On November 19, the Collserola Tower hosted the IV Corporate Lunch of Telecos.cat, a key meeting that brought together representatives of the administration, companies and universities to debate the future of microelectronics and semiconductors in Catalonia. The Industrial Doctorate Plan played a prominent role with the presentation by Jordi Alba, technical director of the program, and with the statements of the Minister of Enterprise and Employment, Miquel Sàmper, who highlighted the importance of the Industrial Doctorate Plan in the training of talent.
During the closing ceremony, Minister Miquel Sàmper stated that “ semiconductors are a priority for the Government to promote the industry and contribute to technological sovereignty ”. He highlighted that the Industrial Doctorate Plan plays a role in this process, especially to train specialized professionals who promote applied research and innovation in a key sector for Catalonia. Sàmper also stressed that Catalonia has an ecosystem of research and companies that allows it to position itself as a European benchmark in the production and design of chips.
In his speech, Jordi Alba emphasized the need to strengthen alliances between universities, research centers, companies and administrations to guarantee training adapted to market needs. He defended the importance of promoting technological vocations from the earliest stages of the educational system in order to have a broad talent portfolio in the medium term to provide answers to future challenges, with research and innovation with industrial doctorates being a relevant and useful tool.
According to his presentation , the Industrial Doctorate Plan contributes to technological development through collaboration with companies in the sector, offering R&D&I projects that address challenges such as innovation in microelectronics and chip design. Alba gave as an example the projects already initiated in collaboration with leading technological companies that have benefited from industrial doctoral students to promote new lines of applied research.
The event concluded with a call for collaboration between all actors to consolidate Catalonia as a leading hub in technology, highlighting the importance of talent, research and innovation as strategic pillars.
