From the 30th May 2008 for three days, more than 300 members of international R&D centres have discussed in Madrid the future challenges and opportunities for European innovation. At the annual Earto conference organised by the Spanish Federation of Technology Centres (Fedit), participants have aimed to clarify the potential impact of the EU legislation, the role of the research centres and the influence of global economy on their performance. Representatives from public institutions, industry, OECD, European Commission and important European research centres such as Fraunhofer, VTT, and Pera were present at the meeting

At the conference, representatives from Fedit presented their results from a survey carried out with more than 300 Spanish companies that have collaboration agreements with technology centres, universities and public research institutions. According to this study, more than 56% of the respondents have improved their sales and over 48% have improved their benefits thanks to the work by technology centres. An increase of 4 points in their annual sales and 3,2 in their annual benefits was also reported, due to these types of R&D agreements.

The survey also looked into the development of innovations and new services. Almost 58% of the respondents stated that they have been able to develop new products or improve existing ones thanks to associations with technology centres. Along the same lines, 38% explained that they have been able to offer new or better services.

It is also important to note that almost three quarters of all the companies that participated in the survey affirmed to have improved their staff training levels, the planning of R&D activities and the use of external information sources. Overall, 92% of all the respondents were satisfied with the work that Spanish technology centres carry out and more than half considered that their projects would have produced worse results if they had not had these collaborations.

What is FEDIT?

Fedit is the Spanish Federation representing Technology Centers. It acts as representative for the Centers, whose activity with their clients makes Fedit the main private R&D&I agent in the country, and a significant ally of companies in their strategy of competitiveness and internationalization. Fedit works to encourage and boost innovation, technological development and research in companies and society as a whole. The Federation is composed up of 67 Technology Centers, with a total workforce of more than 5,500 providing services for around 30,000 companies a year. These figures make Fedit the most active agent in the Spanish Innovation System (SEI).