technology

The multinational company Roberlo, based in the Girona Province, has acquired the British enterprise Chemfix. Roberlo, which manufactures chemicals for the construction and automobile industries, expects to increase its profits by 30% this year with this transaction, reaching 65 million euros. 85% of the Catalan company’s turnover moves into foreign markets, so this purchase contributes to its internationalisation. The aim of the Girona-based company is to be one of the top three European producers which use chemical docking, an industrial technology.The business has two factories in Girona, one in Brazil, one in Russia and now, one in the UK. The Catalan group has ten subsidiaries and employs 400 people, 200 of which are located abroad.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has opened in Catalonia an incubator for businesses working on space technologies, the first of its kind in Spain. It is located in the campus that the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) has in Castelldelfels, a coastal town next to Barcelona El Prat Airport. The incubator is located in the RDIT building of UPC, in what is known as the Energy Campus, and will take up 1,000m2 of space. There are currently four companies installed in the centre, whose operations are centred on "drones" and satellite communication. The project expects to host some 40 companies from now on until 2018. This is the tenth "Business Incubation Centre" that the ESA has opened in Europe so far.

Between the 18^th and the 20^th of November, Barcelona is hosting the 4^th edition of the Smart City Expo World Congress. This year it will be the most international edition so far, with 400 cities from 5 continents represented, a 33% increase. Participating cities include Berlin, Munich, Boston, Chicago, New York and San Francisco, who are present at the Fira de Barcelona exhibition centre. The goal of reaching 9,000 visitors may be achieved, as nearly 700 people attended the opening ceremony on Monday. Companies are presenting technological applications for improving the sustainability, mobility and quality of life of everyday citizens. Applications being presented this year include drones for cities, technology to monitor free parking for busy commuters, and applications to assess air quality for the physically active and for choosing the best place to open a business.

A new computational method allows the detection, within just a few hours, of the genetic alterations responsible for the formation and progression of cancer tumours. This new method manages to accurately identify almost all types of genetic changes of cancer cells in a simple, quick and precise way. It is also able to identify large-scale chromosome rearrangements, which had been difficult to be detect until this breakthrough. The new method, called SMUFIN, has been developed by the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre and the ICREA (Catalan Institution of Research and Advanced Studies), in collaboration with research groups from Barcelona, Oviedo and Heidelberg. This progress has been published by the prestigious journal 'Nature Biotechnology' and represents a significant step forward towards the personalised treatment of cancer and other illnesses.

From the 20^th until the 25^th of July, more than 4,000 scientists, researchers, engineers and academics from 52 countries will meet in Barcelona's Palau de Congressos de Catalunya for the 11^th World Congress on Computational Mechanics (WCCM). Experts will be presenting 3,200 scientific papers and 220 mini-symposiums. They will also develop computer simulations that allow studying the operation of aircrafts, nuclear plants and the human body without the need of direct experiments on prototypes and people. More than 300 Catalan researchers will also participate in the summit which, for the first time, is jointly organised with the 5^th European Conference on Computational Mechanics (ECCM) and the 6^th European Conference on Computational Fluid Dynamics (ECFD VI).

The Agricultural Science and Technology Park of Lleida (PCiTAL) celebrated its 9th anniversary on Monday, and did so "reaffirming its commitment to the economic future of Lleida", according to the Mayor Àngel Ros. The park hosts some 111 organisations, comprising of 89 companies, 14 research and development centres and 8 research groups. This constitutes five times the number of businesses that were based in the park just five years ago, representing a 540% growth. Significantly, there are more than 1,400 people employed in the park´s facilities, many of them young people. The turnover of the Agricultural Science and Technology Park of Lleida has reached €102.5 million, with an annual growth of 30%.

Sónar+D is an international conference for creativity and technological innovation which coincides with the Sónar by Day Festival. The conference will organize lectures, project exhibitions, stage activities and hold meetings with experts to enhance talent and further opportunities in the digital environment creating a strong parallel to the music festival. This year is the second edition of Sónar+D and the conference is growing now bringing together more than 100 companies, as well as artists, entrepreneurs and technicians from around the world to promote talent and business opportunities in the area of ??culture. The festival's co-director Enric Palau recently revealed details about this year’s program, which is a new initiative divided into four areas. An area dedicated to round table conferences, an exhibition area where more than 40 featured worldwide technology projects are to be on show, a space for art shows and an area where attendees can meet renowned professionals.

Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) intends to make the terminal it runs in Barcelona's Port the most productive in the world, according to Clemence Cheng, Managing Director of HPH Europe. Cheng said that in its first two years the terminal has exceeded all expectations.  The Chinese company will therefore increase its ''commitment'' to Barcelona and will effect the second phase of investment at a cost of €150 million, in addition to the €315 million already invested two years ago. The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, participated on Friday in a ceremony to mark the kick-off of the new phase of construction and took the opportunity to claim the right of self-determination is also in order for Barcelona's Port to have maximum autonomy and not depend on decisions taken far away in Madrid.

Hewlett-Packard has announced that it will locate its world centre to develop 3D printing business in its facilities at Sant Cugat del Vallès, in Greater Barcelona, where it has already developed part of this technology. In fact, HP's Catalan offices are one of the multinational's main R&D centres at world level. HP also develops the technology for large-format printing in Greater Barcelona, employing some 350 engineers. In addition, it runs its marketing services for Europe, the Middle East and Africa from Catalonia. Now, HP has decided to foster its 3D printing business and Barcelona "will play a significant role", being the group's flagship for the research and development of this technology. HP explained that the main challenges engineers will have to face are the slow speed and low quality of the current 3D printing devices.

Paul Allen, who founded Microsoft together with Bill Gates, has invested $40 million in the Barcelona-based Scytl, which is present in 35 countries and is one of the most innovative e-voting companies at world level. Allen will join Scytl's shareholders through his investment fund Vulcan Capital. Vulcan Capital's Manager Abhishek Agrawal will join the Catalan company's Board. Agrawal praised Scytl's "key role" in upgrading electoral processes in cooperation with governments throughout the world. In fact, in the last 10 years the Catalan company has carried out e-voting commissions in the US, Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, France, Norway, Switzerland, Bosnia, India, Iceland and Australia. Since 2006 the company led by Pere Vallès has made profits and grown by 70% each year.

Japanese multinational Olympus, specialized in optics and reprography, has unveiled its new headquarters for Spain and Portugal, aimed at becoming its main centre for Southern Europe. The new facilities are located in the business district of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, a city literally attached to Barcelona, between the Catalan capital and El Prat Airport. The new offices occupy 2,500 square meters in a building on the Europa Square, close to the Fira de Barcelona. It will welcome 30 employees of the divisions of Consumer Product, Microscopy, Industry, and Medical Systems. Merging the headquarters for Spain and Portugal constitutes a step forward to gain weight on the Southern Europe market, said Olympus Iberia's CEO.

E-commerce giant Amazon is studying the possibility of opening its first logistics centre in Catalonia, as advanced by some newspapers on Thursday. The new facilities could be located in El Prat de Llobregat, next to Barcelona's main airport. The centre could dispose of 210,000 m2 of work space and 151,000 m2 of land, making it larger than the Amazon centre in Madrid, according to ‘La Vanguardia’ newspaper. Works could start soon for the logistics centre to become operational by late 2015, with 3,000 employees expected to be hired. The Catalan Minister for Business and Employment, Felip Puig, regretted this early announcement as the company has not reached a final decision yet. Puig regretted the “reckless” move by the Spanish Secretary for Trade for disclosing the news and added that Catalan authorities continued to “work discreetly” to attract investments from foreign multinationals.

During the 2014 Innovation Convention, organised by the European Commission on Tuesday, Barcelona was named the first European Capital of Innovation. The Catalan capital has prevailed over finalists Grenoble (France) and Groningen (the Netherlands) in a contest which also involved Paris, Espoo (Finland) and Malaga (Spain). The winning project highlights the predominant role of the city in promoting new technologies and bringing together government bodies and citizens, in order to enhance sustainable economic growth and improve the people’s welfare. The award is endowed with € 500,000 to promote innovation. Barcelona's Mayor, Xavier Trias, stated that new technologies in an urban environment have to "work towards improving people's everyday lives[…] or they will fail".

The MediaTic building in the 22@ Innovation District of the Catalan capital will now be known as the Barcelona Growth Centre, also becoming a meeting place for entrepreneurs and businesses. Such an announcement was made by Mayor Xavier Trias to the fifty attendees of the Barcelona Growth Board meeting, which took place at the City Council on Thursday. Currently, the 8-floor building hosts initiatives such as the Mobile World Capital Foundation, the Agency for Barcelona Brand, the Open University of Catalonia and the Barcelona Mobile Startup, among others. To convert the building into a platform for businesses, the City Council and the Chamber of Commerce will set up an office of assistance to entrepreneurs on the ground floor, which will act as a “facilitator” to create new companies.

Barcelona-based SEAT, which is part of the Volkswagen Group, has chosen the Geneva Motor Show to introduce its new vehicle in the Leon range, the cars whose sales increased the most in 2013, with a total of 102,000 units sold. This latest creation is the new Leon Cupra, by far the most powerful and the fastest vehicle manufactured by the Catalan company, whose main factory is located in Martorell (Greater Barcelona). With its 280 horsepower, this sports model will hit the market in both 5-door and 3-door versions. Coinciding with the opening of the event this Tuesday, SEAT also presented the Mango version of its Mii city car, a special edition resulting from the collaboration between designers at the SEAT Martorell plant and the Catalan fashion multinational which includes, amongst other novelties, exclusive paintings in beige and black.