The Catalan industry joins forces and creates an innovation 'hub'

The Catalan industry has come together to not miss out on the opportunities that Industry 4.0 offers to continue growing and gain competitiveness. Hence, a representative group of industrial companies from very mature sectors of activity has decided to join forces to create a new collaborative innovation space between startups and companies.

The initiative, called Indpuls, responds to the interest in spurring the industrial fabric to work together with emerging companies and create added value and consolidate industry as a key asset for generating wealth and new opportunities in the territory and with a future vision.

Behind Indpuls are entrepreneurs and executives from the firms Avinent, ARaymond, Celsa Group, Comexi, Fluidra, Font Packaging Group, Frit Ravich, Girbau Group, Grupo Carinsa, Pastisart and Simon. From their experience in cooperation and knowledge exchange, they observe how "only by collaborating and innovating with generosity, will we face the great challenges of today and tomorrow," says Mercè Girbau, CEO of Girbau Group and president of Indpuls. This collective represents 20,000 workers and jointly invoices 8,000 million euros.

In their project, this dozen companies have the support of the consultancy Lead to Change, led by Xavier Marcet, an advisor in strategy, innovation, and organizational transformation for companies to help them face the complexity and change management of the current socioeconomic context. "The purpose is to create a collective of about twenty companies" to work together, say sources linked to the project, which will be based at the Lead to Change consultancy, in the center of Barcelona.

The current partners have already started activities and have made their own facilities available to Indpuls to learn about different work environments, innovative spaces that serve as inspiration, they assure. So far, they have also carried out activities in DFactory, Tech Barcelona, ​​Lanzadera, Barcelona SuperComputing Center, Fluidra, Font Packaging, Avinent... Because the aim is to have public and private collaborating entities, such as those mentioned and others such as Barcelona Activa, IQS, AMEC, Stage2 or Acció.

Indpuls's objective is to promote the competitiveness of companies by creating corporate value from innovation and to support emerging companies in developing their activities in the industrial innovation sector. R&D, digitalization, and sustainability will be basic elements, as the new industrial innovation hub focuses on sustainability (circularity, energy, health and well-being, and nutrition) and digital transformation (digitalization and asset optimization).

Within the framework of these areas of action, the association will launch different initiatives to foster innovation in shared challenges, sustainability solutions and ecological transition, emerging technologies, and social impact. In this regard, Indpuls kicks off with four prominent activities: the co-innovation program on transversal challenges; innovation meetings to disseminate, share, and generate knowledge; the support program for emerging companies with technologies related to the proposed challenges to offer a collaboration process, with potential for collaboration and investment results; and, finally, the radar program for startups and innovative technologies that can inspire new products, services, and business models for Indpuls companies.