Just under half of the startups have a patent, specifically 42%. This data comes from the Entrepreneurship Map created with the participants of the South Summit 2022. It is bad data. Without these patents, without this innovation, the Spanish economy – or any of them, really – is going nowhere. Change is the goal of the new encounter Patents for Innovation (P4i)a point of union between companies and science to improve the precarious innovation in the country.
Held in Madrid, the first edition of Patents for Innovation (P4i) wants to answer a very simple question, but one that is really difficult to achieve: how does laboratory science have to conquer the big companies to find that revolution? Hand in hand with the CSIC, speaking of the world of neurology, the ecosystem and the possible business that can be created there, the challenges are very profound today.
Especially for the part of the public sector, which is in low hours. Alberto Díaz, founding partner of Beable Capital and partner of Patents for Innovation (P4i), explains it to Hypertext.
“The current situation is worrying in Spain and also in almost all European countries. In Spain and Europe, hundreds of millions of investments in science accumulate annually, the results of which never come out of the research groups that have generated them. This creates a situation weakness of Europe in the international context, since technological advances do not reach companies or society”.
Innovation as a key point of technological independence
It is a problem in a context in which national and European technological independence is being sought. It is a process that has been debated for years at the request of all the member countries. How to guarantee a strong European economy if, after all, the key points in innovation and technology are of American origin? In terms of cybersecurity, it is something that Tehtris, a French startup in the sector, has already commented on. hypertextual. In a technological war, we cannot ignore if all our infrastructures are controlled by third parties.
All in all, the problem with innovation in Spain is that it usually stays in laboratories. “We are very good at writing papers, yes, but I prefer to talk about co-creation of value”, explained the rector of the Autonomous University of Madrid, Amaya Mendikoetxea, at the meeting. How to create this? It is the challenge they face. For Díaz, the key lies in the technology itself and in finding the pieces of the puzzle that put the public and private sectors in contact.
Some complicated parts to locate. The United States and China have a basic incentive: their eternal rivalry that encourages public-private innovation above all else in their quest to be the world’s top power. Because, remember, the technology transfer model already exists, but it is totally inefficient. “It is necessary to put order in the system and clarify what role each one occupies,” says Díaz.
The challenges and keys to the problem
On the other, that universities and research centers increase the quality of their research and its ultimate goal. On the one hand, that the business sector be realistic in its decisions and requests. Also in your own organization. The Spanish business fabric is relatively small in size, with companies with 5 or fewer employees on average and little capacity for innovation. “IBM and Samsung each generate more than 8,000 patents a year, a figure that is light years away from the number of patents generated by the Spanish public R&D sector,” explains Díaz.
To overcome this problem, the first step has been the creation of a catalog of more than 1,000 project results that may be susceptible to technology transfer. It is a small step, without a doubt. One that starts from now on to make the most of everything that happens in the innovation sector.