Ramon Pastor (Leitat): "Innovating is an attitude"

Following the road to enter the forest, one expects to encounter nature, wildlife, and walkers, but not a technology center. And even less, one of the magnitude of Leitat. In the middle of the mountain, its laboratories and research spaces emerge to connect knowledge with the needs of companies in favor of innovation, a task that the center has carried out for 120 years.

Ramon Pastor welcomes us with that forest in the background and with challenges ahead, in his first interview since he was appointed president of Leitat in June. Pastor leads the technology center after 32 years at HP —the last ones leading the International Center in Sant Cugat and the global 3D printing area—, and he does so with a triple objective: to make known the work of technology centers, to promote research in sustainable solutions, and to explore a reorganization of the innovation ecosystem in Catalonia.

— How has it been to take the helm of an institution with 120 years of history?

— I make a very positive assessment. I knew Leitat from the outside, as a client, and I knew a series of technologies and capabilities in the industrial and materials field. But Leitat covers much more, and I have discovered a very powerful world in areas such as biomedicine, health, and chemistry. In fact, this role of Leitat needs to be made much more known. The role of technology centers is largely unknown.

— Will this be one of your purposes as president?

— Absolutely. My objectives are three: to do a lot of pedagogy about the work of technology centers and the benefits of innovation; to explore how to help reorganize the Catalan innovation system, and to promote research into sustainable solutions for the future of the territory, also linked to wealth creation.

— Reorganize the innovation system?

— To make it more agile, to avoid duplications, to clarify the roles that each one plays and to have much more complicity among the different actors. We are in a good situation to undertake this change and this reflection.

— To facilitate the transfer of knowledge?

— Yes, and that is why Leitat must have a proactive role promoting solutions in this reorganization of the innovation ecosystem.

— And how is that done?

— First, talking among ourselves. In the conversations we have had with different living actors of innovation, from technology centers to universities and business associations, everyone agrees on the diagnosis, and now what we have to do is a common house where all this is discussed and solutions are proposed.

— Will we soon see this common house materialize?

— For now, they are conversations and complicities, and we have to crystallize these complicities.

— What needs to be solved with this reorganization?

— Catalonia is one of the most important engines in Europe for knowledge creation. Research in universities and research centers is brutal; we are among the leading regions in terms of publications. But this knowledge creation does not have enough impact on the territory or on Catalonia's GDP. There is no good way to transmit this knowledge to create value-added products, and this is the role that technology centers have: to take this knowledge and mature it so that companies can use it.

— How is this role concretized?

— Right now, the innovation ecosystem is very complex. For a company that has a problem to solve, it is very difficult to know where to go to find the knowledge it needs. This is where the technology center comes in, which listens to the company's challenges and at the same time listens to the world of knowledge, and finds real solutions.

"We aspire to be a single window where companies present us with their challenges and we look for solutions with an innovation vision"

— In fact, Leitat was born 120 years ago as an association created by companies to solve a problem for companies. They were textile industrialists who, when buying wool, encountered the trickery of wetting it so that it would weigh more, and the industrialists ended up paying for water at the price of wool. This was their first task: to standardize a test for humidity and conditioning of wool. In fact, the name came from here (from the initials of Laboratorio de Ensayos e Investigaciones Textiles del Acondicionamiento Tarrasense). That is why we are a non-profit business association: an association of entrepreneurs to solve real problems.

— And from wool, to a wide range of new technologies 120 years later.

— The company has known how to evolve, adapt to new technologies, new business models, and new challenges. It has known how to reinvent itself many times, and this allows it to constantly adapt to new technologies, such as AI and gene therapies.

— Furthermore, these 120 years have been especially intense in terms of technological changes.

— Absolutely. Before, what was done was to solve a technological problem. Now, often the problems are multidisciplinary, much more complex, they are about going from an idea to a product, or even how to find financing. It has changed a lot, and it has required resilience and capacity to adapt. To reach these 120 years, another element has also been necessary: the trust we have managed to build and with which the business fabric looks at us.

— Do many companies turn to Leitat?

— In 2025, we worked with 623 clients, 345 of whom were from Catalonia. But we do not look at the number of companies with the ambition of making a lot of money (we remember that we are non-profit). What we want is to have an impact on the territory. The more impact, the better. Our innovation is to help the innovation of companies, especially in Catalonia. We do not have a growth objective for its own sake, but rather we have the objective of being useful and adapting to a brutal technological change that is coming.

"To have an impact in Catalonia, you have to open up everywhere"

— We have very good access to the knowledge part of research centers and universities, and we also generate knowledge ourselves. We have more than 200 researchers who develop technology. What we aspire to is to be a single window where companies present us with their challenges and we look for solutions with an innovation vision adapted to the market.

— It must be complicated to keep up with all the knowledge that is generated.

— We are organized into technological areas, and researchers have a broad and deep knowledge of the technologies they are responsible for. They are in contact with universities, research centers, and other players in the Catalan and national knowledge ecosystem. This is how we want to be a single window to solve the technological problems of companies.

— Therefore, Leitat not only adapts and collects technological changes, but also generates them.

— Yes, but it is important to distinguish between enabling technologies and the markets where they are applied. Enabling technologies are AI, robotics, advanced chemistry… These are the areas that are advancing with universities, research centers, and certain companies, and our role is to take these enabling technologies, transform them, and mature them so that companies can use them to solve a specific problem. It is about making this link, this bridge.

— To be a window and a bridge. Towards Catalonia, or also beyond?

— Our focus is on Catalonia; we are a Catalan research center. However, to have an impact in Catalonia, you have to open up everywhere. Right now, we participate in 67 European projects. We do this to access EU funding and also because we want the talent and knowledge of Catalonia to be projected internationally, so that it then has an impact here. Having an impact in Catalonia does not mean only focusing on Catalonia, but having an impact everywhere and having this revert here.

— Also in terms of attracting talent?

— At Leitat, we have 19 nationalities. We focus on finding talent in Catalonia, but we also look for talent wherever it is. We must have a cosmopolitan vision, but also a local one. The concepts of globalization and localization must be able to be linked; talent and the market are global, but we owe it to ourselves to generate wealth in Catalonia.

— And the GDP is growing.

— GDP grows, but not GDP per inhabitant. GDP goes up but because there are more people; GDP per inhabitant is stagnant. And there is only one way to solve it: by increasing the productivity of companies. And we think that a very important ingredient to achieve this is innovation.

— What would you say to companies that see innovation as an expense, and not as an investment?

— That they will have many challenges to be competitive, because the rest of the world moves at a speed that makes a company that stands still and does not innovate cease to be so.

— Is innovating scary?

— Innovating is a big word. You don't have to innovate in the latest cutting-edge technology. Innovating means doing new things, whether in processes, in product, in sustainability. Innovating is an attitude. It is knowing that, if you don't change things, your future and your trajectory will remain the same or go down, because the rest do change. We do our bit in the field of technological innovation, but there are many ways to innovate.

— How does the complex international context affect all this?

— For Leitat, it strengthens us. We come from a globalized world where everyone could operate everywhere, and now we are going to a world of blocks, and this will imply some challenges. If we go to a world where each block has its protocols and standards, each one will have to try to be autonomous with its technologies, and Europe is making a great effort to have technological autonomy. This is a great opportunity for European companies and technology centers, to help advance this autonomy in many ways.

— And in this new way of understanding the world, in what technologies can Catalonia stand out?

— Catalonia can be differential in areas such as biomedicine, advanced manufacturing, advanced materials and sustainable technologies, ranging from water and energy efficiency to food efficiency, which we also work on at Leitat.

— What is needed for Catalonia to consolidate itself as a benchmark in these areas?

— Catalonia already has very powerful foundations from the point of view of knowledge generation, finalist companies and investment. We act as a dynamizer. In addition, we are convinced that we must establish alliances between private actors and public administration to have public-private complicity to carry out initiatives in this regard.

— And Leitat's role in the enabling technologies of the future?

— Photonics, advanced materials, AI… It is important to have knowledge about them, and also to know where to apply them. Our strength is in this, in where we apply them. In the end, it is about transforming ideas and bits into atoms, into solutions that can be touched.