Today and tomorrow, representatives from all of the Severo Ochoa and María de Maeztu Excellence Centres and Unit are together at the ‘100xCiencia2’ conference in Alicante (Spain). The main theme of the conference is ‘co-creating value in scientific research’ – several experts in knowledge transfer will share their experience in innovation, intelectual property and the creation of competitive spin-offs and enterprises.

Keynote speakers include Krista Keränen, an expert in co-creation working in Finland; Lita Nelsen, director of MIT’s KTT office; and Nuria Oliver, computer scientist with several international awards who has worked at MIT, Vodafone, Telefónica, and Microsoft.

Carmen Vela, the Spanish Secretary of State for Research, Development, and Innovation inaugurated the conference this morning, and highlighted how Severo Ochoa and María de Maeztu centres ‘are not an expense [for us], but an investment.’ Vela recognised the outstanding outputs of Spanish science: ‘While our scientists are just 1% among all the researchers in the world, […] they publish around 5% of the scientific papers.’ She also pointed out that knowledge transfer should become a ‘circular concept’ and benefit researchers, industries, and society.

Our Industrial Property Manager, Dr. Frédéric Ratel, will speak at 100xCiencia tomorrow to explain how ICIQ transfer strategies through our joint units (with Henkel and Esteve) and our three technology development units (CSOL, Crysforma, and ERTFLOW).