Fundación TECNALIA – Research and Innovation
Parque Científico y Tecnológico de Bizkaia
E-48160 Derio (Bizkaia) – SPAIN
www.tecnalia.com
The Fundación TECNALIA Research and Innovation (www.tecnalia.com) is the largest private non-profit applied research centre in Spain and the fifth in Europe, employing 1,378 people (including 164 PhDs) and with income of € 102 Million in 2013. The whole team at TECNALIA has one GOAL: to transform knowledge into GDP, meaning wealth to improve people’s quality of life by generating business opportunities for industry. TECNALIA is committed to generate major impacts in economic terms, by means of innovation and technological development, addressed by 6 business divisions, covering economic sectors of Industry and Transport, Information and Communication Technologies, Building, Energy and Environment, Innovation Systems, Health and Quality of Life. Furthermore, in 2012 TECNALIA created TECNALIA VENTURES – an independent TTO (Technology Transfer office) designed for exploitation and transfer of research results. TECNALIA has created 30 spin-off companies of different levels of maturity and development (until the end of 2013) and has managed a Venture-Capital fund for a group of sponsors. TECNALIA has been granted over 250 patents and promoted more than 30 spin-off companies. TECNALIA is a key agent in the ERA (European Research Area) holding the 12th position among RECs and the 26th position overall in EC’s 6th FP7 Monitoring Report 2012. It has participated in 377 FP7 projects, coordinating 81 of them. In the H2020 TECNALIA participates in around 53 projects coordinating 6 of them.
TECNALIA actively participates in the governing bodies of several European Technology Platforms being a member in other associations. For instance, TECNALIA participates in the High Level Management Group of the European Technological Platform for Researching in Manufacturing (ManuFuture), coordinating the multi-annual workplan for the “Factories of the Future” JTI/PPP; and is represented in the executive board of the European Technological Platform for Researching in Robotics (EUROP), in the board of the European Robotics Research Network (EURON), in the Advanced Research & Technology for Embedded Systems (ARTEMIS) and in the steering committee of the European Technological Platform for materials (EUMAT). TECNALIA actively takes part in the European Association of Automotive Centres (EARPA), Intelligent Transport Systems Platform (ERTICO), and European Association for Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and Energy Efficiency (A. SPIRE AISBL). It is also a full member of the FCH JU Research Grouping (N.ERGHY) as well as a member of the EARTO and EUROTECH, linking together the most important research centres in Europe. Other platforms and associations are (partial list):
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- Water supply and sanitation technology platform (WSSTP);
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- European Steel Technology Platform (ESTEP);
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- European Rapid Manufacturing Platform (RM)
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- Biobased and Renewable Industries for Development and Growth in Europe (BRIDGE);
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- ETP on Industrial Safety (ETPIS);
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- Plataforma Tecnológica de Fabricación Avanzada (Spanish National Platform for advanced manufacturing)
- Plataforma Española de Materiales Avanzados y Nanomateriales (Spanish National Platform for advanced materials and nanomaterials).
TECNALIA has a Membrane Technology Group where membranes can be produced and tested. Among other facilities the laboratory has PVD and a plating system that can be used for preparation of thin film and pore filled Pd-based supported membranes (3 samples at once so far). For the preparation of nanoporous ceramic layers and carbon membranes (both thin film and pore-filled) TECNALIA has a dip-coating system as well as a dry system and an oven for thermal treatments under controlled atmosphere for small-sized membranes. Besides, the lab includes the required permeation systems for testing membranes with single and mixed gases at different temperatures and pressures. This group also has in-house access to physicochemical characterisation techniques for membranes, such as SEM, XRD, XPS, profilometry, Raman spectroscopy, AFM, etc.