The meeting was attended by the director of the Rafael del Pino Foundation, Vicente Monteswelcomed the experts and gave a brief presentation of the foundation and its lines of action.
The director of the Rafael del Pino Foundation acknowledged the key role played by innovation as a vector for many of the institution's initiatives. But also as a meeting point with people. Among them, the scientist and director of the Chair in Science and Society, Javier García Martínez. As a result of this collaboration, the accelerator Celera and a line of work that was extended last December, when Javier García was appointed Rafael del Pino Professor.
Emerging technologies brought to the Spanish case
He then took the floor Javier García Martínezdirector of the Chair of Science and Society FRPHe thanked Vicente Montes for his affection and declared himself a follower of the Foundation and its narrative, which deals with a national discourse. The professor of inorganic chemistry at the University of Alicante and winner of the Rey Jaime I prize emphasised the role of communication in any attempt to promote the social impact of the projects.
Hence, the importance of initiatives such as the report Top ten emerging technologies that the Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum and in which Javier García himself participates. A formula that brings citizens closer to the relevance and knowledge of emerging technologies. This type of selection has other international benchmarks, such as the 10 breakthrough technologies that MIT produces or the special reports by Scientific AmericanThe FRP professor also collaborates on these projects.
According to the scientist, "we need ten emerging technologies adapted to the Spanish case".
Javier García clarified that the concept of "emerging" does not mean to publicise a scientific discovery, but to detect what is exciting, what is coming, and that it represents a big trend that connects with important challenges.
He also pointed out that the aim of the new emerging technologies report of the Chair in Science and Society is to go far beyond the publication of an paper in PDF. The aim is to introduce the topic into the social debate through a communication strategy that allows for a breakdown of the issues and an interesting and attractive treatment.
The target dates for the report are for completion and submission by the end of 2019.
The director of the Chair in Science and Society thanked the experts who attended the meeting and also those who were unable to join the meeting due to scheduling problems. He also left the door open to possible new additions and suggestions for possible candidates to complement the areas of knowledge that are not represented in the current committee.
Interventions by members of the Committee of Experts
The member of the Committee of Experts Javier Ventura-Traveset BoschD. in Telecommunications Engineering and member of the Cabinet of the Director of the European Space Agency in Spain, where he has held various corporate positions, intervened to point out the importance of publicising those technological and research resources that have the conditions to be exploited in our country (strengths).
During his presentation, the member of the Committee of Experts recalled his almost 30 years linked to the European Space Agency (ESA) through a career that has taken him to live and work in five different countries.
An internationally recognised expert in the field of satellite navigation, Dr Ventura-Traveset Bosch highlighted the key role that this technology will play in Spain's future. He quantified the impact of this field on European GDP at 10 percent.
Ventura Traveset-Bosch pointed out the importance of the space sector in the creation of companies and in the activity of Business Incubation Centres (BIC).
He highlighted the role of the Galileo programme as a major European project based on civil technology and institutional cooperation, which allows for perennial services. This satellite infrastructure is therefore a current investment (the system will be completed in 2020) with long-term profitability, which opens up endless possibilities for business and knowledge.
Remember that there are 40,000 applications linked to the Galileo service centre. To understand the potential of this satellite navigation system technology, it is enough to consider that there are seven billion mobile receivers in the world.
Applications cover a multitude of functionalities: internet of things (IoT), climate change monitoring (environmental data), measurement of renewable energy sources (ocean currents, wind, solar exposure), necessary new economy industries, high-speed internet, mega communications links, data engineering, etc.
This was followed by a speech by physicist and university professor Pablo Artal SorianoJaime I Award for new technologies in 2015 and Juan de la Cierva Award for technology transfer in 2018.
Artal suggested "not to go to the obvious issues" and not to focus on "those where we are lagging far behind".
He was in favour of incorporating optogenetics, which involves photonic and biological technologies of which there is experience in Spain, into the report.
According to the expert, there is a field of research that connects optics and biomedicine. This field, also explored by neuroscience, offers great possibilities for the development of artificial vision and options to fight blindness. Its development includes the possibility of connecting devices to our brains.
He cites the case of retinitis pigmentosa, in which photoreceptors are unable to detect light. Genetic manipulation can make "things that were not sensitive to light". These signals can be brought to the brain by connecting to devices.
These advances in the field of optics applied to therapies in medicine are causing "excitement among my colleagues", he explains. I think it's going to be something important in the coming years," added Artal, for whom the implications of this technological field have connections with major issues of concern to society, such as ageing, disability and health.
It was then the turn of Hector PereaIndustrial and mechanical engineer and Director Strategy & Business Development at CEPSA. This expert opted for those technologies that have the following factors of relevance: impact on the development of Spain, that are actionable, i.e. that have a time horizon for maturity, and, finally, that connect with the major challenges of our society.
In the field of renewable energy, he highlighted distributed solar energy. As a country with ample solar resources, we should be at the forefront of the pack in the search for innovative technologies that enable the integration of solar energy into the electricity system (storage systems, virtual plants, smart grids, etc.), he added.
He gave as an example the difference between the installed capacity of solar panels between Spain and Germany. They have 30 times more installed capacity and, paradoxically, they come to Spain to look for sun. "We have to be leaders in photovoltaic solar energy, as we were in wind and solar thermal," he said.
The expert believes that, given that Spain is one of the countries with the highest share of renewable energy in electricity generation in the world, we will be one of the first countries to face the challenge of intermittency when the system has a high load of renewable energy.
According to Héctor Perea, further growth on the curve to 100% of renewable energy will require the development of large-scale storage systems to compensate for the intermittency of renewable generation at all times, ensuring security of supply.
This could lead to a horizon that allows nuclear power plants to be bypassed, he added.
CEPSA's strategy director initiated the electrification of transport in all areas. As one of the leading car manufacturing countries in Europe, we must promote the new technologies that will transform mobility: electrification (charging technologies) and autonomous vehicles, he pointed out.
Another field of interest for Perea, who for years has worked with biomaterials to create implants from a patient's own cells, is tissue printing, although this may have a longer time horizon.
As a challenge, he highlighted education, but warned of the danger that technology could further open up the education gap if we are not able to discover the opportunity it represents and embrace it. "We must educate to open up fields of opportunity and promote new business models," he said.
The director of the FRP Chair in Science and Society, Javier García Martínez, who also directs the molecular nanotechnology laboratory at the University of Alicante and founded the company Rive Technology, which uses molecular technology for catalytic processes, intervened at this point to contribute to some of the ideas pointed out by Héctor Perea.
He highlighted the potential of flow batteries and grid storage, while stressing the importance of avoiding dependence on lithium and cobalt and producing silicon-free solar panels. For all these reasons, he stressed the importance of technologies related to new materials.
He then took the floor Manuel de LeónD. in Exact Sciences, who has been director of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences and is currently a full member of the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences. The first Spanish member of the executive committee of the International Mathematical Union, De León considered that mathematics emerges in a different way, but that its impact on the economy and job creation is unquestionable. This impact is produced in a different way, as it is more transversal in nature.
Following the presentation on artificial vision by the expert Pablo Artal, he explained the importance of mathematical models in the field of neurogeometry, which explains how the cerebral cortex reproduces vision.
He also recalled the role of the exact sciences in other areas mentioned by previous experts. This is the case of the optimisation of solar energy. For De León, mathematics is present in almost all technological developments.
He also highlighted the role of mathematical algorithms in any discipline that requires the use of massive data. Data science is therefore a mathematically based science.
The figure of Amable Liñán, Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research in 1993, whose work established a bridge between basic research and technology, was recalled.
De León showed that mathematics, a pillar of basic education, is not just knowledge. The applications of industrial mathematics and its relation to computer systems are revealing of this. For example, the RSA system used as a cryptographic tool for digital signatures.
De León was reluctant to distinguish between basic and applied mathematics, as it is the same thing used in different ways, and pointed to the fact that mathematicians are on the rise, with the appearance of new degrees in mathematics in many private universities.
He also explained the role of mathematical optimisation in data science, with applications in fields as diverse as economic analysis and air traffic management, among others.
Final reflections
In relation to the selection of emerging technologies, the director of the Rafael del Pino Foundation, Vicente Montes, introduced the idea of combining a certain vocation for permanence with immediacy in the application.
Javier García, for his part, points out that it is advisable to avoid the approach that considers technologies to be good in themselves. "Technology is not neutral, it is biased and represents a tool of power", added the director of the Rafael del Pino Foundation's Chair in Science and Society. For him, the report on emerging technologies must be mature and not avoid the existence of the risks associated with certain uses of technology.
Javier Ventura-Traveset Bosch pointed out the interdependence of all scientific and technological fields, the importance of taking into account time constants, paradigm shifts and geostrategic implications.
Pablo Artal pointed out that Spain suffers from a problem in retaining and attracting talent. As well as the well-known endemic problems of low investment, technological dependence and low number of registered patents.
For his part, Vicente Montes pointed to data from the Cotec report, which attributes 90 percent of R&D in Spain to the public sector. He also explained that all the excellence grants awarded by the Rafael del Pino Foundation have been used to enable the beneficiaries to study abroad, as no one has asked to study in Spain. On the other hand, the creation of Spanish talent networks with enormous potential has been detected. There has also been a return of professionals after five years of stay.
The FRP director stresses the need to generate mechanisms to promote equal opportunities, something he considers a true pillar of liberal ideology.
We have very good ingredients, but structural problems in the innovation system and in the education system which means that "talent looks to Spain, but Spain does not look to talent", he pointed out.
Hence the importance of drawing scenarios and generating debates to promote leaderships that prioritise the lines of research that will forge the future, he concluded.