Manuel Fuertes, expert in technology transfer for the University of Oxford, analyses with INNOVADORES the state of the art of scientific innovation in Spain, Europe and the world.
Europe and the United States have historically been the main sources of innovation and scientific advances. Alternating both continents, we can find the origins of the industrial revolution, electricity, the Internet or the main medical and information management techniques. However, for a few years now, Asia has been gaining more and more power in scientific research and development, to the point of pivoting the axis of interest towards that side of the world.
This is how Manuel Fuertes, an expert in technology transfer for the University of Oxford and founding partner of the British fund manager KIATT, understands it. «We are witnessing a brutal increase in the number of patents coming from Asian countries. In addition to the classic innovation macro-corridors – such as the one that runs between Boston and Washington on the East Coast of the United States, or the one that goes from Seattle to San Francisco in the west -, new regions that are very active in scientific entrepreneurship are now joining in, regions such as Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Japan or Singapore. All this is causing the epicenter of innovation to move to the right of the map, which is also being helped by Israel’s push».
Fuertes (who is in-depth knowledge of the Eastern market, holding positions such as the director of the investment program at ATSIP, the largest Asian platform for investors in science and technology), also defends that ideas arising on the other side of the globe are more economically attractive than those generated in the Old Continent. «Year in and year out, the majority of the companies we sponsor come from Asia. The Asian companies in which we invest are the ones that give us the highest return, up to 20 or 30 times the multiple with which we entered,” he says.
And he gives an example of the type of initiatives that are emerging in nations like Singapore. «One of the most interesting projects that we have detected there is that of NanoVeu, an example of a knowledge transfer manual. There was a group of scientists who had developed structures at the atomic level with different optical possibilities, but who did not know very well what to use them for. We have helped them create products based on that patent, such as a sheet that allows us to see 3D images on a smartphone without the need for glasses. And now we are working on a structure that allows us to adjust the mobile phone or tablet itself to our vision. I firmly believe that “In the future, all mobile devices will have a button that allows us to see the screen perfectly without the need for glasses or contact lenses.”
“Spain has magnificent science, but we are not an example in patents”, says Manuel Fuertes.
Praise for the work done in Asia… and criticism of the Spanish model. Manuel Fuertes considers that, in our country, «science continues to be a cost, not an investment», which poses enormous challenges when it comes to taking the ideas that arise in the university environment to the productive environment and social impact. “Spain has magnificent science, people sharpen their ingenuity in the face of the few existing resources. In reality, we have always had very good science, but we have not always been a role model in patents or in the quality of patents,” he concludes. The figures prove him right: less than 1% of Spanish science is profitable.
How can we improve this conversion of science to the business world in Spain? Fuertes is committed to “implementing the transfer models of Anglo-Saxon countries, promoting more training on how to patent, without forgetting to look for a commercial application for that technology, either independently or with the help of specialised companies.” This together with incentives “that provide bonuses at the university not to those who publish the most, but to those who achieve a greater social or economic impact with their work.”
