Spain needs to bring innovation into the forefront of the country’s concerns

It is urgent for institutions to draw up new policies to stimulate the job market, continuous training and the university-education and vocational-training system

The right training policy will help to cut down digitalization job loss and inequality

CESIN will focus on the study and evaluation of companies’ public R&D-promotion policies and their real impact on technological, strategic and competitive behavior
 

On 19 November 2019 the Forum of Innovating Firms (Foro de Empresas Innovadoras: FEI) presented the book “Innovación Tecnológica y Empleo” (Technological Innovation and Employment) and the Extraordinary Chair of Innovation Studies (Cátedra extraordinaria de Estudios de la Innovación: CESIN), set up jointly by FEI and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. The act was followed by the annual award ceremony in the categories of Innovative Researcher, Innovative Company and Innovation Support Institution/Organization.

Luis Fernando Álvarez-Gascón, FEI President and General Manager of GMV’s Secure e-Solutions sector, advocated innovation as the best way of taking on our society’s major challenges. “Innovation does not yet rank at the forefront of Spanish political debate and is never properly brought into relation with the challenges we face. Innovation is the solution to generating top quality jobs, ensuring progress and social welfare and shoring up our pension system; it is knowledge put into action”.

FEI considers urgent action to be necessary. It therefore proposes the setting up of a state pact in which innovation holds a place in keeping with its real importance, as well as reindustrialization of the whole country. The public sector is due to play a crucial role, but not limited only to funding. It has to take on a leadership role in Spanish society, embracing also the private sector and universities.

“All too often”, Álvarez-Gascón went on, “the innovation messages we hear kick off with the mantra of insufficient funding. And this is only too true. We have to stimulate this investment effort by public and private stakeholders, but this in itself is not enough. How things are being done is equally crucial. The important features are results and impact. Without impact there is no innovation”.

“Technological Innovation and Employment”
To introduce the new book “Innovación Tecnológica y Empleo”, Luis Fernando Álvarez-Gascón, FEI President, insisted on innovation’s crucial role in boosting competitiveness and generating talent-based, top-quality jobs.

Technology has always brought prosperity. Some pundits claim that 80% of the difference between rich and poor countries comes down to the use of knowledge. Although technology’s impact on society is always by and large positive, we can nonetheless not afford to turn a blind eye to downsides such as the risk of inequality. Hence the need of coming up with solutions to the impact of new technologies on employment. “It is vital” Álvarez-Gascón argued, “for institutions to draw up new policies to stimulate the job market, continuous training and the university-education and vocational-training system”.

In the words of Cándido Méndez, author of the book’s foreword, “To deal properly with the technological revolution we have to factor in the sheer speed of change and spread. I would argue that the biggest challenge of innovation is how to gear the digital revolution towards society’s welfare, without therefore forfeiting productivity”.

The book “Innovación Tecnológica y Empleo” gives a hearing to both trade unions and companies. The authors, Gonzalo León, José Varela and Jaime Laviña, analyze not only the present and future job impact of robotization and digitalization of working processes but also the design of governmental policies to confront this situation and propose solutions for further debate.

FEI has published this book, in collaboration with the educational and research system, as an analytical input, putting forward procedures for harnessing the opportunities of social and economic growth offered by this transformation, while minimizing its risks.

The importance of Training

Both companies and workers need to realize that digital transformation has to go hand in hand with a continual training process. The initial boost given by the classic regulated education system is no longer enough. Other, more flexible, continuous and career-long training processes now need to be brought in. The right training system will help to cut down considerably the amount of jobs lost to digitalization and inequality, boosting workers’ employability and reducing occupational polarization.

The social, economic and occupational implications of robotization and digitalization of working processes therefore call ineludibly for a series of ideas to ensure their benefits redound to progress and prosperity for all. Competitiveness yes, but also social justice and even-handedness.

FEI’s main recommendations are the following: 1) Monitoring by all institutions of technology’s ongoing impact on jobs. 2) A National Plan of Technological Inclusion for all citizens to make sure the digital divide leaves no one by the wayside. 3) Drawing up by public authorities of programs to incentivize continuous training in digital skills, both at company- and at individual-level for workers, thus ensuring their future employability.  4) Incorporation of continuous training in labor legislation, both the right to receive it and the obligation to give it, and counted as part of the working day.  5) Phased-in reduction of the working day as jobs are automated, ensuring the compatibility not only of company competitiveness and productivity but also workers’ quality of life and their job prospects.

Cátedra extraordinaria de Estudios de la Innovación (CESIN)
FEI also presented the Extraordinary Chair of Innovation Studies (Cátedra extraordinaria de Estudios de la Innovación: CESIN), under the directorship of José Molero Zayas. CESIN has been set up by FEI together with the Universidad Complutense de Madrid’s Innovation Policy and Economics Research Group (Grupo de Investigación en Economía y Política de la Innovación: GRINEI), with the strategic perspective of studying and encouraging innovative activities. It brings together efforts from the Science-Government-Company triumvirate and is a unique proposal in the panorama of innovation studies in Spain.

Its mission is to drive innovation studies, especially with companies as the cynosure of this process. It aims to concentrate efforts in the study and assessment of public, in-company R&D policies and assess their real impact on technological, strategic and competitive behavior. CESIN is backed up by a significant network of researchers both from Spain (UCM, UPM, CSIC, UAM, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, INGENIO, Universidad de Salamanca, Universidad de Sevilla) and from abroad. “The important thing”, argues José Molero, “is to weigh up the social impact of innovation policies and reflect on whether they have the desired effect to make society better”.

FEI Awards
The jury of Reconocimientos FEI (FEI Awards) has hailed this year the work of Paloma Sánchez Muñoz, Chair-Holding Professor of Applied Economy of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and state economist, as this year’s innovative researcher. The innovative company recognized this year is Bitbrain, a brain technology firm that combines neuroscience, artificial intelligence and hardware to develop innovative products. The award for standout innovation support organization went to the Institut de Bioenginyeria de Catalunya (Catalan Bioengineering Institute), a research institute dealing with basic and applied research in bioengineering and nanomedicine.