CIRIT Secretariat. Its purpose was to It is important to stress the effort that was being promote development and technology transfer made by the Directorate-General of Universities aimed at obtaining products and services. For of the Department of Education, through its this reason, it was intended to assist the activity Technical Bureau, to back research in universi- of Catalonia's research teams working in the field ties, especially after 1985, when they were de- of biotechnology, through the promotion of basic volved. However, in 1986 the impact was felt of research infrastructure, support services, pro- the passing of the Spanish Law for the Promo- grammes and projects, and the promotion of tion and General Coordination of Scientific and training in biotechnology. Technological Research. A clear recovery could be seen in 1987, 1988 and 1989, through meas- The Agency also sought to promote the devel- ures in coordination with the CIRIT Secretariat opment of biological techniques by encouraging together with other new initiatives that were to their application and use. Its activities were car- have a strong influence from that time on, such ried out either on its own or in collaboration with as the calls for research training, research infra- research centres, enterprises, bodies and insti- structure and highly qualified staff at the Catalan tutions by means of the corresponding agree- public universities. ments. The evolution of the budget of the Technical Bu- Another of the new initiatives was the creation of reau can be seen in Graph 1 below. the International Centre for Numerical Methods in Engineering Consortium, by Decree 150/1987. It As mentioned above, the Technical Bureau for Re- was formed by the CIRIT and the Technical Uni- search was set up in 1980, and acted as the ex- versity of Catalonia (UPC) with the aim of provid- ecutive body of the CIRIT Secretariat and the Sci- ing support for this activity and incorporating the ence and Technology Board until the CIRIT centre into the international network of centres of Secretariat itself was created in 1981. In 1982 the excellence for computer applications in engineer- Bureau began to carry out university research pro- ing (INCCA). motion work, and continued to do so until 1992, when it became part of the Directorate-General In 1988, Decree 14417 attached the CIRIT Secre- for Research as a result of the creation of the Uni- tariat to the Department of Education, and it was versities and Research Commission. In 1994 it chaired by the Catalan Minister of Education. The came under the vice-presidency of the CIRIT, and secretary was to have a rank equivalent to that of began to perform study, advisory and technical a deputy director-general. and administrative support functions for the Ple- nary Session and the Delegate Committee. Heribert Barrera replaced Gabriel Ferraté as vice- president,18 and in turn Artur Bladé replaced Nar- The Bureau's efforts in these areas coincided with cís Majó as secretary.19 a particularly interesting period, before the deploy-

17 Decree 144/1988 of 5 July 1988 (DOGC No. 1015, of 8/07/1988). 18 Decree 350/1988, of 1 December 1988 (DOGC No. 1801, of 14/12/1988). 19 Order of 4 January 1989 (DOGC No. 1095, of 20 /01/1989).

59 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 ARTICLES

Graph 1 Budget of the Technical Bureau for Research in the period 1982-1989*

Millions 700

600

500

400

300

200

100

0 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 19871988 1989

Technical Bureau budget according to annual reports. In pesetas.

* Data taken from the annual reports of the Technical Bureau for Research. ment of the public university system; work was As of that moment, the functions of the CIRIT were: well under way towards the creation of Pompeu Fabra and Rovira i Virgili Universities and the Uni- – To plan, coordinate and evaluate activities in the versities of Girona and Lleida, all soon to become field of research and technological innovation in a reality. Specifically: Catalonia. – To draft a proposal for the Four-Year Research – Pompeu Fabra University, by Law 11/1990.20 Plan, defining the objectives and strategic lines – University of Lleida, by Law 34/1991.21 for the development of research in Catalonia. – University of Girona, by Law 35/1991.22 – To represent the Catalan government in the – Rovira i Virgili University, by Law 36/1991.23 corresponding functions with regard to science and technological innovation policy, es- An important step was taken in 1991 towards co- pecially before the Spanish administration and ordinating research and reorganising the CIRIT, by regional and international administrations. means of Decree 195/1991,24 of 16 September. – All those other functions expressly assigned to

20 Law 11/1990 (DOGC No. 1308, of 22/06/1990). 21 Law 34/1991 (DOGC No. 1541, of 15/01/1992). 22 Law 35/1991 (DOGC No. 1541, of 15/01/1992). 23 Law 36/1991 (DOGC No. 1541, of 15/01/1992). 24 Decree 195/1991, of 16 September (DOGC No. 1504, of 11/11/1991).

60 CIRIT. 25 YEARS

it by the Catalan government, on the basis of lan government and under the orders of the head its objectives. of the department to which it belonged.

The study, advisory and technical and administra- The following bodies depended on the Commis- tive support functions performed for the Plenary sion: Universities and Research Management, the Session and the Delegate Committee were in the Directorate-General of Universities and the Direc- hands of a consultancy depending directly on torate-General for Research. the vice-president of the CIRIT. The CIRIT determined the personnel and equipment needed for the functioning of this consultancy and could request temporary transfers of technical staff specialising in In the the year 1992, the functions of general research and technological innovation manage- planning, coordination and funding were as- ment from other departments to the Bureau, in an sumed by the CIRIT, whereas the management evaluative and advisory role. functions were the responsibility of the de- The functions of general planning, coordination partments involved in the activities concerned, and funding were assumed by the CIRIT, which and those of general research promotion was to avail itself of the appropriate instruments of consultation, evaluation and study of R&D ac- belonged to the newly created Universities tivities in Catalonia, whereas the management and Research Commission. functions were the responsibility of the departments involved in the activities concerned, and those of general research promotion belonged to a new body. It was the responsibility of the Directorate-Gen- eral for Research to execute the powers of the It was in this context that Decree 31825 created Catalan government in the following fields: gen- the Universities and Research Commission and eral research promotion; the promotion of the regulated the organisation and distribution of creation of scientific and technological research functions with regard to universities and research. centres; the promotion of the participation of the Catalan universities in the research and training The universities and research powers until then in programmes of the European Economic Com- the hands of the Department of Education were munity; the fostering of scientific and academic assumed by the Department of the Presidency. relations between institutions within Catalonia The newly created Universities and Research and elsewhere in the world; promotion and sup- Commission, dependent on the Department of port for enterprise-university relations; support the Presidency, took charge of the management, for the Interuniversity Council of Catalonia in the planning and execution of powers in this area, in sphere of scientific and technological research; accordance with the guidelines set by the Cata- the compilation of reports on proposals for the

25 Decree 318/1993 (DOGC No. 1690, of 4/01/1993).

61 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 ARTICLES

creation or abolition of university institutes; the The Biotechnology Agency of Catalonia (ABC), creat- drafting of projects for regulations in the areas ed by Decree 140/1986, of 10 May 198626, came to under its responsibility; the performance of depend directly on the Director-General for Research. those functions assigned to it by the Research Plan passed by the Catalan government; and The CIRIT budget was to be allotted by itemised collaboration and coordination with the CIRIT appropriation in the budget section corresponding and other Catalan government bodies con- to the Department of the Presidency. cerned with the promotion and performance of research in Catalonia. The creation of the Commission coincided with the dismissal of the appeal filed against the Law The Deputy Directorate-General for Research and for the Promotion and General Coordination of the Technical Bureau for Research, both of which Scientific and Technological Research on the depended until then on the Directorate-General of grounds of unconstitutionality. Universities of the Department of Education, came to be attached structurally and functionally to the Graph 2 shows the evolution of the CIRIT budget Department of the Presidency and to depend on as published in the Diari Oficial de la Generalitat the Directorate-General for Research. de Catalunya (DOGC).

Graph 2 CIRIT budget as published in the DOGC for the period 1981-1998*

4,000

3,500

3,000

2,500

2,000

1,500

1,000

500

0 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 19891990 1991 1992 1993 19941995 1996 1997 1998

CIRIT budget as published (pesetas.)

* In 1980 the allocation increased by 21M pesetas. In 1999 the budgets of the CIRIT and the DGR were unified.

26 Decree 140/1986 of 10 May 1986 (DOGC No. 735, of 3/09/1986).

62 CIRIT. 25 YEARS

From its creation until 1983, the CIRIT multiplied ed and validated some of the main programmes its budget tenfold in the expectation of being able from this period. to assume the transfers that had been scheduled. By 1984 the difficult financial situation due to the It was now necessary to reinforce its structure and lack of effective transfers had become evident. develop planning, coordination and representation Later on, in 1987 and 1988, the economic effect activities. The restructuring undertaken in this pe- of the passing of Law 13/1986 took its toll. riod was along these lines, and its positive results speak for themselves. From that moment on, a manifest and determined effort was made, as can be seen by the increase in From this time on, in accordance with the new ap- the budget, especially noticeable in the period proach, the CIRIT was to focus much of its effort on 1988-1995, which coincided with some regulations preparing and implementing the successive re- and measures that we mentioned in the previous search plans that were intended as the main instru- section and the reader should be aware of here. ment to strengthen the general research and development policy of the Catalan government. The Specifically, we are referring to Decree 195/1991, research plans were conceived as an integrating which reoriented and focused the functions of the and coordinating element for R&D activities, espe- CIRIT, and Decree 318/1992, which set up the Co- cially in the public sector, and at the same time a mmission that entrusted the management tasks stimulus for complementary activities promoting involved in research promotion to the Directorate- special interest sectors and increasing and optimis- General for Research. These regulations meant ing resources to the full in other sectors. that the CIRIT budget, and also that managed by the Technical Bureau for Research for the promotion of university research, came to form part of the newly created body. The research plans were conceived as an integrating and coordinating element for R&D However, on this point it can be very enlightening to analyse the promotion activity that the CIRIT activities, especially in the public sector, and carried out from its beginnings until 1992. Table 2 at the same time a stimulus for complemen- shows the various announcements that were tary activities promoting special interest sec- made for grants and scholarships. tors and increasing and optimising resources to the full in other sectors. 5. Four-year research plans

The CIRIT had got the message sent by the new political situation: it was no longer enough to pur- The objective of the 1993-1996 Research Plan, sue the basic promotion policy that it had been passed in 1993, was to carry on with the activi- developing on all fronts, despite its unquestion- ties that were already under way, aimed at giving able importance, later to be acknowledged in the structure for the Catalan science and technology evaluation of the 1st Research Plan, which inherit- system.

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Table 2 Grants and scholarships managed by the CIRIT in the period 1981-1992* 1981 1982 1983 1984 Awards Amount Awards Amount Awards Amount Awards Amount Study abroad scholarships 12 9,588,000 33 27,037,939 53 48,549,000 69 64,107,000 Grants for scientific and technical cooperation with European regions (AIRE) ------Stays abroad --80 11,998,000 186 30,804,000 142 31,223,000 Research grants 151 19,538,690 247 64,018,923 220 78,602,000 Grants for congresses 8 900,000 9 2,707,000 27 7,669,920 43 14,336,040 Grants at county level --7 5,250,000 7 5,000,000 8 6,000,000 Agricultural research scholarships ------19 3,910,000 Graduate scholarships for research at public centres (for companies) ------Graduate scholarships in suport of R&D departments of SMEs in Catalonia ------Scholarships for industrial supervisors and specialist technicians ------23 9,660,000 Technological Innovation --4 40,000,000 6 44,100,000 5 12,576,583 Grants for sociolinguistic projects ------Ferran Soldevila grants ------Grants for research on the media and phenomena of mass communication ------Grants for preparing European projects ------Grants to university departments for scientific journals ------Grants for research on the European Communities ------Grants for projects on Catalan terminology ------Specialisation scholarships for doctoral researchers ------14 14,280,000 Grants for studies on the labour market ------Travel grants for participation in conferences, congresses, meetings and symposia on science, the humanities and technology ------Grants for projects for introductin to research (CIRIT budget) ------Fine Chemistry grants ------Fine Chemistry predoctoral scholarships ------Institutionals grants 15 30,000,000 --99 127,294,000 15 70,853,783 Priority lines -- 14 41,400,000 ---- Bibliographical collections 13 6,584,257 30 12,654,000 63 27,648,000 12 11,203,710 Encounters with Science --- 7 7,000,000 29 10,956,761 Youth Prizes --100 2,600,000 100 2,600,000 100 3,000,000 CIRIT courses 18 3,000,000 9 5,000,000 13 5,000,000 10 5,000,000 CIDC Prizes ------Stays in Quebec ------Other action ------«Ciència» journal 1 1,976,250 1 3,000,000 11 3,675,000 11 3,553,500 White Paper --1 1,500,000 1 2,500,000 1 4,000,000 Publications ----6 3,776,573 20 13,431,168 Total 218 71,587,197 535 217,165,862 799 394,218,493 521 278,091,545 * Data taken from CIRIT documentation and archives in combination with DOGC publications.

64 CIRIT. 25 YEARS

Table 2 Grants and scholarships managed by the CIRIT in the period 1981-1992* 1985 1986 1987 1988 Awards Amount Awards Amount Awards Amount Awards Amount

Study abroad scholarships 61 59,140,344 77 65,856,000 70 59,416,000 65 58,521,000 Grants for scientific and technical cooperation with European regions (AIRE) ------Stays abroad 181 34,239,000 170 35,446,000 131 29,805,500 174 42,408,000 Research grants 237 80,288,000 234 69,787,000 220 70,315,000 229 76,529,000 Grants for congresses 54 12,762,535 73 17,545,048 49 17,407,746 13 4,750,000 Grants at county level 6 3,000,000 11 4,200,000 10 5,000,000 1 762,00 Agricultural research scholarships ------Graduate scholarships for research at ------public centres (for companies) ------Graduate scholarships in suport of R&D departments of SMEs in Catalonia - - - - 40 28,800,000 43 30,960,000 Scholarships for industrial supervisors and specialist technicians 27 11,340,000 40 16,440,000 61 25,620,000 95 27,000,000 Technological Innovation 4 26,950,000 8 30,000,000 13 47,247,200 7 40,637,785 Grants for sociolinguistic projects 10 3,000,000 12 3,500,000 - - - - Ferran Soldevila grants ------Grants for research on the media and phenomena of mass communication ------6 1,775,000 Grants for preparing European projects ------Grants to university departments for scientific journals ------Grants for research on the European Communities - - - - 14 3,105,000 4 1,500,000 Grants for projects on Catalan terminology 11 4,889,000 22 7,096,000 10 3,288,000 9 3,000,000 Specialisation scholarships for doctoral researchers 11 10,850,076 ------Grants for studies on the labour market - - - - 4 1,600,000 4 1,600,000 Travel grants for participation in conferences, congresses, meetings and symposia on science, the humanities and technology ------Grants for projects for introductin to research (CIRIT budget) ------Fine Chemistry grants ------Fine Chemistry predoctoral scholarships ------Institutionals grants 10 41,190,695 ------Priority lines 5 4,845,000 ------Bibliographical collections ------Encounters with Science 31 16,794,701 15 8,092,924 14 8,456,208 14 12,420,766 Youth Prizes 100 3,000,000 100 3,000,000 100 4,000,000 80 5,400,000 CIRIT courses 24 6,000,000 23 5,000,000 32 6,772,093 29 7,600,000 CIDC Prizes 1 202,011 ------Stays in Quebec 3 750,000 2 500,000 5 1,250,000 Other action ------«Ciència» journal 5 2,757,500 8 2,097,804 25 4,448,884 12 2,478,404 White Paper ------Publications 9 6,007,807 12 8,865,070 11 8,748,913 8 5,816,968 Total 787 327,256,669 808 277,675,846 806 324,530,544 798 324,408,923 * Data taken from CIRIT documentation and archives in combination with DOGC publications.

65 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 ARTICLES

Table 2 Grants and scholarships managed by the CIRIT in the period 1981-1992* 1989 1990 1991 1992 Awards Amount Awards Amount Awards Amount Awards Amount Study abroad scholarships 68 65,000,000 63 70,000,000 91 128,487,000 99 187,839,000 Grants for scientific and technical cooperation with European regions (AIRE) 45 13,258,200 36 14,911,000 54 35,634,000 135 14,862,000 Stays abroad 181 47,802,000 158 45,665,000 166 63,161,000 165 74,982,000 Research grants 200 80,000,000 172 79,550,000 213 108,540,000 - - Grants for congresses 117 30,000,000 119 30,000,000 134 35,000,000 155 40,000,000 Grants at county level - - - - 18 7,280,000 32 10,000,000 Agricultural research scholarships ------Graduate scholarships for research at public centres (for companies) 25 31,500,000 13 10,920,000 10 4,800,000 16 9,120,000 Graduate scholarships in suport of R&D departments of SMEs in Catalonia 27 19,440,000 24 21,640,000 15 14,400,000 16 18,240,000 Scholarships for industrial supervisors and specialist technicians 40 12,000,000 44 15,840,000 47 27,620,000 70 43,200,000 Technological Innovation 3 21,700,000 13 30,530,000 16 29,615,000 45 135,400,000 Grants for sociolinguistic projects ------Ferran Soldevila grants ------Grants for research on the media and phenomena of mass communication 6 1,620,000 8 1,800,000 8 1,800,000 7 2,000,000 Grants for preparing European projects 7 1,542,145 10 2,005,000 - - - - Grants to university departments for scientific journals 24 925,615 20 1,173,898 - - - - Grants for research on the European Communities 11 2,730,000 ------Grants for projects on Catalan terminology 10 10,000,000 ------Specialisation scholarships for doctoral researchers 5 8,100,000 11 19,800,000 15 27,200,000 17 32,640,000 Grants for studies on the labour market - - - - 3 1,500,000 - - Travel grants for participation in conferences, congresses, meetings and symposia on science, the humanities and technology 95 2,903,500 226 7,160,000 178 12,216,000 - - Grants for projects for introductin to research (CIRIT budget) - - 184 80,000,000 205 108,540,000 - - Fine Chemistry grants 21 166,700,000 - 179,050,000 - - - - Fine Chemistry predoctoral scholarships ------25 25,125,000 Institutionals grants ------Priority lines ------Bibliographical collections ------Encounters with Science 12 10,761,867 - 15,000,000 - - - - Youth Prizes 95 6,450,000 95 7,000,000 95 6,000,000 90 6,700,000 CIRIT courses 44 7,703,216 8,535,900 25 6,443,900 21 5,742,505 CIDC Prizes) ------Stays in Quebec ------Other action - - - - 33 298,000,000 - - «Ciència» journal ------White Paper 1 4,807,661 ------Publications 6 5,022,119 - 7,732,128 - - - - Total 1043 549,966,323 1196 648,312,926 1326 916,236,900 893 605,850,505 * Data taken from CIRIT documentation and archives in combination with DOGC publications.

66 CIRIT. 25 YEARS

However, other elements for the advancement of researchers was still below the European average, R&D were also put into operation, including the and it was important to maintain and increase creation of a network of reference centres for re- pressure in this direction. The Mobility Programme search made up of the Biotechnology Reference was also assessed satisfactorily, as it was regard- Centre,27 the Food Technology Reference Centre,28 ed as having contributed positively to the interna- the Reference Centre for Research and Develop- tionalisation of research. Likewise, it was found ment in Language Engineering29 and the Catalan that the Infrastructure Programme had been im- Government Reference Centre for Research and portant for the scientific development of Catalonia. Development in Advanced Production Technolo- Lastly, the Fine Chemicals Programme, promoted gy30, as an instrument of coordination. and managed by the CIRIT, was judged to have been highly positive both for the university and Another of these dynamising elements was the company research groups and for the participation launching, through public announcements, of the- of the Catalan government, through the CIRIT. matic networks31 and research groups.32 A committee was also set up to promote a synchrotron laboratory in Catalonia, as one of the priority lines included in the Plan. During the year 1993, appart from the research plans, other elements for the advancement of The 1st Plan and those that succeeded it were R&D were also put into operation, including evaluated by CIRIT support bodies, namely the Advisory and Monitoring Committee33 and the Sci- the creation of a network of reference centres ence and Technology Evaluation Board. for research, the launching, through public announcements, of thematic networks and re- The evaluation of the 1st Plan focused on the Pre- doctoral Scholarships Programme (FI), the Mobili- search groups or the creation of a committee to ty Programme, the Infrastructure Programme and promote a synchrotron laboratory in Catalonia. the Fine Chemicals Programme.

With regard to the first of these programmes, it was considered that it had satisfactorily fulfilled its In 1994, Decree 203,34 on research coordination researcher training objectives, by encouraging the and the reorganisation of the CIRIT, restructured production of doctoral theses, and that it had also the Technical Bureau for Research, which came to been very positive in providing support for re- depend directly on the vice-president of the CIRIT, search in Catalonia. Nevertheless, the number of under the orders of the CIRIT secretary, in order to

27 Government Accord of 26 July 1994 (DOGC No. 1969, of 7/11/1994). 28 Government Accord of 16 November 1994. 29 Government Accord of 5 July 1996 (DOGC No. 2237, of 31/07/1996). 30 Government Accord of 5 July 1996 (DOGC No. 2237, of 31/07/1996). 31 Resolution of 6 April (DOGC No. 1885, of 18/04/2006). 32 Resolution of 5 November 1993 (DOGC No. 1821, of 15/11/1993). 33 Order of 8 August 2001 (DOGC No. 3477, of 20/09/2001). 34 Of 26 July 1994 (DOGC No. 1930, of 5/08/1994).

67 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 ARTICLES

perform study, advisory and technical and admin- In 1997, a Government Accord was made public istrative support functions for the Plenary Session whereby the 2nd Research Plan for Catalonia and the Delegate Committee. It depended organi- (1997-2000) was passed. Its aim was to consoli- sationally on the Department of the Presidency date the model initiated by the 1st Plan and the and was attached to the Universities and Re- structure of the system, with special emphasis search Commission. The CIRIT could request on the transfer and use of scientific and techno- temporary transfers of technical staff specialising logical knowledge. Although it yielded positive re- in research and technological innovation manage- sults, the Plan suffered the economic restrictions ment from other departments to the Bureau, in an imposed by the need to meet the conditions of evaluative and advisory role. European convergence and participation in the euro zone. The basic functions of the Technical Bureau for Research were as follows: In the year 2000, through Decrees 12335 and 127,36 the Department of Universities, Research and the Information Society (DURSI) was created and structured. Its president was the President of In the year 2000, the Department of Universi- the Catalan government, the vice-president was ties, Research and the Information Society the minister responsible for the DURSI, and the (DURSI) was created and structured. head of the CIRIT, a post occupied by Antoni Oli- va,37 came to have the organisational rank of director-general. In turn, the Technical Bureau for Research came to depend on the Directorate- – To lend study, advisory and technical and admin- General for Research, and its functions were: istrative support services to the CIRIT, both in relation to the exercising of the functions entrusted – To assist the director-general and the CIRIT in to the CIRIT by the Catalan government and in re- the drafting of the Research Plan for Catalonia. lation to the development of the Research Plan. – To lend study, advisory and technical and ad- – To prepare the annual report on the Plan. ministrative support services to the CIRIT and – To prepare reports on the suitability of new pro- the director-general. posals for the Research Plan. – To provide support for the director-general and – To coordinate the management of Research the CIRIT in the evaluation and monitoring of Plan activities and the various agents that take measures taken in connection with research. part in their development. A Government Accord was made in 2001 that In this way, the Technical Bureau for Research re- passed the 3rd Research Plan of Catalonia (2001- covered its original link with the CIRIT, in spite of 2004). The Plan focused on the European Re- the change in functions. search Area and the specific goals of improving

35 Decree 123/2000, of 3 April (DOGC No. 3112, of 3/04/2000. 36 Decree 127/2000, of 3 April (DOGC No. 3113, of 4/04/2000). 37 Decree 255/2000, of 24 July (DOGC No. 3200, of 8/08/2000).

68 CIRIT. 25 YEARS

the organisation and coordination of the R&D pro- With the restructuring of the DURSI in 2004, by grammes of the Member States, increasing the Decree 313/2004,38 the Interdepartmental Re- mobility of human resources, planning major facili- search and Technological Innovation Commission ties, providing incentives for enterprise to invest in was renamed Interdepartmental Research and research and technological innovation, and mak- Technological Innovation Board (CIRIT). The body ing an effort to bring science closer to citizens. retained its high political profile; it continued to be chaired by the President of the Catalan govern- The 3rd Plan set up the Advisory, Monitoring and ment, and the first vice-president was still the min- Evaluation Board (CASA). The CASA, in its reflec- ister responsible for the DURSI. In addition, two tions on the 2nd Plan, considered that the cre- more vice-presidencies were created; the second ation of the three new structures in compliance was occupied by the Minister of Employment and with the 1st Research Plan (i.e., research groups, Industry and the third by the Minister of Health. thematic networks and R&D reference centres) Furthermore, the CIRIT was equipped with a Sci- had increased the vitality of the public research ence Committee and a Social Committee as advi- system, and that the 2nd Plan had consolidated sory bodies for consultation on any aspect related these structures. The consolidated research to research and innovation policy in Catalonia. groups had made for the cohesion of the groups Lastly, its functional organisation was restructured and the configuration of the research map in Cat- with a view to fulfilling its new strategic objectives. alonia. The thematic networks had stepped up collaboration between groups in the same field. The Network of Reference Centres had enabled the Catalan government to promote strategic With the restructuring of the DURSI in 2004, themes. Further still, the development of centres the Interdepartmental Research and Techno- and major facilities was judged to be one of the logical Innovation Commission was renamed most positive contributions of the 2nd Plan. Interdepartmental Research and Technologi- It was also found that EU policy at that time was cal Innovation Board. seeking to narrow the gap between Europe and the USA in development and technological innovation. The action taken by the European Union was directed at large corporations, whereas the Catalan gov- By Decree 132/2004,39 Marta Aymerich was ap- ernment targeted small and medium-sized enter- pointed director of the CIRIT. prises, for which technological innovation was vital. The initiatives taken in the development and tech- As of that moment, the functions of the CIRIT can nology transfer programme were a step in the right be divided into three main lines of action: direction, but funds were insufficient. They needed to be enhanced with tax incentives, but that de- 1. Planning, coordination and evaluation of R&D pended to a large extent on central government. and innovation policy. With the coordination of

38 Decree 313/2004 of 8 June (DOGC No. 4151, of 10/06/2004). 39 Decree 132/2004 of 20 January (DOGC No. 4055, of 23/01/2004).

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the CIRIT, the 2005-2008 Research and Inno- Area (OEEC) with regard to the European Re- vation Plan (PRI) was passed in January 2005, search Area. research and innovation thus being encom- passed in the same plan for the first time. Es- One of the foremost activities in this field has sentially, the Plan was devised jointly by the De- been the creation of the European and Interna- partment of Universities, Research and the tional Projects Service (SPEI), with the aim of Information Society (DURSI) and the Depart- encouraging full Catalan participation in the Eu- ment of Employment and Industry (DTI). The ropean Research Area and promoting the return Department of Health also took part in the pro- of European funds to Catalonia. The SPEI, cess, and the rest of the departments of the which forms part of the OEEC, has the support Catalan government made their contribution. and financial backing of the CIRIT and the Inter- university Council of Catalonia (CIC). The objectives of the Plan included raising the quality of research, with particular attention to In the framework of the Pyrenees-Mediter- emerging disciplines and frontier fields, and ranean Euroregion, set up in 2004 as a joint ini- promoting innovation in the whole of the Cata- tiative by the autonomous governments of lan production system. Aragon, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands and the regional councils of Languedoc-Roussillon The PRI incorporates two new features: it en- and Midi-Pyrénées, the CIRIT contributes to the courages research to feed the potential of prior- development of the university and science Eu- ity economic sectors, and it benefits collabora- roregion. This is understood as a sphere, within tive structures between major infrastructures, the European and global context, that meets universities, research centres and businesses, the needs of the Euroregion as a knowledge so- for the development of local production environ- ciety, strengthening cooperation in terms of the ments in emerging and interdisciplinary fields. new production economy.

Again in the planning line, in compliance with the The CIRIT also promotes the EuroBIOregion. mandate of the Catalan Government Accord of 5 This project is intended to provide added value April 1994, concerning the communication of infor the regions involved (Aragon, Catalonia, the formation between the departments and bodies Balearic Islands, Languedoc-Roussillon and of the Catalan government for the annual pro- Midi-Pyrénées), and for Europe as a whole. The gramming of R&D activities, the CIRIT collects aim is to reinforce the development of biotech- this information, supplied by the coordinators nology and health sciences in the Pyrenees- and collaborators of each department. Table 3 Mediterranean Euroregion and establish al- shows the data for the years 2001-2004. liances between the regions, particularly the BioRegion of Catalonia and the Pôle of Toulouse, and to yield future opportunities for the Balearic 2. Involvement in the European Research Area. Islands, Languedoc-Roussillon and Aragon. The CIRIT, according to the Decree restructuring the DURSI, of 8 June 2004, defines the ac- In addition, within the framework of the promo- tivities of the Office of the European Knowledge tion of the BioRegion of Catalonia, a protocol

70 CIRIT. 25 YEARS

Table 3 Funding of research and innovation by the deparments of the Catalan government*

Departments 2001 2002 2003 2004

Agriculture and Fisheries 8,805,563.84 9,390,197.85 9,290,234.26 15,078,517.99 Welfare 2,015,747.80 2,920,591.13 5,147,461.48 1,939,120.39 Trade, Consumer Affairs and Tourism (1) (1) (1) 0.00 Culture (2) 2,705,707.46 2,273,059.19 2,402,076.82 2,422,626.81 Economy and Finance 451,423.42 471,958.23 398,809.57 474,234.50 Educació 3,096,777.32 2,780,434.14 2,991,288.60 3,707,142.00 Governance and Public Administrations (3) 358,258.70 427,419.95 449,994.76 109,397.00 Interior 637,903.68 1,676,438.10 725,691.01 672,887.66 Justice 212,984.18 139,225.59 Environment and Housing (4) 4,863,021.61 4,447,025.35 3,402,408.19 4,756,216.97 Regional Policy and Public Works (5) 4,277,674.59 5,125,252.70 4,131,409.15 4,533,352.92 Presidency (6) 657,898.71 1,166,648.93 830,583.09 2,652,662.71 Institutional Relations and Participation (7) (7) (7) (7) 757,889.70 Health* 56,933,876.65 61,067,969.88 65,879,699.00 78,311,348.00 Employment and Industry (8) 12,631,174.91 21,958,670.03 16,128,309.40 15,874,008.56 Universities, Research and the Information Society 212,746,771.93 233,617,265.60 259,496,487.28 294,258,037.97 Total 310,394,784.80 347,322,931.08 371,274,452.61 425,686,668.77 (1) Until 2003 formed part of the Department of Industry. (2) In 2004 lost TERMCAT, Language Policy, and Sports, which went to Presidency. (3) In 2004 lost Institutional Relations. (4) In 2004 gained Housing. (5) In 2004 lost Housing. (6) In 2004 gained TERMCAT, TERMCAT, Language Policy, and Sports. (7) Until 2003 only a small part of Institutional Relations existed, within the Department of Governance. (8) In 2001, Department of Trade and Tourism plus Department of Industry; in 2002 and 2003 Department of Employment, Industry, Trade, Consumer Affairs and Tourism. *Data supplied by the CIRIT, taken from the 2005 annual report of the Department of Unviersities, Research and Information Society.

has been signed to set up EuroBioCluster this field for the first time, while the cooperation South, a metacluster formed by several Euro- started up in previous years with Quebec has pean bioregions, specifically the axis Barcelona- continued, with specific agreements enabling Lyon-Milan-Geneva-Munich-Heidelberg. this cooperation to meet new needs.

Lastly, by way of fulfilment of the Mobility, Co- 3. Promotion of dialogue and collaboration be- operation and Internationalisation Programme tween society, the scientific community and the established by the PRI, in 2005 the CIRIT con- administration. In this direction, the CIRIT has tributed to the international promotion of Cat- worked on the projects of the BioRegion, the alonia as a country of high-quality research. TechnoRegion (Tic.Cat) and the Knowledge Contacts have been made with South Korea in Transfer Consortium.

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The Catalan government, with the coordina- gies (ICT) in order to concentrate research cation of the CIRIT, took on the role of facilitator pacity, attract international companies and in- in order to get the BioRegion of Catalonia proj- stitutions, stimulate the development of new ect off the ground; it was constituted as a pri- businesses and the improvement of existing vate foundation on 14 February 2006. During ones, and endorse Catalonia internationally as 2005, with legal advice from the departments a leading European region in ICT. As part of involved in the project, work went ahead with the project, in coordination with the CIRIT, a the definition of its legal structure in the form blueprint has been drawn up on the basis of of a private foundation, its bylaws were draft- fieldwork conducted with the actors in the ICT ed, an outline Strategic Plan was drawn up, sector in Catalonia and an international and data were managed and compiled on the benchmarking study performed by a group of biomedical and biotechnological sector in Cat- experts. alonia. Work was also done on the corporate image and the web site. The objective of the As regards the Knowledge Transfer Consortium BioRegion of Catalonia is to consolidate Cat- (CTC), the Catalan government adopted the alonia as an international point of reference in Accord for its constitution and the passing of its biomedicine and biotechnology, with research bylaws on 14 June 2005, with the aim of pro- excellence, a competitive business fabric, and moting the transfer of scientific knowledge gen- a sturdy and dynamic knowledge transfer erated in universities and research centres to system. The foundation will manage its visua- the social and productive fabric, with the collab- lisation, communication strategy and value- oration of all the agents involved in this process. creating activities, both within Catalonia and The CTC was formed by the Catalan govern- internationally. ment, through the Department of Universities, Research and the Information Society (DURSI) and the Department of Employment and Indus- try, together with all Catalonia's universities. The The Catalan government, with the coordina- CTC has started to function, it has been pre- tion of the CIRIT took on the role of facilitator sented to the range of institutions and corpora- in order to get the BioRegion of Catalonia tions that make up the science-technology- enterprise system in Catalonia, and its corporate project off the ground; it was constituted as a image has been defined. private foundation on 14 February 2006.

Lastly, we will mention the science and business innovation promotion bill, passed by Government With regard to the TechnoRegion, the CIRIT Accord on 28 February 2006. The project ratifies has promoted, in collaboration with various the importance of the Interdepartmental Re- departments of the Catalan government, the search and Technological Innovation Board as a Tic.Cat project, the purpose of which is to body for coordinating the activity of the various foster research and innovation in the field of departments of the Catalan government in these the information and communication technolo- spheres.

72 CIRIT. 25 YEARS

At present the CIRIT is linked to the Department of Education and Universities, because of the lat- The CIRIT’s role of promoter of research est restructuring of the Catalan government40. Its director is Ramon Agustí i Comes, according to plans as a driving force for research and de- the Government Accord of 20 June 2006. velopment policy is unquestionable, especially in the light of the 2005-2008. The CIRIT's role of promoter of research plans as a driving force for research and development policy is unquestionable, especially in the light of the 2005-2008 Research and Innovation Plan, which universities. In this direction, the CIRIT has worked was conceived with the intention of enhancing the particularly hard to encourage dialogue and col- capacity of cooperation and interaction between laboration, and to become prominent within the the various actors: government, enterprise and European Research Area.

40 Decree 212/2006 of 23 May 2006 (DOGC No. 4641, of 25/05/2006).

References

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CIRIT (COMISSIÓ INTERDEPARTAMENTAL DE RECERCA I INNOVACIÓ TECNOLÒGICA). Pla de Recerca de Catalunya 1993-1996. Barcelona: Gene- ralitat de Catalunya. Departament de Presidència. Comissionat per a Universitats i Recerca, May 1993.

CIRIT (COMISSIÓ INTERDEPARTAMENTAL DE RECERCA I INNOVACIÓ TECNOLÒGICA). II Pla de Recerca de Catalunya 1997-2000. Barcelona: Ge- neralitat de Catalunya. Departament de Presidència. Comissionat per a Universitats i Recerca, February 1997. Accessible at: http://www10.gencat.net/dursi/ca/de/arxiu_plans/pla2_0.htm. Consulted 12 July 2006.

CIRIT (COMISSIÓ INTERDEPARTAMENTAL DE RECERCA I INNOVACIÓ TECNOLÒGICA). III Pla de Recerca de Catalunya 2001-2004. Barcelona: Ge- neralitat de Catalunya. Departament d'Universitats, Recerca i Societat de la Informació, July 2001. Accessible at: http://www10.gencat.net/dursi/ca/de/arxiu_plans/pla3_1.htm. Consulted 12 July 2006.

CIRIT (COMISSIÓ INTERDEPARTAMENTAL DE RECERCA I INNOVACIÓ TECNOLÒGICA). Pla de Recerca i Innovació de Catalunya 2005-2008. Gene- ralitat de Catalunya. Departament d'Universitats, Recerca i Societat de la Informació, May 2005. Accessible at: http://www10.gencat.net/pricatalunya/. Consulted 12 July 2006.

DEPARTAMENT D’UNIVERSITATS, RECERCA I SOCIETAT DE LA INFORMACIÓ. Memòria del Departament 2000. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalu- nya. Departament d'Universitats, Recerca i Societat de la Informació, September 2001.

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DEPARTAMENT D’UNIVERSITATS, RECERCA I SOCIETAT DE LA INFORMACIÓ. Memòria del Departament 2001. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalu- nya. Departament d'Universitats, Recerca i Societat de la Informació, June 2002.

DEPARTAMENT D’UNIVERSITATS, RECERCA I SOCIETAT DE LA INFORMACIÓ. Memòria del Departament 2002. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalu- nya. Departament d'Universitats, Recerca i Societat de la Informació, July 2003.

DEPARTAMENT D’UNIVERSITATS, RECERCA I SOCIETAT DE LA INFORMACIÓ. Memòria del Departament 2003. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalu- nya. Departament d'Universitats, Recerca i Societat de la Informació, June 2004.

DEPARTAMENT D’UNIVERSITATS, RECERCA I SOCIETAT DE LA INFORMACIÓ. Memòria del Departament 2004. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalu- nya. Departament d'Universitats, Recerca i Societat de la Informació, July 2005.

DEPARTAMENT DE LA PRESIDÈNCIA. Acció del Govern de Catalunya 1985. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Presidèn- cia, May 1988.

DEPARTAMENT DE LA PRESIDÈNCIA. Acció del Govern de Catalunya 1986. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Presidèn- cia, May 1988.

DEPARTAMENT DE LA PRESIDÈNCIA. Acció del Govern de Catalunya 1987. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Presidèn- cia, September 1989.

DEPARTAMENT DE LA PRESIDÈNCIA. Acció del Govern de Catalunya 1989. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Presidèn- cia, September 1991.

DEPARTAMENT DE LA PRESIDÈNCIA. Acció del Govern de Catalunya 1990. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Presidèn- cia, February 1992.

DEPARTAMENT DE LA PRESIDÈNCIA. Acció del Govern de Catalunya 1992. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Presidèn- cia, December 1993.

DEPARTAMENT DE LA PRESIDÈNCIA. Acció del Govern de Catalunya 1993. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Presidèn- cia, November 1994.

DEPARTAMENT DE LA PRESIDÈNCIA. Acció del Govern de Catalunya 1994. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Presidèn- cia, May 1996.

DEPARTAMENT DE LA PRESIDÈNCIA. Acció del Govern de Catalunya 1995. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Presidèn- cia, September 1997.

DEPARTAMENT DE LA PRESIDÈNCIA. Acció del Govern de Catalunya 1996. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Presidèn- cia, April 1998.

DEPARTAMENT DE LA PRESIDÈNCIA. Acció del Govern de Catalunya 1997. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Presidèn- cia, February 1999.

DEPARTAMENT DE LA PRESIDÈNCIA. Acció del Govern de Catalunya 1998. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Presidèn- cia, March 2000.

DEPARTAMENT DE LA PRESIDÈNCIA. Acció del Govern de Catalunya 1999. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Presidèn- cia, March 2001.

DEPARTAMENT DE LA PRESIDÈNCIA. Acció del Govern de Catalunya 2000. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Presidèn- cia, January 2003.

DEPARTAMENT DE LA PRESIDÈNCIA. Acció del Govern de Catalunya 2001. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Presidèn- cia, July 2003.

DEPARTAMENT DE LA PRESIDÈNCIA. Acció del Govern de Catalunya 2002. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Presidèn- cia, June 2004.

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DEPARTAMENT DE LA PRESIDÈNCIA. Acció de Govern de la Generalitat de Catalunya. Gener-juny 1981. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Presidència, 1981.

DEPARTAMENT DE LA PRESIDÈNCIA. Acció de Govern de la Generalitat de Catalunya. Juliol-desembre 1981. Barcelona: Generalitat de Cata- lunya. Departament de Presidència, 1982.

DEPARTAMENT DE LA PRESIDÈNCIA. Acció de Govern de la Generalitat de Catalunya. Gener-juny 1982. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Presidència, 1983.

DEPARTAMENT DE LA PRESIDÈNCIA. Acció de Govern de la Generalitat de Catalunya. Juliol-desembre 1982. Barcelona: Generalitat de Cata- lunya. Departament de Presidència, 1983.

DEPARTAMENT DE LA PRESIDÈNCIA. Acció de Govern de la Generalitat de Catalunya. Gener-juny 1983. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Presidència, 1984.

DEPARTAMENT DE LA PRESIDÈNCIA. Acció de Govern de la Generalitat de Catalunya. Juliol-desembre 1983. Barcelona: Generalitat de Cata- lunya. Departament de Presidència, 1984.

DEPARTAMENT DE LA PRESIDÈNCIA. Acció de Govern de la Generalitat de Catalunya. Gener-juny 1984. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Presidència, 1986.

DEPARTAMENT DE LA PRESIDÈNCIA. Acció de Govern de la Generalitat de Catalunya. Juliol-desembre 1984. Barcelona: Generalitat de Cata- lunya. Departament de Presidència, 1987.

GABINET TÈCNIC DE RECERCA DE LA DIRECCIÓ GENERAL D’ENSENYAMENT UNIVERSITARI. El Foment de la Recerca Científica i Tecnològica 1982-1985. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament d'Ensenyament, December 1986.

GABINET TÈCNIC DE RECERCA DE LA DIRECCIÓ GENERAL D’ENSENYAMENT UNIVERSITARI. El Foment de la Recerca Científica i Tecnològica 1986-1989. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament d'Ensenyament, October 1990.

INSTITUT D’ESTUDIS CATALANS. La Recerca Científica i Tecnològica a Catalunya, 1990. Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, October 1990. «La Constitució de la Comissió Interdepartamental de Recerca i Innovació Tecnològica». Revista Catalana de (Ciència) i Tecnologia, vol. 1, No. 5/6, pp. 107-108, Barcelona: Ciència, S.A., 1981.

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ANNEX: Legislation consulted

Document Legislation consulted

DOGC

DECREE 217/1980 Of 5 November, creating the Interdepartmental Research and Technological 93 of 12.11.1980 Innovation Commission DECREE 232/1950 Of 18 November, on the organisational structure of the Department of Education 96 of 26.11.1980 DECREE 282/1980 Of 1 December, developing the organisational structure of the Department of Education 101 of 17.12.1980 DECREE 476/1981 Of 14 December, reorganising the Interdepartmental Research and Technological 193 of 22.01.1982 Innovation Commission (CIRIT) DECREE 307/1982 Of 8 September, on new initiatives by the Interdepartmental Research and 262 of 29.09.1982 Technological Innovation Commission (CIRIT) in the field of technological innovation DECREE 456/1982 Of 10 December, on initiatives by the Interdepartmental Research and Technological 288 of 24.12.1982 Innovation Commission (CIRIT) in Priority Research Lines ORDER Of 28 June 1983, passing the bylaws of the Science and Technology Board 349 of 29.07.1983 DECREE 279/1984 Of 6 September, restructuring Presidency 472 of 26.09.1984 ROYAL DECREE On the devolution of services from the State Administration to the Catalan Autonomous 522 of 20.03.1985 305/1985 Government with regard to universities DECREE 365/1985 Of 13 December, reorganising the Interdepartmental Research and Technological 631 of 31.12.1985 Innovation Commission (CIRIT) LAW 23/1985 Of 28 November, creating the Institute for Food and Agricultural Research and Technology 621 of 04.12.1985 DECREE 141/1986 Of 9 May, structuring the Secretariat of the Interdepartmental Research and 692 of 30.05.1986 Technological Innovation Commission (CIRIT) DECREE 200/1986 Of 4 July, restructuring the Secretariat-General of the presidency and creating 712 of 11.07.1986 the Deputy Secretariat-General DECREE 140/1986 Of 10 May, creating the Biotechnology Agency of Catalonia 735 of 03.09.1986 DECREE 150/1987 Of 13 March, constituting the International Centre for Numerical Methods 841 of 20.05.1987 in Engineering Consortium DECREE 144/1988 Of 5 July, partially redistributing the powers and functions corresponding 1015 of 08.07.1988 to the departments of the Catalan Autonomous Government

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Document Legislation consulted

DECREE 322/1988 Of 14 November, modifying Decree 365/1985 of 13 December, reorganising the 1071 of 21.11.1988 Interdepartmental Research and Technological Innovation Commission (CIRIT) ORDER Of 17 July 1989, publicly announcing a resolution of 5 July 1989 by the Interministerial 1171 of 21.07.1989 Science and Technology Commission for the awarding of grants for the Fine Chemicals Programme in Catalonia ORDER Of 28 September 1989, publicly announcing the rules of procedure of the 1205 of 11.10.1989 Interdepartmental Research and Technological Innovation Commission (CIRIT) DECREE 195/1991 Of 16 September, on the coordination of research and the reorganisation of the CIRIT 1504 of 11.10.1991 DECREE 318/1992 Of 28 December, creating the Universities and Research Commission and regulating 1690 of 04.01.1993 the organisation and distribution of functions with regard to universities and research GOVERNMENT Of 23 February 1993, passing the Research Plan of Catalonia for the period 1993-1996 ACCORD DECREE 89/1993 Of 9 March, creating the Committee for the promotion of a synchrotron laboratory 727 of 29.03.1993 in Catalonia DECREE 173/1993 Of 12 July, creating the Steering Committee for the organisation of the Administration of 1771 of 16.07.1993 the Catalan Autonomous Government and the Interdepartmental Coordinating Committee ORDER Of 1 February 1994, creating the Advisory and Monitoring Committee and the Science 1859 of 11.02.1994 and Technology Evaluation Board as CIRIT support bodies for the development of the Research Plan of Catalonia (1993-1996) DECREE 26/1994 Of 8 February, creating the Catalan Autonomous Government Network of Reference Centres for research and development 1862 of 18.02.1994 DECREE 122/1994 Of 30 May, modifying Decree 318/1992, of 28 December, creating the Universities and Research Commission and establishing its structure 1904 of 03.06.1994 RESOLUTION Of 30 June 1994, delegating functions to the manager for universities and research 1921 of 15.07.1994 DECREE 203/1994 Of 26 July, modifying Decree 195/1991, of 16 September, on the coordination of research 1930 of 05.08.1994 and the reorganisation of the CIRIT, and structuring the Technical Bureau for Research RESOLUTION Of 26 October 1994, publicly announcing the Government Accord of 26 July 1994, 1969 of 07.11.1994 accepting and designating the Biotechnology Centre as a Catalan Autonomous Government reference centre for research and development and including it in the Catalan Autonomous Government Network of Reference Centres GOVERNMENT Of 5 April 1994, concerning the communication of information between ACCORD the departments and bodies of the Catalan Autonomous Government for the annual programming of R&D activities RESOLUTION Of 23 November 1994, publicly announcing the Government Accord of 16 November 1981 of 05.12.1994 1994, accepting and designating the Food Technology Centre as a Catalan Autonomous Government reference centre for research and development and including it in the Catalan Autonomous Government Network of Reference Centres

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Document Legislation consulted

RESOLUTION Of 12 July 1996, publicly announcing the Government Accord of 5 July 1996, 2237 of 31.07.1996 concerning the Catalan Autonomous Government Reference Centre for Research and Development in Language Engineering RESOLUTION Of 12 July 1996, publicly announcing the Government Accord of 5 July 1996, 2237 of 31.07.1996 concerning the Catalan Autonomous Government Reference Centre for Research and Development in Advanced Production Technology RESOLUTION Of 4 February 1997, publicly announcing the Government Accord of 30 January 1997, 2333 of 18.02.1997 passing the 2nd Research Plan of Catalonia (1997-2000) ORDER Of 10 June 1997, creating the Advisory and Monitoring Committee and the Science and 2415 of 18.06.1997 Technology Evaluation Board as CIRIT bodies for scientific and technological evaluation, consultation and monitoring of the 2nd Research Plan of Catalonia (1997-2000) DECREE 49/1999 Of 23 February, creating the Science and Technology Advisory Committee 2839 of 03.03.1999 DECREE 87/1999 Of 23 March, modifying Decree 195/1991, of 16 September, on the coordination of 2864 of 09.04.1999 research and the reorganisation of the CIRIT RESOLUTION Of 10 November 1999, publicly announcing the Government Accord of 13 October 1999, 3025 of 29.11.1999 concerning the Catalan Autonomous Government Reference Centre for Research and Development in Aquaculture RESOLUTION Of 10 January 2000, publicising the collaboration agreement between the Science and 3062 of 24.01.2000 Technology Office (OCIT) of the Presidency of the Government and the Interdepartmental Research and Technological Innovation Commission (CIRIT) to promote synchrotron light activities DECREE 123/2000 Creating the Department of Universities, Research and the Information Society 3112 of 03.04.2000 DECREE 127/2000 Of 3 April, structuring the Department of Universities, Research and the Information Society 3113 of 04.04.2000 ORDER Of 8 August 2001, creating the Advisory, Monitoring and Evaluation Board as an 3477 of 20.09.2001 Interdepartmental Research and Technological Innovation Commission (CIRIT) body RESOLUTION UNI/918/2003, of 7 March, publicly announcing the Government Accord of 4 March 2003, 3866 of 16.04.2003 accepting and designating the Reference Centre for Research and Development in Advanced Materials for Energy (CeRMAE) as a Catalan Autonomous Government reference centre and including it in the Catalan Autonomous Government Network of Reference Centres for R&D RESOLUTION UNI/919/2003, of 7 March, publicly announcing the Government Accord 3866 of 16.04.2003 of 4 March 2003, accepting and designating the Reference Centre for Bioengineering of Catalonia as a Catalan Autonomous Government reference centre and including it in the Catalan Autonomous Government Network of Reference Centres for R&D RESOLUTION UNI/920/2003, of 7 March, publicly announcing the Government Accord of 4 March 2003, 3866 of 16.04.2003 accepting and designating the Reference Centre for Analytical Economics (CREA) as a Catalan Autonomous Government reference centre and including it in the Catalan Autonomous Government Network of Reference Centres for R&D

78 CIRIT. 25 YEARS

Document Legislation consulted

RESOLUTION UNI/940/2003, of 9 April, creating the Special Initiative for the Development of 3867 of 17.04.2003 Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in Catalonia DECREE 313/2004 Of 8 June, restructuring the Department of Universities, Research 4151 of 10.06.2004 and the Information Society DECREE 212/2006 Of 23 May, structuring the Department of Education and Universities 4641 of 25.05.2006

BOE ORGANIC On University Reform 209 of 01.09.1983 LAW 11/1983 RESOLUTION Of 4 July 1989. Agreement with the Interministerial Science and Technology 167 of 14.07.1989 Commission for the funding, management and execution of the Autonomous Community «Fine Chemicals» Programme

notes 82 90 102 The Barcelona Biomedical Barcelona Science Park Creating new technological Research Park (PRBB). (PCB): Research and knowledge: Analysis of a Jordi Camí, Reimund Fickert i innovation exchange survey of inventors in Teresa Badia between universities and Catalonia the private sector Walter García-Fontes Susana Herráiz, Rosina Malagrida i Fernando Albericio CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 NOTES

THE BARCELONA BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH PARK

Jordi Camí*, Reimund Fickert** and Teresa Badia***

Following a period of twenty years during which the necessary scientific infrastructure for a major European facility was set up and a five-year construction period, the Parc de Recerca Biomèdica de Barcelona (PRBB, Barcelona Biomedical Research Park) was inaugurated in May 2006. The PRBB, with an outstanding critical mass, prominent research staff and a markedly international character, is a campus for knowledge-intensive production in the fields of biomedicine and the health sciences.

Contents

1. Introduction 2. Structure and organisation 3. Human capital 4. The scientific programme 5. A new stage and new commitments

1. Introduction biomedical research. Despite recent endeavours, it is still not on a par with the leading countries in this The Barcelona Biomedical Research Park will place field, and a wide chasm separates it from them at a Catalonia in a greatly improved position to compete time when competition is becoming increasingly in- at different European and international levels in the tense. More continuity and greater effort in the field of science. Spain figures as the eighth most commitment to R+D and Innovation is required of economically developed country in the world, politicians in order for Spain to keep abreast of whereas it is only eleventh in terms of science and developments and retain the position it holds.

* Jordi Camí is the PRBB General Manager. ** Reimund Fickert is the PRBB Project Manager. *** Teresa Badia is the PRBB Communications Manager.

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The PRBB is not the only biomedical science facili- field of biomedicine and the health sciences. The ty in the Barcelona metropolitan area. In addition to six research centres that form part of the PRBB are: the Hospital del Mar, which is located next to the PRBB, there are five other large hospitals of scien- The Institut Municipal d’Investigació Mèdica tific importance in the conurbation; the Hospital (IMIM, Municipal Institute of Medical Research),1 Clínic de Barcelona (together with the August Pi i which was reopened in 1985, is a research centre Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute, IDIBAPS), of the Institut Municipal d’Assistència Sanitària and the Vall d’Hebrón, Sant Pau, Bellvitge and Can (IMAS) that also has links to the Universitat Pom- Ruti (Germans Trias i Pujol) Hospitals. There are peu Fabra. The IMIM also includes the research also other biomedical research institutions spon- groups working at the Hospital del Mar. The current sored by the Generalitat de Catalunya (Govern- Director is Dr. Miquel Lopez Botet. ment of Catalonia), some of them linked to the above-mentioned hospitals, and important contributions in the field are also made by the Universitat de Barcelona and the Universitat Autònoma de The PRBB is set up jointly by the Generalitat Barcelona, particularly the UB Science Park and de Catalunya, the Ajuntament de Barcelona the new Institute of Biomedical Research, located in the Park. It is to be expected that, within a short (Barcelona City Council) and the Universitat period of a few years, the magnificent facilities of Pompeu Fabra (UPF). the PRBB will be just one of various in the Catalan system of science, technology and innovation.

The Centre de Recerca en Epidemiologia Am- 2. Structure and organisation biental (CREAL, Centre for Research into Environ- mental Epidemiology)2 was set up in 2006 by the The PRBB is a consortium set up jointly by the Gen- Generalitat de Catalunya, with the participation of eralitat de Catalunya (through the three government the IMAS and the UPF. The Director is Dr. Josep departments of Universities, Research and the In- Maria Antó. formation Society; Health; and Economy), the Ajun- tament de Barcelona (Barcelona City Council) and The Departament de Ciències Experimentals i the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF). It consists of a de la Salut de la Universitat Pompeu Fabra scientific infrastructure that brings together various (CEXS-UPF, Department of Experimental and independent institutions and research centres, to- Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra)3 was gether with different technology platforms, the pur- set up in 1998 and provides teaching staff for bio- pose of which is to fulfil scientific objectives in the medical studies at the UPF (Bachelor in Human Bi-

1 . 2 .

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ology, PhD in the Health and Life Sciences, and var- and PET tomography (positron emission tomogra- ious different Master’s programmes, including Pub- phy) for use on both humans and test animals. lic Health). The Director is Dr. Fernando Giráldez. The aggregate operating budget of these six cen- The Centre de Regulació Genòmica (CRG, tres and the PRBB Consortium is approximately 55 Genome Regulation Centre)4 is a Catalan govern- to 60 million euros per year. An average of 40% of ment-sponsored centre (Ministry of Education and this figure is obtained by researchers and institu- Universities, and the Ministry of Health) set up in tions themselves through service contracts and 2000, with the participation of the Universitat Pom- competitive grants from public sources in Catalonia peu Fabra (an attached institute since 2005). The and Spain, as well as Europe and North America. Director is Dr. Miguel Beato. In terms of the scientific and technical services, the resources for bioinformatics specialists are particularly outstanding at the PRBB’s centres. A large- The aggregate operating budget of the six scale calculation capacity facilitates scientific links centres that constitute the PRBB and the with the Centre de Supercomputació de Catalunya (CESCA, Catalan Supercomputing Centre) as well PRBB Consortium is approximately 55 to 60 as the Mare Nostrum supercomputer, a phase 1 million euros per year. clinical trials unit, various advanced electronics microscopy units, flow cytometry systems (fluores- cence activated cell sorter or FACS), micro-positron emission tomography (MicroPET), and also micro- Scientific activities at the Centre de Medicina array, genome, and proteomic and peptide syn- Regenerativa de Barcelona (CMRB, Barcelona thesis services, amongst others. With regard to Regenerative Medicine Centre)5 began in 2005. technology platforms, of particular importance is This is a Catalan government-sponsored centre the locating in the PRBB of various nodes of the (Ministry of Health) and it is also receives funding Spanish Genotyping Centre (CEGEN)7 (including from the Spanish Ministerio de Salud y Consumo. the central coordinating centre) and the Spanish The Director is Dr. Juan Carlos Izpisúa. Bioinformatics Institute (INB),8 both of which were set up and are funded by the Fundación The Institut d’Alta Tecnologia (IAT, Institute of Genoma España. Another important platform is High Technology),6 a foundation in which the CRC the Catalan Anti-doping Laboratory, a branch of health corporation, IMAS, the Hospital Clínic and the the IMIM that was accredited in 1990 by the In- Vall d’Hebron Hospital all participate, offers biomed- ternational Olympic Committee, and in 2003 by ical imaging technologies. It currently has a cyclotron the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA);9 most of

3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 . 9 .

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the laboratory’s service activity work involves sam- One of the most complex services offered by the ples of international origin. park to its research centres is the animal facility, which is distributed in two units. There is a specific The PRBB will also extend the scope of R+D and pathogen free (SPF) facility core with a surface area Innovation of private enterprise in the health sector, of approximately 3,000 square metres, which in- particularly pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. cludes specific facilities for generating transgenic This was the case, for example, with the multina- mice, with space to house up to 60,000 mice, and tional GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in 2003, when it opt- one facility of around 300 square metres for Xeno- ed to establish the Centre d’Imatge en Psiquiatria pus and zebra fish. A second facility core, known (Centre for Imaging in Psychiatry) in facilities at the as the conventional animal facility, is around 1,000 Hospital del Mar that are connected to the PRBB square metres in size and has laboratories that next door. The centre is involved in the clinical de- specialise in behaviour. velopment of all of GSK‘s new psychotropic drugs in Europe, and was located near to the PRBB due One of the PRBB Consortium’s most important to the stage 1 biomedical imaging and clinical trials missions is its responsibility to attract and establish facilities available from the Institut Alta Tecnologia synergistic agreements for collaborations with in- (IAT) and the Institut Municipal d’Investigacions dustry and to set up R+D and Innovation pharma- Mèdiques (IMIM). The PRBB also has facilities for ceutical and biotechnology companies in facilities bio-incubators and there are currently two spin-off set aside for this purpose. The PRBB Consortium’s companies that have developed from the IMIM, team of professionals cooperates with technical Pharmatools and Chemotargets. experts at the technology transfer offices at each PRBB centre, organising and sponsoring training The PRBB combines infrastructure excellence courses for technical experts and entrepreneurs, with a plan for scientific cooperation and manage- amongst others. One example of this is the recently ment between the various participating research established Science and Innovation Management entities. The PRBB Consortium is specifically re- Studies (SIMS) programme. sponsible for the Park’s asset management, joint services and scientific and technical services, pro- Organised by the PRBB, the SIMS is an initiative of moting the highest level of scientific coordination the UPF’s Economics Department, with the collabo- between research groups in the different centres, ration of the Institut d’Educació Contínua (IDEC, In- deploying instruments for the technological trans- stitute of Continuing Education). The aim of the SIMS fer of acquired knowledge, cooperative involve- is to create an exclusive environment in Barcelona to ment in the park’s external projection, and net- foster intrasectoral interaction in training and corpo- working with other similar centres and facilities. rate development. The programme will be used to The running of the PRBB as a coordinated system improve skills and levels of knowledge by reinforcing will allow for more rational plans regarding the lay- innovation and corporate initiatives. out and use of facilities and infrastructures to be set up, and within the framework of the PRBB a The programme is divided into four modules: cooperative operational model is used that is compatible with and respectful of the autonomy – Key issues in biotechnology management. and policies of each individual centre. – Copyright, licensing and other factors for creat-

85 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 NOTES

ing securities. fundable loan granted by the Spanish Ministerio de – Funding, collaborations, mergers and strategic Educación y Ciencia (for the 2006-2007 period), alliances in the biotechnology sector. part of which is to be offset by the Generalitat. – Strategy for carrying out clinical trials, and ap- proval to market new drugs. 3. Human capital SIMS courses are sponsored by the Catalonia BioRegion and the Fundación BBVA. By the end of 2006, there will be more than 1,000 people working at the various different PRBB centres, including scientific personnel, pre-doctoral students, and technical, administration and servic- One of the root causes of the progressive in- es staff, distributed in eighty independent research ternationalisation of research carried out at groups. This body of workers represents an out- the PRBB is the PhD programme in Health and standing critical mass that is comparable with the main scientific clusters in Europe and, with nearly Life Sciences offered at the Universitat Pom- thirty different nationalities represented, will facili- peu Fabra. The compulsory modules and basic tate an extraordinary interrelationship between dif- research pathway are given entirely in English. ferent disciplines and the possibility of carrying out science from a totally different perspective.

A large number of the research groups are led by All PRBB centres and technology platforms are lo- distinguished researchers who have trained and cated in a new, technologically highly advanced worked in leading international centres. Scientists building. As far as the arrangement of the centres from around the world are also currently being at- inside the new building and the distribution and tracted to the PRBB where the working language technical adaptation of the physical space is con- in most research groups is English. Practically all cerned, priority has been given to physically locat- the research groups at the PRBB centres collabo- ing research groups near to each other, according rate with foreign research groups on a regular ba- to the affinity of the different fields of scientific spe- sis, 70% of which are with European and American cialisation, and the lay-out of sole and combined groups. 30% of published articles on original re- use areas for joint services and scientific and tech- search include the co-authorship of a scientist in a nical services. Seventy percent of the total 50,000 foreign group. square metres are laboratories and offices designed specifically for scientific use. Funds for the One of the root causes of the progressive interna- full investment, which comes to more than 110 mil- tionalisation of research carried out at the PRBB is lion euros, have been contributed by the PRBB the PhD programme in Health and Life Sciences of- Consortium members, namely, the Generalitat de fered at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. The doctor- Catalunya, the Ajuntament de Barcelona and the al programme has three pathways (basic research, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (through the Generali- clinical research, and epidemiological research and tat’s University Investment Plan for 2001-2006), a public health) and a series of compulsory modules European structural funds grant (FEDER) and a re- that are common to all students, irrespective of

86 THE BARCELONA BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH PARK

their pathway. The compulsory modules and basic scientific objectives are being directed at a better research pathway are given entirely in English, understanding of the enigmas of life and how we which makes it attractive to students from Europe can live more healthily and with a higher quality of and currently more than half of the 270 registered life. These are generic objectives that will give us a students are foreign. The international character of better understanding of many chronic and acute ill- the PRBB is additionally being consolidated nesses and of the relationship between genetics through the steady recruitment of senior scientific and the environment, and between our surround- staff from other European countries and the United ings and predispositions. States, in part through the ICREA programme.10 This steady recruitment of foreign scientists would The research groups at the PRBB centres are sen- have been unthinkable ten years ago, yet it has now sitive to all of these challenges, and a large number become a priority objective, especially in the re- of the groups include specialists in the new areas of cently opened centres like the Genome Regulation knowledge. In this context, the main fields of re- Centre and the Centre for Regenerative Medicine. search being developed at PRBB centres include bioinformatics and systems biology, genome regulation and epigenetics, cellular and developmental 4. The scientific programme biology (including regenerative medicine), pharma- cology and clinical physicopathology, human ge- The present time is a challenging moment for bio- netics and evolutional biology, and epidemiology medical research. Following the sequencing of the and public health. As is evident from the scope of human genome, we are witnessing the appearance these six fields of science, the PRBB brings togeth- of new paradigms and new areas of knowledge, par- er expert scientists from molecular science to popu- ticularly in biology and systems medicine, bioinfor- lation studies and basic to applied research, includ- matics and regenerative medicine. Despite any bold ing clinical and translational research. expectations that one may have, however, it is sensi- ble to assume that it will take much longer than is ap- The PRBB is an open scientific environment where parent in order to achieve applicable objectives. Nev- there is a great willingness to interrelate. In 2005 ertheless, the twenty-first century will undoubtedly be alone, more than two hundred researchers from a time marked by developments in human biology. abroad and other centres in Spain took part in one or more of over four hundred scientific sessions or- In the field of general knowledge, one very important ganised by the Centre de Regulació Genòmica, the challenge will be to understand what makes us all Institut Municipal d’Investigació Mèdica, the UPF’s similar and what makes us different, what our com- Departament de Ciències Experimentals i de la ponents are as a kind and, in short, what the conse- Salut, and the PRBB itself. quences of our biodiversity are. The above-mentioned new fields of knowledge will help us to better One particularity, and one veritable added value of understand the similarities and differences between the PRBB, is its physical proximity to and close rela- different human groups and between the human tionship with the Hospital del Mar. Its proximity gen- and other animal species. In the field of medicine, erates interrelationships between laboratory re-

10 .

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search groups and clinical research groups and, The convergence of systems biology, genomics, more specifically, it gives rise to research and transfer computer science, proteomics and personalised projects being set up. For example, clinical research medicine has led to the threshold of a new age in the groups at the Hospital del Mar, through the IMIM, development of new drugs. Given the lack of a key have offices and laboratory facilities in the PRBB. understanding to the genetic, molecular and cellular The fact that researchers coexist together at the basis of most illnesses, together with the extreme PRBB and yet approach their work from such differ- complexity of present-day biomedicine, the need ent perspectives has led, for example, to relations for scientific collaboration between highly diverse being established between different research disciplines is greater than ever. This puts the PRBB groups working on basic research and epidemiolo- in a very favourable position in that a wide range of gy. Not only is the coexistence of research groups scientific collaboration can be offered between the with such diverse approaches a source of greater PRBB’s centres themselves and also with the phar- scientific productivity, but it is also the great asset un- maceutical and biotechnology industry to cover derpinning the PRBB’s infrastructure. particularly relevant issues in present-day biomedical research. For example, the Spanish Genotyping Centre’s (CEGEN)11 nodes at the PRBB constitute The coexistence of research groups with dian extraordinarily useful service for studies in personalised medicine and research into the genetic verse approaches is a source of greater scienti- basis of illness. Moreover, the high density of re- fic productivity and puts the PRBB in a very fa- search groups working in bioinformatics at the vourable position in that a wide range of PRBB’s centres12 makes it possible to offer capabili- scientific collaboration can be offered between ties that extend from genome sequencing to telemedicine to computer-aided drug design. The the PRBB’s centres themselves and also with the PRBB’s centres also have various different addition- pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. al tools to offer pharmaceutical R+D and Innovation, including the large-scale capability to carry out population studies, evaluate the effectiveness of new healthcare technologies, carry out pharmacological The PRBB and its centres are also closely associat- development studies on healthy volunteers, and ed with the Catalonia BioRegion initiative, a link be- everything deriving from the extensive biomedical tween administrations, the academic sector and in- imaging technology based on positron emission to- dustry to promote the generation of new corporate mography (PET) and nuclear magnetic resonance, initiatives in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, a technology that can be applied to both clinical enhance R+D and Innovation capabilities of local in- studies and research into animal experimentation. dustry, and build alliances between all stakeholders involved in the pharmaceuticals and biotechnology To sum up, the scientific approach of the PRBB’s re- sector and the healthcare industry in general. search groups is at the cutting edge of biomedical research, with special attention being given to new

11 . 12 .

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emerging areas, while the commitment of the PRBB The second commitment is that of the economic de- itself is to carry out useful research for the health of all velopment of Catalonia. Together with the Catalonia citizens and to produce a new generation of applica- BioRegion, the intention of the PRBB is to contribute ble knowledge. to the focusing of industry and services in Catalonia on activities that are knowledge intensive by taking on the obligation to transfer the knowledge and 5. A new stage and new commitments technology that are generated and the commitment to generate opportunities for setting up new compa- The different centres of the PRBB, each one in accor- nies and supplying knowledge for the pharmaceuti- dance with its own scientific objectives, collectively cal and healthcare industry. The wish is that work at abide by commitments to continue producing scien- the PRBB be instrumental in bringing about a tific research of excellence and the best post-gradu- change in the academic culture in the field of bio- ate scientific training programmes and environments. medicine in order for there to be an appropriate bal- The launching of the PRBB with a new large scientific ance between the generating of knowledge and its facility in Catalonia however also carries with it the transfer, and openly helping entrepreneurs. From the need to adopt new commitments. Complementary to infrastructure point of view, the PRBB management the aims and objectives of the centres themselves, the is committed to making more space available in the PRBB management’s proposal is to be instrumental neighbourhood of the new complex so that compa- and committed to act in the three following areas: nies in the sector wishing to benefit from its enor- mous scientific potential can locate nearby. In this re- Firstly, the commitment to integrity. The ambition to gard and in collaboration with the CIDEM, there are undertake research of excellence calls for renewed joint arrangements at the Barcelona Science Park ethical values on the part of the scientists. They must (Universitat de Barcelona) and the 22@Barcelona be excellent in terms of research quality and, above district to obtain specific infrastructures, such as all, strict in preventing any problems regarding integri- more space for bioincubators and specific facilities ty. Exploitation of the defenceless does occur in the for the post-incubation stage. field of science, and the clash of interests can also occur, and it is down to the scientific community to pro- The third commitment is to society itself in Catalonia. vide itself with self-regulatory instruments. The The PRBB‘s unique building must avoid becoming PRBB’s code of good practice, which has been in an ivory tower, and knowledge produced at the place since 2000, is a pioneer in Spain as a whole.13 PRBB be shared with the citizens. In addition to open The code consists of behaviour benchmarks and the days and school visits, encouragement will be given rules of the game that researchers freely adopt and so that scientists at the PRBB’s centres also have the are explained in an established way in the PhD pro- time to transform the results of their research into a gramme to research personnel in training. The inten- language that can be readily understood and is edu- tion is to broaden and give impetus to this existing cational, into something that can be useful for learn- commitment within the context of the PRBB by refor- ing and for illustrating and discussing ideas. Science mulating the code of good scientific practices and ex- must form part of our wider culture and this is one of tending it to all the centres. the goals of the PRBB.

13 .

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BARCELONA SCIENCE PARK: RESEARCH AND INNO- VATION EXCHANGE BETWEEN UNIVERSITITIES AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR

Susana Herráiz*, Rosina Malagrida**, Fernando Albericio***

The Barcelona Science Park (Parc Científic de Barcelona, hereinafter PCB) was created by the University of Barcelona with the support of the Fundació Bosch i Gimpera and Caixa Catalunya. It concentrates leading public research groups, innovative companies, and powerful scientific and technological infrastructures in a single physical area. This area is to be enlarged this year, so as to further encourage interdisciplinary research and research excellence in biomedicine and biotechnology, not to mention in other fields such as the experimental, human and social sciences. New mechanisms are also to be established to ensure that the knowledge generated in the PCB filters down to society, by means, for example, of the creation of companies and the development of specific technologies that will contribute to improving quality of life.

Contents

1. Why a science park? 2. A scientific environment 3. PCB research: interdisciplinarity 4. The PCB as technology centre 5. Innovation and transfer 6. Fostering synergies 7. Communicating science 8. A second phase of growth ...

* Susana Herráiz is Science Communicator for the Comunication and Diffusion Division of the Parc Científic de Barcelona (PCB). ** Rosina Malagrida is Head of the Comunication and Diffusion Division of the Parc Científic de Barcelona (PCB). *** Fernando Albericio is Director General of the Parc Científic de Barcelona (PCB).

90 BARCELONA SCIENCE PARK: RESEARCH AND INNOVATION EXCHANGE BETWEEN UNIVERSITIES AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR

1. Why a science park? fective system for knowledge transfer between the public and private sectors by creating an ap- The need to adapt universities to the social and propriate environment for university and public economic environment of today is a particularly research centres, private sector R+D units and complex issue from the point of view of research new technology-based companies, and to make and the transfer of its results to society, most available technological infrastructures that facili- particularly, to the business sector. It was in this tate scientific activities. context that the University of Barcelona (UB) took a pioneering step in 1994, when its Board With a current occupancy rate of 100% and with of Governors agreed to reserve an area for the significant demand for the units to be built in the future creation of a science park –to be called second construction phase, it can be considered the Parc Científic de Barcelona (PCB)– as an in- that the UB has realised its aim of creating a lo- frastructure that would promote interaction be- cus for encounters between the entrepreneurial tween the public and private sectors, thereby fa- spirit of the academic sector and the innovative cilitating conversion of the knowledge generated spirit of the business sector. by universities into wealth and quality of life.

The project began to take shape with the creation of a foundation –the Fundació Parc Científic The University of Barcelona (UB) took a pio- de Barcelona– in 1997, composed initially of the neering step in 1994, when its Board of Gover- UB, the Fundació Bosch i Gimpera and Caixa Catalunya, and subsequently joined by the De- nors agreed to reserve an area for the future partment of Universities, Research and the Infor- creation of a science park. mation Society of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia (the Generalitat) and the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC). The PCB, moreover, has played a key role in the Other universities followed this lead and are now process of coordinating biomedical and biotech- also channelling knowledge transfer through nological R+D and Innovation. This it has done in science parks; some examples include the Pom- Barcelona through the creation of the Aliança peu Fabra University (UPF) and the Parc de Re- Biomèdica de Barcelona in conjunction with the cerca Biomèdica, the University of Girona and Parc de Recerca Biomèdica, the Institut d’Inves- the Parc Científic i Tecnològic, and the Autono- tigacions August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS) and the mous University of Barcelona (UAB) and the UAB UAB, at the regional level through the creation of Parc de Recerca. the BioRegió de Catalunya, and finally, at the European level with its participation in the Euro- The aims of the PCB are to promote public and pean Council of BioRegions. These initiatives private research excellence, to establish an ef- respond to the objective of promoting research

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excellence in the life sciences, thereby creating a largest of which is the Modular Building (20,000 favourable environment for the transfer of know- m2), allocated to laboratories and scientific/tech- ledge and technology and for the consolidation nological installations. of a business fabric for these disciplines, with the ultimate goal of contributing to economic and The PCB is also home to a high proportion of re- social development. search staff (over 1,250 individuals in total) covering a wide range of professional profiles, many of whom are from outside Catalonia. They include researchers at the PCB, UB, UPC and CSIC, re- The PCB is a a locus for encounters between searchers participating in labour market insertion the entrepreneurial spirit of the academic programmes (Institució Catalana de Recerca i Es- tudis Avançats (ICREA ), Ramón y Cajal, Torres sector and the innovative spirit of the busi- Quevedo, Juan de la Cierva and Beatriu de Pi- ness sector. nós), and post-graduate university students.

The PCB has solidly established itself, moreover, as a favourable environment for the creation of public 2. A scientific environment research centres that coordinate and promote research excellence, such as, for example, the Institut The PCB is located on the UB Diagonal Cam- de Recerca Biomèdica (IRB) –which was the first pus, in the midst of a number of UB and Univer- such centre to acquire legal standing– and the Ins- sitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) faculties. titut de Bioenginyeria de Catalunya (IBEC). Also located here are CSIC laboratories, a number of business schools, the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, and the C4 Centre de Computació i Co- 3. PCB research: interdisciplinarity municació de Catalunya, as also academic facilities such as libraries, computer communications The PCB’s scope of activity focuses particularly networks, etc. Together, these entities configure on emerging research fields such as chemistry, an environment that fosters creativity and the de- pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and nanobioen- velopment of knowledge and applications that gineering, both in the public sector –represented add further value to the PCB. The academic mainly by the IRB, IBEC and the Institut de Biolo- world, moreover, also benefits from the science gia Molecular de Barcelona (IBMB) attached to park, in that contact with the business sector CSIC– and in the private sector. reshapes its research efforts and leads, to give just one example, to the creation of technology- The IRB is the largest research entity located in based spin-off enterprises. the PCB. Managed by the researchers Joan J. Guinovart and Joan Massagué, its aims are to Occupying a total surface area of 26,000 m2, the promote multidisciplinary research excellence in PCB is currently home to over 50 public research the interface between biology, chemistry and groups, 30 companies and 23 scientific/technolo- medicine, and to encourage cooperation with logical entities, distributed among four buildings, the cal bodies and international research centres.

92 BARCELONA SCIENCE PARK: RESEARCH AND INNOVATION EXCHANGE BETWEEN UNIVERSITIES AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR

Consisting of 25 research groups and employing living organisms and their development. Two par- some 300 researchers, the IRB focuses primarily ticular departments of this entity are located in on the frontiers of biomedical knowledge in five the PCB: the Department of Cellular Biology and priority areas, namely, Structural and Computa- the Department of Structural Biology. tional Biology, Chemical and Molecular Pharma- cology, Molecular Medicine, Cellular and Devel- As for the business sector, the PCB is home to opmental Biology, and Applied and Translational R+D and Innovation units for established compa- Oncology. Research in these fields has led, for nies –including the Merck Farma i Química Biore- example, to studies of the mechanisms respon- search Laboratory and the Esteve, Medichem sible for cancer metastasis and of new therapeu- and Quimera Ingeniería Biomédica units, to just tic targets for neurodegenerative diseases (such mention a few– and also to new start-up and as Alzheimer’s) or metabolic diseases (such as spin-off companies such as Advancell, Kymos diabetes). Pharma Services, CrystaX Pharmaceuticals, En- antia, ERA Biotech, Oryzon Genomics and Ole- The IBEC is a pioneering multidisciplinary body oyl-Estrone Development. Finally, new formulae that pursues research into the application of the for cooperation between established companies nanotechnologies to biomedicine in fields such and PCB research groups or technology plat- as Cellular Biology, Nanobioengineering, Biome- forms have been developed at the PCB, exam- chanics, Cellular Biophysics, Biomaterials, Tis- ples of which include the mixed Almirall Prodesfar- sue Implants and Engineering, Medical Signal ma-PCB, Lilly-PCB and Pharma Mar-PCB units. Processing and Instrumentation, and Robotics and Biomedical Imaging.

These activities are carried out by 50 researchers As for the business sector, the PCB is home to –led by Josep A. Planell (UPC) and Josep Sami- R+D and Innovation units for established com- tier (UB)– in conjunction with researchers from other universities and with researchers contract- panies and also to new start-up and spin-off ed under labour market insertion programmes companies. for doctors and research technicians. Among projects being implemented by the IBEC is the development of tools necessary for nanometric- scale operations (nanotweezers and complex The PCB also undertakes research in conjunc- technologies for the detection and observation of tion with the Protein Structure and Modelling atoms and molecules), nanocapsules for directing node of the Instituto Nacional de Bioinformática medication to a specific therapeutic target, and (a Genoma España initiative), the UB’s Centre technologies for differentiating stem cells for tis- de Recerca en Química Teòrica, the UB’s Grup sue regeneration purposes. de Recerca de Neurociència Cognitiva, and the PCB’s Laboratori del Clima. The PCB also fos- The IBMB-CSIC is pursuing research into the mo- ters research in foods through the Institut de lecular and genetic mechanisms involved in biolo- Nutrició i Seguretat Alimentària (INSA) attached gical processes of relevance to the physiology of to the UB.

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The PCB has, moreover, fostered the develop- The PCB modelled its biotechnology platforms on ment of a multidisciplinary environment for fields the French plateformes de recherche created by such as the social sciences, humanities, law and research and innovation legislation passed in economics, by hosting centres and observato- 1999, with the concept of technology platforms ries that carry out research and training and that adapted to the biotechnology, biomedicine and study topical issues such as bioethics and glo- pharmaceutical chemicals fields. The newness of balisation. It is also home to companies in the the application fields –for which a traditional ser- meteorology, computation and language, mate- vice focus is inadequate– requires platforms to rials design and intellectual property fields. actively participate in research projects, networks, technology development projects and partnerships that, in terms of time and complexity, go be- 4. The PCB as technology centre yond those provided by traditional services.

The first phase of the PCB construction project The PCB, the SCT-UB and IDIBAPS between involved a high level of technological investment, them manage a total of seven platforms, which with 5,000 m2 dedicated to powerful scientific together constitute a highly advanced technology and technological infrastructures and specialist service in areas such as proteomics, transcripto- research support services. This equipment and mics, combinatorial chemistry, fine chemistry, the PCB’s highly specialist technical workforce nanotechnology, crystallography and toxicology. have earned the PCB a reputation as a highly New network-based structures have been crea- competitive landmark technology centre. Dedi- ted, moreover, under the auspices of the UB cated primarily to the pharmaceutical and fine Group, for some of these platforms. Called mixed chemistry industries, it offers quality services to biotechnology platforms, they aim to optimise the use of technology resources and highly qualified human capital.

The PCB’s scientific and technological infra- Among the scientific services offered by the PCB, structures and its specialist research support of particular note are the services offered for general use (darkrooms, cell/tissue culture rooms, services together with it highly specialist centrifugal rooms, etc.), a 920 m2 animal facility technical workforce offer quality services to with a pathogen-free area for genetically modi- public research groups and businesses. fied organism maintenance, a radioactive facility, a transgenesis unit, and a special reactions service.

research groups located in the PCB, as also to The SCT-UB, which is a support centre for re- other public research groups and businesses in search into the life sciences, is composed of 24 the sector. The centre is also home to biotech- technical units, 12 of which are located in the nological platforms and PCB science services, PCB, among them, the 800MHz Nuclear Magne- as well as to certain elements of the UB Science tic Resonance Unit (catalogued by the Spanish and Technology Service (SCT-UB). government as a medium-sized scientific insta-

94 BARCELONA SCIENCE PARK: RESEARCH AND INNOVATION EXCHANGE BETWEEN UNIVERSITIES AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR

llation) and the Genomics, Confocal and Electro- Located also in the PCB is the UB Centre de Pa- nic Microscopy and Flow Cytometry units. tents which, in addition to carrying out research and training in the industrial property rights area, manages, together with researchers, the patent 5. Innovation and transfer application process on behalf of the UB.

The PCB has as its aim to reduce or eliminate the gap that exists between the academic and business sectors, in which the notions of market- The PCB together with the Centre d’Innova- ing, protection of property rights, services and externalisation are understood in very different ció de la Fundació Bosch i Gimpera, the ways. The PCB represents, thus, a pole of inno- Agència de Valorització i Comercialització vation for new business ideas, the development dels Resultats de la Investigació (AVCRI) of entrepreneurship, and the creation of public R+D technology-based businesses. and the Centre de Patents, are the members of the UB Group, which foster basic research Furthermore, together with the Centre d’Innovació and technology transfers from universities de la Fundació Bosch i Gimpera, the Agència de Valorització i Comercialització dels Resultats de la to the productive sectors. Investigació (AVCRI) and the Centre de Patents, the PCB is a member of the UB Group, which fosters basic research and technology transfers from universities to the productive sectors, thereby en- The entities within the UB Group aim to actively deavouring to raise the level of R+D and technolo- participate in R+D and Innovation policy-making gical innovation in the private sector. for the newly created European Research Area, which aims to foster greater cooperation between The Centre d’Innovació de la Fundació Bosch i university and business research, develop new Gimpera provides technology services, assists in ways for the public and private sectors to inter- developing research projects and supports the act with each other, facilitate the creation of high- creation of spin-off businesses. It also encour- level technology platforms that promote basic re- ages the development of an entrepreneurial spirit search and technological innovation in companies, through specific tutoring and monitoring pro- and undertake initiatives that lead to the creation grammes for research groups, and is responsi- of technology-based and academic spin-off ble, with the UB Centre de Patents, for the com- companies. mercialisation of patents originating in UB research groups. The first bioincubator

The AVCRI is a new UB Group structure which has In 2003, the UB, the PCB and the Generalitat as its ultimate aim the coordination and promotion –through its business development centre, the of the transfer, valuation and commercialisation of Centre d’Innovació i Desenvolupament Empresa- research results in all areas of knowledge. rial (CIDEM)– launched a project to construct the

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first bioincubator in Spain (the CIDEM-PCB Bio- ties located in the park, whether public or pri- incubator), with the ultimate aim of facilitating the vate. One of its most successful initiatives has creation of new spin-off technology-based com- been the creation of mixed units consisting of panies originating in research implemented in the businesses and PCB-based research groups public sector. To ensure their sustainability and and technology platforms. Examples include the competitivity, companies participating in this pro- Almirall Prodesfarma-PCB, Lilly-PCB and Phar- ject are provided with quality premises, scientific ma Mar-PCB mixed laboratories, which imple- and technological support infrastructures, busi- ment research into new drugs. ness management services and financial support. Moreover, concentration in the PCB of public research centres and businesses operating in the same research areas has enabled a broad range In 2003, the UB, the PCB and the Generalitat of synergies to be developed between the two launched a project to construct the first bioin- sectors. These have taken the form of a number of agreements entered into between PCB com- cubator in Spain, the CIDEM-PCB Bioincubator. panies and with other highly reputable businesses in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and fine chemistry sectors.

Over the last three years, five companies have Among the projects facilitated by the PCB in this come to form part of the CIDEM-PCB Bioincuba- respect is the creation, in cooperation with the UB tor– CrystaX Pharmaceuticals, Enantia, Era Bio- Brain Bank, of an innovation platform between tech, Oleoyl-Estrone Developments and Oryzon PCB-based biotech companies (Oryzon Geno- Genomics, all UB and CSIC spin-off companies– mics, Advancell and Crystax Pharmaceuticals) and six further companies will shortly be incor- and Esteve, aimed at developing a drug to treat porated. dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), which is the second most frequent senile dementia illness after At the international level, and with a view to pro- Alzheimer’s. moting new forms of international support for the creation of new businesses, the CIDEM-PCB Association between these companies –awarded Bioincubator signed a framework cooperation the Business Cooperation Distinction by the Premis agreement in September 2003 with the Quebec Barcelona d’Ofici Emprenedora– was made possi- Biotechnology Innovation Centre (QBIC), a busi- ble by funding provided by a Generalitat pro- ness incubator located in Biotech City in the La- gramme aimed at fostering this kind of cooperation val area of Quebec. so that R+D is both more focused on social needs and encourages the participation of local companies. The project was facilitated by the existence of 6. Fostering synergies spin-off companies specialising in different new drug development stages, which, in this particular Among the aims of the PCB is to encourage the case, worked closely with established companies creation of synergies between the different enti- in the PCB, with the PCB itself acting as catalyst.

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Another example of the synergies resulting from de Investigaciones Oncológicas, as also the the PCB biomedical R+D and Innovation frame- multinational Siemens and another four Spanish work is the involvement of a range of PCB-based biotech companies. technology platforms, mixed units, research groups and businesses in the implementation of three projects (Genius Pharma, ONCNOSIS and NanoFarma) that have received subsidies under A range of PCB-based technology platforms, the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Tra- mixed units, research groups and businesses de CENIT (Consorcios Estratégicos Nacionales en Investigación Técnica) programme, aimed at pro- have been involved this year in the imple- moting R+D+I cooperation between businesses mentation of three projects (Genius Pharma, and public research centres. Total subsidies will ONCNOSIS and NanoFarma) that have re- amount to close to 50 million euros, a sum representing 46.4% of the budgets for the projects. ceived subsidies of 50 million euros under the CENIT programme. With a total budget of 40 million euros, the Ge- nius Pharma project -headed by pharmaceutical companies (Almirall, Esteve and Uriach) and PCB-based biotech companies (CrystaX and En- The NANOFARM project is headed by the Pharma- antia)—involves the development of new drugs mar, Rovi and Faes Farma pharmaceutical compa- using state-of-the-art molecular design technolo- nies, and also includes the Catalan group LIPOTEC gies and high-level technology resources such and three other companies from this group (BCN as supercomputers and the Vallès (Barcelona) Peptides, GP Pharma and Diverdrugs). With a bud- synchrotron. Participants in the project include get of 38 million euros, NANOFARM involves the public research centres, the PCB’s Unitat de creation of nanotechnology platforms for drug de- Química Combinatòria, and the Centro Nacional livery systems (DDS), with the ultimate aim being de Genotipaje attached to the Institut Municipal to improve the therapeutic properties of the active d’Investigacions Mèdiques of Barcelona. ingredients in drugs. NANOFARM is an integrated multidisciplinary project that involves more than 25 The ONCNOSIS project involves the combined public research institutions, among them, the PCB, use of state-of-the-art technologies such as ge- IDIBAPS, Fundació Hospital Clínic, the CSIC and nomics and nanotechnology. Initiated by the the Miguel Hernández University. Grup Ferrer Internacional, Laboratoris Leti and the PCB-based biotech companies Oryzon Ge- PCB projects and alliances nomics and Advancell, it is an ambitious programme for research into early diagnosis mar- At the international level, and in accordance kers for several types of cancer. Worth 28 million with its priority lines of action, the PCB partici- euros, it involves 21 public research centres, pates in a number of European projects. As a among them the PCB Plataforma de Nanotecno- partner in the Nano2Life project -the first nano- logia, the Institut Català d’Oncologia, the Hospi- technology research excellence network in Eu- tal de la Vall d’Hebron and the Centro Nacional rope, which coordinates 23 European nanobio-

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medicine and nanotecnology centres– the PCB Centre, the Heidelberg Technology Park and CIC aims to implement its strategy of cooperating BioGUNE in the Basque Country. with industry.

It also participates in NATIBS (New Approaches and Tools for Incubated Biotech SMEs) –whose Key PCB Data aim is to encourage the involvement of small and medium biotech companies in initiatives Surface area: 26,000 m2 launched under the Sixth Framework Program- 2 me of the European Union– and is a member of (project total: 85,000m ) the board of the European Council of BioRe- Annual budget: 22 M gions– which aims to create a platform to promo- R+D and Innovation staff: 1,250 / Other staff: 130 te synergies between European bioregions so as to reinforce the European biotechnology sector. ICREA researchers: 12 Ramón y Cajal researchers: 18

Entities in the PCB:

Since 2003, the PCB has been implementing a 65 public sector research groups strategy for the creation of alliances with simi- 30 companies lar bodies, with the aims of devising alterna- 21 research support services tive forms of cooperation for the development of new companies, exchanging experiences Research on the management and development of science parks, and coordinating and optimi- Public Bodies sing know-how and technology use. Institut de Recerca Biomèdica (IRB) Institut de Bioenginyeria de Catalunya (IBEC) Institut de Biologia Molecular de Barcelona (IBMB-CSIC) Since 2003, moreover, the PCB has been imple- Instituto Nacional de Bioinformática menting a strategy for the creation of alliances (INB- Genoma España) with similar bodies, with the aims of devising alternative forms of cooperation for the develop- Laboratori del Clima ment of new companies, exchanging experiences Grup de Recerca de Neurociència Cognitiva on the management and development of science + 25 UB experimental science, humanities and social parks, and coordinating and optimising know- science research groups, centres, institutes and how and technology use. Examples of these alliances are the agreements signed, respecti- observatories. vely, with the Quebec Biotechnology Innovation

98 BARCELONA SCIENCE PARK: RESEARCH AND INNOVATION EXCHANGE BETWEEN UNIVERSITIES AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR

Companies CataloniaBio ABG Patentes Advancell In Vitro Technologies Genmedica Therapeutics Esteve Infinitec Activos Kymos Farma Services Sani-red Medichem Merck Farma y Química Services Quimera Ingeniería Biomédica CrystaX Pharmaceuticals Biotechnology Platforms: Enantia Combinational Chemistry, Fine Chemistry, Trans- criptomics, Proteomics, Nanotechnology, Automat- Era Biotech ed Crystallography, Experimental Toxicology and OED Ecotoxicology. Oryzon genomics Applera Hispania UB Science and Technology Services: Quality Guarantee, Genomics, Nuclear Magnetic Biolab Resonance, Transcriptomics, Proteomics, Fine Brucker Chemistry, Peptide Synthesis, Nanometric Tech- BTI-Teuto niques, Flow Cytometry, Confocal Microscopy and Diopma Cellular Micromanipulation, Electronic Microscopy Meta Group Spain and In-Situ Molecular Recognition, Separative Meteosim Analysis Techniques.

MicroArt PCB Science Service: Pharma Mar Animal Experimentation Service, General Scientific Psyncro Services, Racioactive Unit, Special Reactions Servi- Thera ce, Transgenesis Unit. ZBM Patents Innovation Mixed Units CIDEM-PCB Bioincubator Almirall Prodesfarma - PCB Agència de Valorització i Comercialització dels Resul- Lilly - PCB tats de la Innovació (AVCRI) Centre d’Innovació Fundació Bosch i Gimpera Pharma Mar - PCB UB Centre de Patents Associated Entities Other Grup Uriach BioRegió de Catalunya Prous Science (ICBR) CataloniaBio

99 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 NOTES

7. Communicating science emerging issues in science. Currently underway are the exhibitions «Embryos and 21st Century Medicine», «What do YOU think?» and «Nano- Science and technology increasingly affects the dialogue», with the last of these held within the daily lives of people, who, consequently, fre- framework of a European project for communi- quently have to make decisions and adopt posi- cating the nanotechnologies. tions in regard to controversial issues, such as, for example, the use of embryos for research or Held annually is the Research Live fair, which even in regard to whether or not to avail of the transmits the characterístic features of the scien- latest scientific or technological advances. This tific method. The fair iconsists of researchers, kind of decision –frequently classified as ethical who reproduce an element of their laboratory on in nature– require a profound scientific culture a stand, explaining their research to the public among the population so as to foster a positive and the public interacting by experimenting with attitude to innovation. some of the instruments used by the researchers. Research Live, which was held this year for the fourth time, is very popular with the public in general, but particularly with secondary school In the Research Live fair, which is held an- pupils. Moreover, with soon-to-graduate secon- nually, the researchers themselves transmit dary pupils in mind, the Research in Society programme implements a project (Research in Se- to the public the characterístic features of the condary Schools) to assist pupils with their scientific method. research projects and to draw up teaching re- source materials for education centres.

Linked more directly with the research implemented in the PCB are the PCB open days. The As one of its priorities, the PCB aims to contrib- PCB also arranges for speakers to meet re- ute to the development of an equitable culture quests from sociocultural and educational bod- that generates a positive image for science. To ies. Finally, within the framework of the Spend this end it undertakes projects to publicise sci- Summer in the Park programme, stays are orga- ence, aimed at providing information on ‘living nised for second-cycle university students with science’ undertakings (i.e. research that is being the aim of making them aware of the world of re- carried out in research centres around the search through participation in projects being world), with particular reference to research into undertaken in the PCB. areas that may directly affect people, whether implemented in the PCB or in other centres. 8. A second phase of growth ... The PCB Research in Society programme, for example, organises exhibitions characterised by The second phase of construction on the their interactivity and the participation of visitors, 60,000m2 remaining to complete the PCB project and aimed at encouraging public debate on has been undertaken this year. This expansion is

100 BARCELONA SCIENCE PARK: RESEARCH AND INNOVATION EXCHANGE BETWEEN UNIVERSITIES AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR

aimed at both meeting the demand for premises from new research groups, companies and ser- The second phase of construction on the vices, and extending the facilities available to 2 other entities already located within the PCB. 60,000 m remaining to complete the PCB project has been undertaken this year and is The second phase, which will mean the integra- aimed at meeting the demand for premises tion of all the buildings located between the Gre- from new research groups, companies and gorio Marañon, Baldiri Reixac and Josep Sami- tier streets, is anticipated to be operational by services. the end of 2008.

101 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 NOTES

CREATING NEW TECHNOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE: ANALYSIS OF A SURVEY OF INVENTORS IN CATALONIA

Walter García-Fontes*

Using a survey of inventors carried out in 2003, an analysis is made of the characteristics of the persons who have registered patents in the Catalan science and technology system. The results show that, while the main characteristics of inventors and the patents produced are very similar to those in other European countries, various differences stand out: 1) there is a slightly lower proportion of inventors with postgraduate degrees, 2) small-scale enterprises are slightly more important, and 3) the universities and public laboratories are less important as sources of knowledge for inventors. An analysis of the determinants of patent value shows that the significant factors are the inventor’s age, which may be associated with experience, whether an inventor forms part of more complex systems of knowledge creation or not, and the fact that a patent has been legally disputed or not. Further in-depth study of these various factors may serve to define a technology and science policy to close Catalonia’s technology gap.

Contents

Introduction Invention and creating technological value A descriptive analysis of the inventors survey What determines the value of a patented invention? Conclusions

* Walter García-Fontes is head of the Department of Economics and Business Studies at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and also of the CREA.

102 CREATING NEW TECHNOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE: ANALYSIS OF A SURVEY OF INVENTORS IN CATALONIA

1. Introduction incentives for the production of public goods. The system to protect intellectual property and in par- One good indicator of a country’s technological ticular the patent system is one way of mitigating capacity is the patents that are applied for and re- this problem of insufficient incentives. There are gistered, in that these are a record of new original also non-market-based mechanisms for recogni- ideas that can be applied in production. An analysing producers of results in science and techno- sis of the personal characteristics of the inventors logy, such as for example the assessment of who register these patents, the sources that they scientific reputation on the basis of publications use to produce new knowledge and to find fun- and awards. ding, together with the features of the patents produced, may help to understand a country’s national technology potential. There are certain Knowledge does not get depleted when it is limitations when using patents this way although given their potentiality they have been used for shared, and it is very difficult to exclude any- quite some time now to describe different econo- one from its use once it is made public. mic phenomena.1

Technical and technological knowledge protected by patents has the character of being a public Catalonia is in a favourable situation regarding the good, in addition to other particular characteris- production of patents with regard to the context in tics. Arrow2 was one of the first authors to charac- Spain, although in the European context its posi- terise knowledge as an economic asset and other tion is clearly unfavourable. Table 1 shows the authors have subsequently extended this con- number of patent applications to the European cept.3 Knowledge does not get depleted when it is Patent Office per million inhabitants of the working shared, and it is very difficult to exclude anyone population during 2002, for Catalonia, for the rest from its use once it is made public. Moreover, the of Spain, the average for the EU 15, and for va- incremental cost of adding more users of a parti- rious other European countries and regions that cular piece of knowledge is practically zero, and are comparable to Catalonia. As can be seen, the the use of knowledge increases its quantity in- figure for patent applications per million inhabi- stead of diminishing it. tants of the working population for Catalonia is more than twice that for Spain, whereas it is clearly One of the fundamental issues of economic theory behind other comparable regions (a ratio of 3 to 1), is that competitive markets fail to provide sufficient and very far behind in relation to Finland (6 to 1).

1 GRILLICHES,1990. 2 ARROW,1962. 3 DASGUPTA and DAVID, 1987.

103 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 NOTES

Table 1 its potential usefulness, are examined, and patent Patent applications at the European Patent Office per rights are then awarded to the inventor of the new milion inhabitants/working population (2002) knowledge. The owner of the patent may ultima- Total number of patent application tely be the company or entity where the person Flanders 376.3 registering the patent works. Denmark 423.4 Spain 63.3 The patent document itself contains information Catalonia 138.7 about the person who has registered the patent Lombardy 345.8 and the essential technical features of the inven- Finland 680.9 tion (knowledge). The information from the survey East Midlands 231.5 that is analysed in this paper identifies the inven- UE 15 average 341.0 tors and is complemented with information about Source: CIDEM, 2006. the patents by way of a series of questions put to the inventors, which are described in the follow- An analysis of the process whereby new knowl- ing section. edge is created may provide an understanding of this situation. This article gives an analysis of the The registering of patents is clearly associated characteristics of inventors in Catalonia based on a with investment in Research, Development and survey carried out in 2003 of inventors who had re- Innovation and is part of a conscious endeavour gistered patents between 1993 and 1996. The sur- by the science and technology system to create vey was carried out within the framework of the Eu- new products and production processes. The na- ropean project, «Patent value in Europe». ture of inventions has become less important as an independent and spontaneous process for gene- Section 2 briefly reviews the invention process. rating new knowledge and has come to form part Section 3 gives a descriptive analysis of the sur- of a process in which investment and the resour- vey. Section 4 looks into what determines the val- ces allocated to it all play a highly important role. ue of a patent, and the main conclusions are given Nevertheless, the knowledge generation process in section 5. continues to be influenced by the endeavours of individuals and teams, and an analysis of its features and the process that leads to new knowl- 2. Invention and creating technolo- edge being created may serve to understand the gical value obstacles and challenges confronting a country’s national science and technology system. A patent is a document granted by an authorised agency that guarantees the ownership (and there- In the case of Catalonia in particular, the science fore the exclusion of any third parties) of an advance and technology system is one of the most devel- generated in a technical field. A patent application oped in Spain although it lags behind in various im- is subjected to a process in which the originality and portant respects in relation to Europe, as has been the non-obviousness of the invention, in addition to shown in various different studies.4

4 CIDEM, 2006.

104 CREATING NEW TECHNOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE: ANALYSIS OF A SURVEY OF INVENTORS IN CATALONIA

An analysis of the survey of inventors is given below The survey included information on the individual and certain features are identified that give a better characteristics of inventors, the invention process understanding of the characteristics of the system (reasons for patenting, sources of invention), the whereby technological knowledge is created, cost of producing the patent, its use (commerciali- which may be associated with the obstacles that sation, licensing) and also patent value. Out of a to- are being confronted. tal of 256 Spanish inventors included in the survey, 104 resided in Catalonia (40.6%).6 3. A descriptive analysis of the inventors survey Out of a total of 256 Spanish inventors includ- This section gives a comparative analysis of in- ed in the survey, 104 resided in Catalonia ventors in Catalonia, based on a survey carried (40.6%). out in 2003 of a sample of inventors in six Euro- pean countries. The sample was set up using inventors who had registered patents at the Euro- pean Patent Office in the period from 1994-1996.5 One aspect that requires analysis is the gender The following table gives a summary of the com- and age make-up of the human capital involved plete survey: in creating new technical knowledge. One example of this kind of analysis is described by This table again shows how the Spanish science Stephan,7 who points out that the composition of and technology system lags behind the European the human capital involved in the process of gen- system. It can also be seen from the table that the erating new technological knowledge may have a production of patents is clearly lower than expect- clear influence on the system’s capacity. There are ed, given the size of the Spanish economy. important asymmetries in distribution according

Table 2 Features of the survey on «The value of patents in Europe»

Low United France Germany Italy Spain TOTAL Countries Kingdom

Total number of patents surveyed (replies) 1,486 3,346 1,250 1,124 256 1,542 9,004 Total number of patents sent 4,199 10,215 1,864 2,594 814 7,846 27,532 Reply rate 35.9% 32.67% 67.06% 44.53% 31.45% 19.70% 32.70% Total no. of registered patents (1994-1996) 12,386 12,249 4,957 2,831 814 7,846 39,650 Total population, in thousands (1995) 57,844 81,661 56,745 15,459 39,388 58,025

5 The survey was undertaken within the framework of the European project «The value of patents in Europe», within the EU’s Fifth Framework Programme for Research. 6 The survey was carried out by way of e.mail, with telephone back-up. Information on the inventors was also updated to increase the reply rate as much as possible. Non-replies included inventors who were deceased, who could not be located or who did not wish to participate. 7 STHEFAN, 1996

105 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 NOTES

to age and gender in practically all countries. Bar ing to gender, and bar graph 2 distribution accord- graph 1 shows the distribution of inventors according to age:

Graph 1 Distribution of inventors according to gender (%)

100

60 Male 50 Female 40

0 Catalonia Rest of Spain Other EU countries Source: The author, using the survey «The value of patents in Europe».

Graph 2 Distribution of inventors according to age (%)

25 Younger than 35 20 36-45

15 46-55 56-65 10 Over 65

0 Catalonia Rest of Spain Other EU countries Source: Bar graph by the author, based on the survey «The value of patents in Europe».

106 CREATING NEW TECHNOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE: ANALYSIS OF A SURVEY OF INVENTORS IN CATALONIA

The distribution according to gender in Catalonia is The presence of PhD holders who register patents similar to that for Spain as a whole, with a slightly appears to be less important in Catalonia than the higher figure for females, although it is non-signifi- rest of Europe. This aspect may indicate some type cant. There is no important difference for distribu- of imbalance between postgraduate training and tion according to age either, with most of the inven- the needs of private enterprise. tors being distributed in the 36-65 age group. The distribution in Catalonia in this respect is very similar to that for the rest of Europe, with a certain difference in relation to the rest of the Spain, where there One aspect that may act as a brake on new is a slightly higher percentage of young inventors knowledge being created is that the higher (the 36-45 age group). education system does not meet the needs of One aspect that may act as a brake on new knowl- the science and technology system. edge being created is that the higher education system does not meet the needs of the science and technology system, and that it does not provide for appropriate undergraduate or postgra- Research is carried out in the various different fields duate training. Bar graph 3 shows the distribution of the science and technology system. Bar graph 4 of inventors according to the highest academic level shows the distribution of inventors amongst these attained: different fields:

Graph 3 Distribution of inventors according to education (%)

25 Up to lower secondary

20 Higher secondary

15 Graduate /Master's

10 PhD

0 Catalonia Rest of Spain Other EU countries Source: Bar graph by the author, based on the survey «The value of patents in Europe».

107 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 NOTES

Graph 4 Type of institution (%)

80 Large-scale enterprise 70 Medium-scale enterprise 60 Small-scale enterprise 50 Hospital, private lab 40 Public research centre 30 University 20 Other type of public 10 centre

0 Other Catalonia Rest of Spain Other EU countries Source: Bar graph by the author, based on the survey «The value of patents in Europe».

The distribution in Catalonia and the rest of Spain is en into account in this respect. Bar graph 5 describes similar, with a slightly higher level of small-scale en- the various different sources used to generate knowl- terprises in Catalonia and a slightly lower level in the edge. This bar graph provides information on a se- case of the universities. In the other European ries of questions put to the inventors about their use countries, large-scale enterprises played a more of different sources of knowledge. The bar graph pronounced role. gives the percentage of inventors who affirmed they had used a specific source of knowledge.

The main source for new knowledge creation, ac- As a source for new knowledge creation, the cording to the inventors, is the use of other pat- universities and public laboratories are less ents. «Other patents» includes the patent references and scientific journals used. The other important in Catalonia and the rest of Spain important source is clients and users, together than in other European countries with suppliers and rivals, which have a similar importance across the entire sample. On the other hand, the universities and public laboratories are less important in Catalonia and the rest of Spain It is interesting to understand the process of how new than in other European countries, especially so in knowledge is created. The accumulation of knowl- the case of the universities in Catalonia. Spanish edge is very important in this process, and the trans- inventors underline other sources of knowledge for fer of knowledge may represent one aspect to be tak- inventors, and they use much more informal sour-

108 CREATING NEW TECHNOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE: ANALYSIS OF A SURVEY OF INVENTORS IN CATALONIA

Graph 5 Sources for knowledge creation

90 University 80 Public labs 70 Congresses 60 Scientific journals 50 Other patents 40 Clients and users 30 Suppliers 20 Rivals 10 Other sources 0 Catalonia Rest of Spain Other EU countries

Source: Bar graph by the author, based on the survey «The value of patents in Europe». ces that do not strictly match the usual actors in a highly asymmetric due to the existence of some (a science and technology system. few) very high cost projects. In the other European countries, there were some very large-scale pro- Table 3 gives information on the cost of generating jects. Nevertheless, the cost of the typical project a patent. (with an average distribution) is slightly higher for Spanish inventors (including the Catalans). As can be seen from the table, the distribution is Where does funding for innovation originate? This Table 3 may come from different sources, from self-finan- Cost of the invention (thousands of euros) cing to public financing to finance from abroad. Bar graph 6 gives information on the financing of pa- Rest Other Catalonia of Spain countries tents included in the survey:

Minimum 1 1 1 It can be seen that self-financing, or funds generat- First quartile 20 25 15 ed within a company or institution where patents are Medium 75 76 50 Third quartile 190 300 150 generated, is the main means. For Catalan inven- Maximum 3,850 8,000 300,000 tors, and especially for those in the rest of Spain, Average 237 384 416 public funding is more important than for those in Standard dev. 576 1,048 5,213 other European countries, who resort to other private sources of funding (cooperation with other com- Source: Table by the author, based on the survey «The value of patents in Europe». panies and the financial system) and other sources.

109 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 NOTES

Graph 6 Financing of inventions

100

70 Self-financing 60 Private funding 50 Financial system 40 Public funding 30 Other sources 20

0 Catalonia Rest of Spain Other EU countries

Source: Bar graph by the author, based on the survey «The value of patents in Europe».

There is a high level of heterogeneity amongst pat- in the rest of Spain than in Catalonia. ents in terms of their value, either directly where the company uses the patent in new products or pro- Patents can be commercialised directly or a licence duction processes, or indirectly where a patent has granted to allow another party to use the invention a strategic value for the company in that it prevents protected by the patent. Bar graphs 8 and 9 show other companies from using the technology or ex- the answers to questions concerning this, with the panding. percentage of cases where the patent has been commercialised and licensed. The distribution is Bar graph 7 shows the answers to a question where very similar for Catalonia, the rest of Spain and the the inventors were asked to give the value of their other European countries studied. The percentage patents according to a classification of patent value of patents that have been commercialised is slightly in the inventor’s sector: amongst the highest 10% in higher in Catalonia (70% compared to 60%) than in terms of value, amongst the 10% and 25% highest, the rest of Spain and Europe, although 15% of the amongst the 25% and 50% highest, or amongst the inventors in Europe considered the possibility of 50% of patents with the lowest values. commercialising their patents in the future.

As can be seen from the diagram, the distribution of It terms of licensing, the distribution is very similar values is more asymmetric for other European across the entire sample, and approximately 10% countries than for Spanish inventors. Average value of all patents are licensed. Between 20% and 30% patents (10-25% in the ranking) are more important of all patents are never used.

110 CREATING NEW TECHNOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE: ANALYSIS OF A SURVEY OF INVENTORS IN CATALONIA

Graph 7 Patent value

30 Highest 10%

25 Highest 10-25% 20 Highest 25-50% 15 Lowest 50% 10

0 Catalonia Rest of Spain Other EU countries

Source: Bar graph by the author, based on the survey «The value of patents in Europe».

Graph 8 Patent commercialisation

50 Yes

40 No

30 Under study

0 Catalonia Rest of Spain Other EU countries

Source: Bar graph by the author, based on the survey «The value of patents in Europe».

111 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 NOTES

Graph 9 Licensing

60 Yes 50 No 40 Under study 30

0 Catalonia Rest of Spain Other EU countries

Source: Bar graph by the author, based on the survey «The value of patents in Europe».

4. What determines the value of a In this section, an appraisal is made of the differ- patented invention? ent factors that may determine the distribution of the value of patents. The methodology used in This section goes into more detail regarding the this section consisted of using an estimated val- relationship between patent value and the differ- ue for registered patents obtained according to ent factors that may influence this. the procedure proposed by Harhoff, Scherer and Vopel.8 The estimated value of a patent was de- Research into the value of patents has been car- rived from the following multi-choice question ried out for several decades. Empirical evidence that was put to the inventors: «How high do you obtained of patent value shows that there is a think the minimum price would be for the owner highly asymmetric distribution, with some pat- of the patent to willingly sell the patent rights to ents attaining a very high value whereas the ma- an independent buyer the same day that the pa- jority of registered patents have a low or null val- tent was registered?» The different possible ans- ue. In section 3, it has been shown that, with wers provided were: less than 30,000 euros, 30- regard to Catalonia, registered patents are very 100,000, 100-300,000, 300,000 to 1 million, 1 positively valued by the inventors who register to 3 million, 3 to 10 million, 10 to 30 million, 30 them. to 100 million, 100 to 300 million, and more than

8 HARHOFF, SCHERER and VOPEL, 2003.

112 CREATING NEW TECHNOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE: ANALYSIS OF A SURVEY OF INVENTORS IN CATALONIA

300 million. Although an exact estimate of the value search that led to the patent received finance of a patent is not obtained this way, the advant- from public funding, and 0 if this was not the case. age of offering these possible intervals as ans- - Litigation: this takes a value of 1 if the patent had wers is that they help to orientate the inventor re- been legally disputed, and 0 if this was not the garding his/her estimated value of the patent. case. The quality of the data obtained by way of this - Catalonia: this takes a value of 1 if the research procedure was researched and, through the use that led to the patent was carried out in Catalo- of various alternative measurement calculations, nia, and 0 if this was not the case. it was demonstrated that the value of patents obtained using this direct means does offer a va- The results are given in table 4. An ordinary least lid tool for approximating the economic value of squares estimate is made, with robust standard the knowledge generated.9 errors to take account of the possibility of hetero- scedasticity. The logarithm of the registered paten- The information obtained in the survey on Spanish t’s value is used as a dependent variable. The re- inventors is used in this section. Survey question- gression constant is excluded given that it appears naires returned with incomplete information on the as being non-significant. variables included in this analysis were discarded, leaving a total of 112 cases, 41 of which were from The regression gives a determination coefficient (R2) Catalan inventors. Some of the variables used in of 0.77 and a high and clearly significant value for the previous section were included as determining factors, in particular the following: Table 4 - Male: fictitious variable that takes a value of 1 if Dependent variable: logarithm for the patent value (in thousands of euros) the inventor is male, and 0 in the case of a female. Estimated Standard Variable - Licence: fictitious variable that takes a value of coefficient error (robust) 1 if the patent has been commercialised or li- Male -0.56 1.30 censed, and 0 in all other cases. Licence 0.68 0.68 - Age: the age at which the inventor registered the Age 0.16** 0.06 patent. Age2 -0.001 0.01 - Age2: the square of the inventor’s age, to take Family 1.17** 0.61 into account a non-linear relationship between Public funding 0.45 1.03 patent value and the inventor’s age, i.e. if there is Litigation 2.73* 1.58 an increasing relationship up to a certain age and Catalonia 0.03 0.72 beyond which there is a decrease. Number of observations 112 F-statistic - Family: this takes a value of 1 if the patent forms (joint significance) 80.97 part of a broader family of patents, and 0 if this R2 0.77 was not the case. ** Significant coefficient at 5% - Public funding: this takes a value of 1 if the re- * Significant coefficient at 10%

9 GAMBARDELLA, HARHOFF and VERSPAGEN, 2006.

113 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 NOTES

an F-statistic test of the joint significance of the set measures the logarithm for patent value (originally of variables included, showing that, all together, the in thousands of euros), it can be calculated that, for variables do account for an important proportion of each additional year of age of the person registering the variability of patent value. Only a few variables the patent, the average value obtained for the pat- however appear to be significant determinants of ent increases by 1.17 thousand euros (e0.16= 1.17), the registered patents. which shows that experience appears to account for a high value. Gender appears as being non-significant and negative, i.e. the mean value of registered patents for Another variable that appears to be significant is males is lower than the mean of registered patents the «family» variable. This variable takes into ac- for females. This result may be associated with the count whether a patent forms part of a family of fact that there are few female inventors with regis- patents or not, that is, if it forms part of a broader tered patents, although it is interesting to observe research project that includes different patents that the coefficient is negative, which may indicate that protect different parts of a more complex that patents registered by women have a relatively system of knowledge. The added value from for- high value. ming part of a family of patents is 3.22 thousand euros (e1.17). The «licence» variable does not appear as being significant either. In principle, one would expect The type of financing does not appear to affect patents that have been commercialised or li- patent value. Patents that are the result of publicly censed to have a higher value than the others, al- funded research appear to have a similar value to though this effect does not appear to be verified in those that are self-financed or funded by financial the results given. The value of a patent may be di- intermediaries. rectly associated with commercialisation of the new knowledge that is produced, either directly The «litigation» variable on the other hand gives a by the owner of the patent or another entity that coefficient with a high value that is highly significant. has obtained a licence, or a strategic value asso- This variable takes account of the fact that the pat- ciated with the protection of associated products ent has been legally disputed, and that another or markets. The result obtained here may show company or entity has considered that the knowl- that patents in the Spanish technology system edge that has been registered infringes a previous have more of a strategic value than a direct im- patent or that it does not represent original or non- pact on production. obvious knowledge. The estimated impact here is 15,000 euros (e2.73). Disputed patents represent One variable that appears as being significant is age, new technological knowledge which has an impor- which may indicate that experience plays an important impact on a particular market or industry that tant role in obtaining patents that have a higher value. another company wishes to protect, and these the- This effect would always appear to increase, as refore quite predictably have a higher value than the «age2» variable (the square of the inventor’s age) other types of patent. gives a very low and non-significant coefficient. Bearing in mind that the estimated coefficient is Patents registered in Catalonia show no signifi- equal to 0.16, and that the dependent variable cantly different value to Spanish patents as a whole.

114 CREATING NEW TECHNOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE: ANALYSIS OF A SURVEY OF INVENTORS IN CATALONIA

5. Conclusions An analysis of the factors determining patent value shows significant factors to be the inven- An analysis is made in this article of the characteris- tor’s age, which may be associated with expe- tics of people in Catalonia who specialise in cre- rience; whether an inventor forms part of more ating new knowledge, and also the factors that de- complex systems of knowledge creation or not, termine the value of patents that are produced, and the fact that a patent has been legally dis- based on a survey carried out in 2003 on patents puted or not. registered in the period between 1994-1996. This analysis may help to establish criteria for im- From a general description of the survey analysed proving the science and technology system in in the article, it can be deduced that, while the pro- Catalonia. It suggests in particular that account duction of patents is much less intense in Catalonia must be taken of whether the higher education and the rest of Spain than in other European coun- system fulfils its role of training, and if access to tries, the distribution of the main features of inven- the system generates asymmetries in relation to tors and the patents that are produced is very simi- age and gender. In terms of patent value, the lar to that of other European countries. The main analysis shows that, in spite of the fact that an in- differences are as follows: sufficient number of patents is produced, those that are have a high value, and that projects with 1. The proportion of inventors with postgraduate the potential of generating more than one patent degrees is slightly lower. need to be identified and developed. Further in- 2. Small-scale enterprises are slightly more important. depth study of these various factors may serve to 3. The universities and public laboratories are less define a technology and science policy that helps important as sources of knowledge for inventors. to close Catalonia’s technology gap.

References

ARROW, K. J. «Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Invention». In: The rate and direction of inventive activity: Economic and social factors. Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1962, p. 609-25.

CIDEM. «La situació de la innovació a Catalunya», study coordinated by Isabel Busom. Barcelona, 2006.

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115 resúmenes en castellano resums en català CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 RESÚMENES EN CASTELLANO

LA ECOLOGÍA, ¿CIENCIA PARQUES CIENTÍFICOS Y CIRIT. 25 AÑOS ROMÁNTICA? TECNOLÓGICOS Y UNIVERSIDADES EN EL SISTEMA Fina Villar i López Josep M. Camarasa DE INCUBACIÓN DE EMPRESAS DE BASE TECNOLÓGICA: El pasado mes de noviembre se cumplie- La ecología es una disciplina científica pe- CONTRIBUCIÓN DESDE EL ron 25 años de la creación de la Comisión culiar con unas características que com- MODELO DE LA TRIPLE HÉLICE Interdepartamental de Investigación e In- parte con muy pocas otras (ciencia de sín- novación Tecnológica (CIRIT), actual Con- tesis, multiplicidad de raíces, enfoques Josep M. Piqué, Sònia González, sejo Interdepartamental de Investigación e holísticos, etc.). A partir de estas caracte- Joan Bellavista, y Víctor Alves Innovación Tecnológica. A pesar de las difi- rísticas y de la historia de la disciplina se cultades que ha habido en este período de concluye que la ecología es una ciencia El objetivo de este artículo es analizar el nuestra historia, y en concreto en el campo profundamente marcada por el pensa- papel de los parques científicos y tecno- de la investigación y la innovación, la/el CI- miento romántico de finales del siglo xVIII y lógicos y de las universidades en el siste- RIT ha manifestado su voluntad infrangible las primeras décadas del xIX y que ha teni- ma de incubación de empresas de base y decidida de conducir un proyecto de fu- do sus períodos más brillantes en los suce- tecnológica dentro del sistema de inno- turo para Cataluña en este campo que, si sivos momentos históricos de resurgimien- vación regional. El análisis se realiza a era necesario en el momento de su crea- to de este pensamiento, entendido como partir de la realidad emprendedora del ción, es tan o más vigente en la actualidad, crítica del modelo contemporáneo de civili- territorio de Cataluña durante el período aunque por razones distintas. zación desde dentro de esta civilización, 2001-2003, y pretende contribuir, desde como autocrítica de la modernidad. el modelo de la triple hélice, a un modelo En este artículo se realiza una aproxima- que permita analizar el sistema de incu- ción a los hechos más destacados de la bación de empresas de base tecnológica evolución de esta institución y se aportan en Cataluña. algunos de los datos más significativos de esta evolución.

En el primer capítulo titulado «Primeros pa- sos» se hace referencia a la constitución de esta institución, el contexto social, las per- sonalidades implicadas, los instrumentos organizativos, los objetivos planteados, así como las primeras actuaciones. A conti- nuación, en el capítulo «Hechos destacados» se han puesto de relieve los aconteci- mientos que incidieron de forma importante en la evolución de esta institución. En los capítulos «Nuevo impulso» y «Planes Cua- drienales» se exponen los hechos más rele- vantes de la actividad desarrollada en dos etapas diferenciadas con la inclusión de datos y actuaciones significativas.

118 PARQUE DE INVESTIGACIÓN EL PARQUE CIENTÍFICO DE LA CREACIÓN DE NUEVO CONO- BIOMÉDICA DE BARCELONA BARCELONA (PCB), LA CIMIENTO TECNOLÓGICO: ANÁ- (PRBB) INVESTIGACIÓN Y LA LISIS DE UNA ENCUESTA DE IN- INNOVACIÓN ENTRE LA VENTORES EN CATALUÑA Jordi Camí, Reimund Fickert y Teresa UNIVERSIDAD Y LA EMPRESA Badia Walter García-Fontes Susana Herráiz, Rosina Malagrida, y La inauguración del Parque de Investiga- Fernando Albericio Mediante el análisis de una encuesta de ción Biomédica de Barcelona (Parc de inventores realizada el año 2003, se estu- Recerca Biomèdica de Barcelona, PRBB), El Parque Científico de Barcelona, creado dian las características de las personas el pasado mes de mayo, culmina cinco por la Universidad de Barcelona, con el que han registrado patentes en el sistema años de edificación y un período de unos apoyo de la Fundación Bosch i Gimpera y de ciencia y tecnología catalán. Los prin- veinte años trabajando para construir una Caixa Catalunya, concentra en un solo es- cipales resultados muestran que, aunque infraestructura científica capaz de com- pacio físico grupos que lideran la investi- las características principales de los in- petir con los mejores centros europeos. gación en las entidades públicas, junto ventores y las inventoras y de las patentes En este sentido, el PRBB es un campus con empresas que apuestan por la inno- producidas se parecen bastante a las del de producción intensiva de conocimiento vación y las infraestructuras científico tec- resto de países europeos, se pueden des- en el ámbito de la biomedicina y de las nológicas potentes. Este año, se inicia la tacar algunas diferencias: 1) una propor- ciencias de la salud, que destaca por su ampliación de este espacio para conti- ción un poco más reducida de inventores masa crítica, por su personal investigador nuar impulsando la investigación interdis- con postgrados, 2) un peso ligeramente de alto nivel y también por su carácter in- ciplinaria y de excelencia en áreas de la mayor de les pequeñas empresas y 3) un ternacional. biomedicina y la biotecnología, y también peso menor de las universidades y los la- en otras relacionadas con las ciencias ex- boratorios públicos como fuentes de co- perimentales, humanas y sociales; y esta- nocimiento para los inventores. Por últi- bleciendo nuevas fórmulas que faciliten mo, un análisis de los determinantes del que el conocimiento generado en su en- valor de las patentes muestra que salen torno llegue al conjunto de la sociedad como a factores significativos la edad de mediante, por ejemplo, la creación de em- los inventores, que puede estar asociada presas o de tecnologías concretas que con la experiencia, el hecho de pertene- contribuyan a mejorar la calidad de vida cer a sistemas de creación de conoci- de la población. miento más complejos y si la patente fue cuestionada legalmente. Una exploración más a fondo de estos diversos factores puede ayudar a diseñar una política tec- nológica y científica que ayude a reducir el déficit tecnológico de Cataluña.

119 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 RESUMS EN CATALÀ

L'ECOLOGIA, CIÈNCIA PARCS CIENTÍFICS I CIRIT. 25 ANYS ROMÀNTICA? TECNOLÒGICS I UNIVERSITATS EN Fina Villar i López EL SISTEMA D'INCUBACIÓ Josep M. Camarasa D'EMPRESES DE BASE El passat mes de novembre es van complir L'ecologia és una disciplina científica TECNOLÒGICA: CONTRIBUCIÓ vint-i-cinc anys de la creació de la Comis- peculiar amb unes característiques que DES DEL MODEL DE LA TRIPLE sió Interdepartamental de Recerca i Inno- comparteix amb molt poques altres (cièn- HÈLIX vació Tecnològica (CIRIT), actual Consell cia de síntesi, multiplicitat d'arrels, enfo- Interdepartamental de Recerca i Innovació Josep M. Piqué, Sònia González, Joan caments holístics, etc.). A partir d'aques- Tecnològica. Tot i els entrebancs que han Bellavista i Víctor Alves tes característiques i de la història de la succeït en aquest període de la nostra his- disciplina mateixa es conclou que l'ecolo- tòria, i en concret en el camp de la recerca, L'objectiu d'aquest article és analitzar el gia és una ciència profundament marcada i la innovació, la/el CIRIT ha manifestat la paper dels parcs científics i tecnològics i pel pensament romàntic dels anys finals seva voluntat infrangible i decidida de con- de les universitats en el sistema d'incuba- del segle XVIII i les primeres dècades del duir un projecte de futur per a Catalunya en ció d'empreses de base tecnològica dins XIX i que ha tingut els seus períodes més aquest camp que, si calia en el moment de del sistema d'innovació regional. L'anàlisi brillants en els successius moments his- la seva creació, és tant o més vigent en es realitza a partir de la realitat emprene- tòrics de revifalla d'aquest pensament, l’actualitat, encara que per raons diferents. dora del territori de Catalunya durant el entès en el sentit de crítica del model període 2001-2003, i pretén contribuir, contemporani de civilització des de dins En aquest article es fa una aproximació als des del model de la triple hèlix, a un model mateix d'aquesta civilització, d'autocríti- fets més destacats de l’evolució d’aques- que permeti analitzar el sistema d'incuba- ca de la modernitat. ta institució i s’aporten algunes de les da- ció d'empreses de base tecnològica a des més significatives d’aquesta evolució. Catalunya. En el primer capítol, titulat «Primers pas- sos», es fa referència a la constitució d’aquesta institució, al context social, a les personalitats implicades, els instruments organitzatius, als objectius plante- jats, a les primeres actuacions. A conti- nuació, en el capítol Fets destacats, s’han posat en relleu els esdeveniments que van incidir de manera important en l’evolució d’aquesta institució. En els capítols «Nou impuls» i «Plans de recerca quadriennals» es recullen els trets més rellevants de l’activitat que s’ha dut a terme en dues etapes diferenciades, amb la inclusió de dades i actuacions significatives.

120 PARC DE RECERCA BIOMÈDICA EL PARC CIENTÍFIC DE LA CREACIÓ DE CONEIXEMENT DE BARCELONA (PRBB) BARCELONA (PCB), LA RECERCA I TECNOLÒGIC NOU: ANÀLISI LA INNOVACIÓ ENTRE LA D’UNA ENQUESTA D’INVENTORS Jordi Camí, Reimund Fickert i Teresa Badia UNIVERSITAT I L’EMPRESA A CATALUNYA Susana Herráiz, Rosina Malagrida, Walter García-Fontes La inauguració del Parc de Recerca Bio- Fernando Albericio mèdica de Barcelona (PRBB) el proppas- Mitjançant l’anàlisi d’una enquesta d’in- sat mes de maig, posa fi a cinc anys de El Parc Científic de Barcelona, creat per la ventors realitzada l’any 2003, s’estudien construcció i a un període d’uns vint Universitat de Barcelona, amb el suport les característiques de les persones que anys treballant per bastir una infraestruc- de la Fundació Bosch i Gimpera i la Caixa han registrat patents al sistema de ciència tura científica capaç de competir amb Catalunya, concentra en un sol espai físic i tecnologia català. Els principals resultats els millors centres europeus. En aquest grups capdavanters de recerca d’entitats mostren que tot i que les principals carac- sentit, el PRBB és un campus de pro- públiques, amb empreses que aposten terístiques dels inventors i inventores i de ducció intensiva de coneixement en per la innovació i amb infraestructures les patents produïdes s’assemblen força l’àmbit de la biomedicina i de les ciències cientificotecnològiques potents. Enguany, a la resta de països europeus, es poden de la salut, que destaca per la seva mas- s’inicia l’ampliació d’aquest espai per destacar algunes diferències: 1) una pro- sa crítica, pel seu personal investigador continuar impulsant la recerca interdisci- porció una mica més reduïda d’inventors d’alt nivell i també pel seu caràcter inter- plinària i d’excel·lència en àrees de la bio- amb postgraus, 2) un pes lleument més nacional. medicina i la biotecnologia, i també en al- gran de les petites empreses i 3) un pes tres de relacionades amb les ciències més reduït de les universitats i els labora- experimentals, humanes i socials; i esta- toris públics com a fonts de coneixement blint noves fórmules que facilitin que el co- per als inventors. Finalment, una anàlisi neixement generat en el seu entorn arribi dels determinants del valor de les patents al conjunt de la societat mitjançant, per mostra que surten com a factors significa- exemple, la creació d’empreses o de tec- tius l’edat dels inventors, cosa que pot es- nologies concretes que contribueixin a tar associada amb l’experiència, el fet de millorar la qualitat de vida de la població. formar part de sistemes de creació de coneixement més complexos i si la patent va estar qüestionada legalment. Una explo- ració més a fons d’aquests diversos factors pot ajudar a dissenyar una política tecnològica i científica que ajudi a reduir el dèficit tecnològic de Catalunya.

121 COBERTA 11 anglès 18/1/07 14:00 Página 2

. CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT Knowledge and Society. Journal of Universities, Research and the Information Society. Number 11. May-August 2006

Chief editor Josep M. Camarasa i Castillo

Coordinator Blanca Ciurana i Llevadot

Coordinating editor and production Glòria Vergés i Ramon

Design Quin Team!

Layout Inom,sa

English translation Gerardo Denis Brons, Alan Lounds Jones, Carl MacGabhann, Ailish M. J. Maher, Charles Southgate and Tobias Willett

Also available on-line in Catalan on the DEiU web site: www.gencat.cat/universitatsirecerca/coneixementisocietat www.gencat.cat/universitatsirecerca/knowledgeandsociety COBERTA 11 anglès 18/1/07 14:00 Página 1

11 11 CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT 11 Knowledge and Society

SUMMARY

ARTICLES

Cirit. 25 Years 48 Fina Villar i López CONEIXEMENT I SOCIETAT Knowledge and Society. Journal of Universities,

NOTES I

SOCIETAT Research and the Information Society. The Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB) 82 Number 10. January-April 2006. Jordi Camí, Reimund Fickert and Teresa Badia

Creating new technological knowledge: Analysis of a survey of inventors in Catalonia 102 Walter García-Fontes