Jaume Planella, Corporate Director of R&D&I at Noel, leads the innovation of a food company present in more than 60 countries. The applied R&D project he promoted —focused on reducing plastic in packaging— simultaneously solved a critical talent challenge and opened a public-private collaboration with the University of Girona that is still active today. A case that illustrates why 75% of industrial doctors remain with the same company
— Are they talking about Christmas?
— The company is originally a meat company, with a significant presence in the pork sector, but in recent years it has diversified into non-meat products such as ready meals, which represent approximately 10% of turnover. Noel has grown a lot, especially internationally, with a presence in more than 60 countries. As for our research group, it is an externally oriented team: we collect end customer demands around the world to determine which products need to be produced or adapted to each market. Internally, we also have an R&D group focused on improving processes and developing products in the plant.
The opportunity: how an industrial doctorate is born
— How did the opportunity to develop an industrial doctorate arise and what was the expected benefit in starting it?
— We were contacted through the University of Girona. We are part of the board of trustees of the Polytechnic School and, from there, there is a catalyst for opportunities between companies and the university. They presented us with the option, which we already knew and found very interesting, and we had several project possibilities. One of these is the one we chose. The result, seen in perspective, has been a total success: the stars aligned — the candidate, the project, the research group and the university.
— What has been the final impact, now that the industrial researcher has completed the applied R&D project?
— Originally, the main objective of Industrial Doctorates is to foster the interrelationship between the company and the university: to discover each other. Everyone has heard of everyone, but in reality they don’t always end up working together. For us, the relationship between our research group and the LEPAMAP-PRODIS group at the University of Girona has changed completely: today we know each other, we can call each other, we can do projects together. This is a value that appears unexpectedly, but of remarkable solidity.
The other important value is the discovery of a high-value talent. We had a job position with important associated projects, which until then had been occupied by a person with a long experience, but close to the end of his working life. We needed to find someone who could continue that trajectory, and the Industrial Doctorate Plan allowed us to identify the person, validate them and integrate them into the team. Today, that talent occupies a strategic place within our research group.
"It's very different to hire someone who tells you they have training, than to have them on the team for almost three years, with a clear research objective."
Getting to know talent from within
— What is the differential value of the industrial doctorate compared to a conventional contract?
— The difference is enormous. Hiring someone who tells you they have training —which you can verify, but always from the outside— is very different from having them on the team for almost three years, with a clear research objective and a defined project. You can see how they work, how they interact with the university, how they integrate with the internal team and how they manage the relationship with our suppliers, who in our case are a source of inspiration and solutions. When you hire someone from the outside, all of this is unknown.
In our case, it was absolutely strategic: we could not carry out the project without fluid communication between the supplier, the university and us. The industrial researcher managed this entire flow, with the supervision of both parties, but assuming the dialogue himself. It is also worth highlighting the extra generosity that all parties must contribute. The university visited our suppliers, who opened the doors to their processes and prototypes. If someone does not put this ingredient on the table, the system does not work.
— So, the industrial researcher is the piece that makes the chain work between all the parties?
— Exactly. He is the one who informs us about the advances at the university and opens windows to what is being researched there. We can ask him: “Dr. Marc told us that you are working on something like this; could we be interested?” And he manages it. He is the interlocutor between the two parties, but he is also the one who fattens the chain towards the supplier: he knows their industrial capacities, knows which prototypes they can manufacture and passes this on to the university. Without this figure, the project’s value chain would have been disconnected.
The transfer is bidirectional.
— Knowledge transfer has always been seen as a flow from the university to the company. What role does the company play in the opposite direction?
— I’ll illustrate this with an anecdote from the project’s defense. Genís —the name of the industrial researcher— was presenting his work to the court when a member of the jury asked: “And will this be implementable at the market level?” Genís replied: “I don’t know, but Jaume, who is in the audience, can tell you.” They asked me to intervene and I had to explain the real commercial future of that solution.
The conclusion was bittersweet: the technical solution was excellent, but the market was not ready to accept that change. A commercial test in a supermarket confirmed this. However, the applied R&D project had been impeccable; the technical difficulties identified were surmountable. What we discovered is that there is a time window: the consumer is not there today, but in the medium-short term he will adapt. And now we know it with data, not intuition. Here lies the real transfer from the company to the university: market knowledge, not theory.
— How have you experienced the scope of the publications derived from the project?
— As an added value, mainly aimed at the university. For us, it has meant a certain prestige in the university scientific field, but it has not at any time compromised the confidentiality of our developments. We have not had any problems in this regard.
— Noel has a very prominent international presence. Has the industrial doctorate activity grant (research stays, attendance at fairs) been useful in this regard?
— Yes, we used it. Apart from visiting scientific competitions, we took advantage of the exchange to attend international fairs and evaluate whether the product had a market in foreign markets. Each company will find its own particular usefulness, but it is a tool that I recommend exploiting to the fullest.
"The relationship between our research group and the University of Girona has changed completely: today we know each other, we can call each other, we can do projects together."
— For what reasons would you recommend other companies and graduates to participate in an industrial doctorate?
— I would recommend it for everything: for the relationship with the university, for the relationship with suppliers, for integration into the company and, above all, for the discovery of high-value talent, which is what most of us are constantly looking for.
In the case of Noel, there is an additional fit that is no less important: the Industrial Doctorate Plan aligns perfectly with our corporate sustainability strategy, which rests on three axes —society, people and environment— and the project has touched on all three. Environmentally, the objective was precisely to reduce plastic in our packaging. In terms of people, we have discovered and retained a high-value talent —and we emphasize retained, because that is the difficult part. And from the point of view of society, we have built a solid and lasting relationship with the University of Girona, highlighting an institution that provides real R&D capacity to Catalan industry.
