Catalonia, the leading industrial region within Spain, continues to be a benchmark both nationally and Europe-wide in such key sectors as automobiles (the heart of southern Europe), biotechnology, pharmaceuticals (ranking third in Europe in terms of new investment), chemicals and a textiles sector that is being reconverted with a new focus on high quality production.

 

In light of the challenges of globalisation and international competitiveness, Catalonia is also striving to be a reference point in new areas that range from design and logistics to the aeronautics industry. In 2000, the Barcelona Aeronautic and Space (BAIE) platform was built with the aim of turning the Barcelona metropolitan region and Catalonia as a whole into a competitive centre for promoting aeronautics and space activities. In 2004, turnover in the Catalan aerospace sector reached €105m, and the activities were divided into 78% aeronautics (91% in the EU), and 22% space (9% in the EU). Barcelona holds the 2005-2006 presidency of the Community of Ariane Cities, a 34-member association of cities, enterprises and scientific groups involved in building and launching Ariane rockets.

 

 

The Government of Catalonia recently approved its first Research and Innovation Plan, which outlines Research and Development (R&D) as well as Innovation for 2005-2008. Its prime objective is to attain global investment amounting to over 2% of GDP in R&D during the four-year period, and 5% of GDP in business innovation investments.

 

Among the main goals of the Research and Innovation Plan are a move to stimulate the private sector to set aside resources for R&D, policies to incorporate new researchers into the Catalan Research System, the strengthening of collaboration between universities, Research Centres and the business community, to continue to give impulse to the quality of research and the competitive integration of Catalonia in the European Research Area and to consolidate the Catalan model of Research, Technology Transfer and Innovation.

 

An impressive array of initiatives is being undertaken to consolidate Catalonia’s position as a pole of biomedical and health research, and as a leader in stem cell research. As the capital of Catalonia, Barcelona has become the site of a number of different high-tech bodies. One pioneering initiative in Europe is 22@, which aims to reconvert a district of the city that had once been a dynamic centre of Spanish industrialisation back in the 19^th century, into the prime platform for knowledge-based economic activities in Catalonia.

 

Research into regenerative medicine is being given a healthy impetus through the creation of the Regenerative Medicine Research Centre in Barcelona, in conjunction with the Spanish Ministry of Health. Barcelona has also promoted the creation of the Bio-Region, a strategic network for facilitating research in the biomedical and health research sectors that is backed by public and private sectors partners. Its aim is to create a pole of research and development that will further consolidate Catalonia’s position as an internationally competitive bio-region.

 

Catalonia generates almost 30% of all Spain’s scientific output in biomedicine, with the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park now firmly established as one of the most important scientific structures in translational biomedical research in Europe. It is an advanced scientific project based on the quality of its researchers, that stands out because of its international perspective and critical mass.

Barcelona is the home of Mare Nostrum, the most powerful supercomputer in Europe and the fourth in the world, which helps make Catalonia a leader in world supercomputing. It is made up of a series of extremely powerful interconnected computers that enable large amounts of information to be processed simultaneously. This supercomputer is available to the world scientific community and can be used to study the human body, predict climate changes, forecast the effects of floods and earthquakes and study the environment, as well as a multitude of other complex tasks.

 

Construction is to begin shortly on the “Alba” synchrotron light source, a €169m investment which is due to be working in 2009. Of the 10 synchrotron light sources in Europe, only three or four will be third generation, and this will be the only one south of the Paris-Trieste line, with the exception of the source in Grenoble. The synchrotron enables important applications in different realms of research to be undertaken, among them molecular biology for studying proteins and viruses and designing drugs, medical imaging and possible therapies, developing new drugs and, in the industrial domain, manufacturing small objects and developing and studying the properties of new materials.

 

As of February 2006, Barcelona is host to the European legal entity headquarters of the ITER, the most important experimental thermonuclear fusion reactor in the world which is to be built in Cadarache, France. Cataloniabelieves this will strengthen the region’s potential and attractiveness as a platform for deploying important energy projects.

 

 

Catalonia boasts one of the largest university communities in Europe, with 12 Catalan universities and more than 250 degree programmes. Because of its role as a pioneering university in virtual education and e-learning, we wish to spotlight the Open University of CataloniaCatalonia through the Erasmus programme. (UOC), which celebrates its tenth anniversary as an emergent institution in the new information and knowledge society. It is also important to highlight the fact that in 2004 some 4,100 European students studied in

 

 Selected testimonials: Why Catalonia?

 

"By hosting the first bio-incubator in Spain, Barcelona is one of the main biotech clusters in the country". Julia Winter, Sofinnova Partner's Manager in Spain

"The top five area destinations for chemical manufacturing projects are Catalonia..." 
European Chemical News, Chemical Investment Sites Supplement