Innovation Archives - CERCA

Plan to boost knowledge transfer and innovation in social sciences and humanities

Eugenia Sendra — Fri, 28 Jun 2024 12:30:27 +0000

The program to boost innovation in social sciences and humanities aims to promote the transfer of knowledge and innovation in the social sciences and humanities centres of the CERCA system (CED, CREI, IBEI, ICAC, ICP, ICRPC and IPHES).

Dr. Jessica Meijer, head of innovation and business development at LURIS, the transfer unit of Leiden University, collaborates with the institution CERCA to carry out the programme. It was launched in January 2024, and it is based in training and knowledge of good international practices.

A collection of videos explain the project through interviews with members of the centres, Jessica Leiden and CERCA staff.

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Innovation in Social Science and Humanities

Comunicació — Mon, 19 Feb 2024 23:09:40 +0000

The plan is addressed to the seven CERCAs of this area and aims to identify the challenges, share good international practices, and design an action plan that will be developed during 2024.

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Call: CERCAGINYS III

Comunicació — Fri, 29 Dec 2023 11:23:37 +0000

Call “CERCAGINYS III” to collaborate in the development of scientific infrastructures to be acquired as cooperative equipments and infraestructures among reserach centres.

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VES-HI CERCA KTT

Comunicació — Thu, 28 Dec 2023 14:42:27 +0000

Call for the mobility and exchange of knowledge transfer professionals within the programme to boost knowledge transfer and innovation, through cross-cutting actions aimed at promoting and communicating the transfer of the CERCA System.

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Support for spin-offs

Comunicació — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 13:19:15 +0000

The CERCA system, made up of the CERCA centres and their spin-offs, forms a single system. There are currently 207 spin-offs from CERCA centres and a further 15-20 are set up each year.

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CERCAGINYS

Comunicació — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 13:18:58 +0000

CERCAGINYS is the platform for accessing the scientific and technical infrastructures of the 41 CERCA centres.

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Pioneer Awards

Comunicació — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 13:18:44 +0000

You can apply if you are a researcher at a CERCA centre and have submitted your thesis with clear market-oriented results in the last year.

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CERCAGÍNJOL

Comunicació — Sun, 31 Jul 2022 19:50:22 +0000

CERCAGÍNJOL is a patent and intellectual and industrial property protection fund unique in Spain. Created in 2016, it was initially funded by the CERCA Institute and a one-off contribution from participating centres.

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Crossroad for RDI

Lluís Rovira — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 16:10:05 +0000

Science and knowledge-based innovation in Catalonia are evolving fast and well. But the timing is delicate. On the one hand, government authorities are digging in by filling any process related to research and innovation management with bureaucracy. This does nothing to help but does not look like it can be easily changed. On the other hand, research and innovation centres are looking for imaginative ways to tiptoe round the limits of current legislation, using what I like to term the “Ferraté tactic”*, in order to carry out their activity.

Right at the heart of these dynamics, at the CERCA Institute we continue to promote the activity of the centres through collaborative projects. To date, we have worked to ensure that a COFUND action with 21 CERCA centres soon becomes a reality. We have created a GÍNJOL patent fund, something unprecedented in our country, and for which we would be grateful for support from government authorities to make it more sustainable in its early years. We have managed the SUMA programme for the merger of centres, so far reducing the number of CERCA centres from 47 to 40, with no loss in scientific and technological competitiveness. We have assessed the CERCA centres systematically since 2012, providing valuable recommendations. We have contributed to dignifying the role of female researchers in research centres. We have speeded up the awarding of HRS4R accreditation for many research centres. We have overseen the creation of spin-offs and the selection of new centre directors. We have fought for fair VAT rebates for the centres (a battle that is on-going). We are working on a code of good conduct for CERCA centre managers and researchers, and we have worked with the Generalitat and I think with everyone else, among many other achievements.

But this is not enough. Either we align the efforts of the various actors or the sum of individual actions will have no significant effect. There are times ahead when the country will require coordination in all our actions to create economies of scale and deliver meaningful results.

(*) In reference to Gabriel Ferraté, Director of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) from 1995 to 2005.

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State, research and innovation

Lluís Rovira — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 08:00:16 +0000

Researchers, research groups, entrepreneurs and everyone professionally engaged in research and innovation need a specific environment, often referred to as the innovation ecosystem, that supports and promotes such activities. What promotes research and innovation is funding for projects and actions, but also the right legal environment and tax system, society’s respect for researchers and innovative public procurement, among other factors.
 For more than 30 years in Catalonia, the promotion of research has been the legal reserve of the Spanish State, but the Generalitat de Catalunya has also exercised this competency, much more so than the State. This double boost has resulted in significant progress in research, and just recently innovation also seems to be taking shape.
 Thanks to all these developments, institutions, researchers and research and innovation personnel have become highly professionalised and include true experts in many fields in Catalonia. The maturity of this system means it can now be analysed to find out what suits our research and innovation. What would we ask a state to do to facilitate Catalonia’s scientific and technological progress? I propose a discussion on this issue and stress the following points:
 I shall start with those aspects that are not suitable. Legal or fiscal uncertainty is not desirable. Legal restrictions that prevent institutions from growing and managing themselves logically are not suitable. Restrictions on different knowledge transfer operations are not appropriate. Irregular and decreasing funding for research and innovation is undesirable. Perverse assessment systems that distribute grants and funding symmetrically without prioritising excellence are not suitable. Neglecting funding for infrastructure of all kinds is not what we need.
 On the other hand, we do need higher budgets to overcome the frequent precaritiy of our research and innovation centres. And we also need brilliant people, many of them young researchers produced in the country, to be incorporated into Catalonia’s research and innovation system easily and under decent conditions, while also providing them with opportunities for international mobility. A firm commitment to excellence based on objective assessments is needed. We need significant funding for innovation based on disruptive technologies. We need the State to trust in the technologies created here and to buy and use them. We must systematically involve research and innovation in most government actions. We need sensitive and knowledgeable leaders. We need a proper legal and fiscal framework, and a new order in the field of patronage, as well as a new order in the framework of public research institutions.
 Now we have to see who is offering all this…

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