The Community of Madrid has created a network of 10 R+D centres in coordination with universities, research institutions and companies with the aim of improving the well-being of Madrid citizens and regional competitiveness.

IMDEA is the new institutional framework which, in the Community of Madrid, combines public and private support for science and orients top quality research towards market needs, whilst at the same time encouraging the private sector to participate in the design of science. The aim is to provide a more international outlook to science and research carried out in Madrid, whilst at the same time developing R+D+i activities and their transfer into society.

• Setting up of 10 IMDEA centres
• 800 researchers
• 400 will be attracted to Madrid from international centres
• 100 support technician posts
• 2400 new indirect posts
• 60,000 m2 of new space for R+D
• 12 corporate sectors
• 50 companies that are directly involved
• 6 public universities + 2 public R+D institutions
• 6 municipalities from the Community of Madrid

This novel initiative that the Community of Madrid is setting up has the aim of creating the Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies (IMDEA) that will carry out its activity in areas of scientific knowledge that are of major social and economic interest for our region and which are:

• IMDEA Water
  Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies on Water Technologies
• IMDEA Food
  Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies on the Science and Technology of Foodstuffs
• IMDEA Biomedicine
  Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies on Biomedicine
• IMDEA Social Sciences
  Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies on Social Sciences
• IMDEA Energy
  Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies on Energy
• IMDEA Mathematics
  Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies on Applied and Computational Mathematics
• IMDEA Materials
  Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies on Materials Technology
• IMDEA Nanoscience
  Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies on Nanoscience, Nanotechnology and Molecular Design
• IMDEA Networks
  Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies on Network Technology and Telematic services
• IMDEA Software
  Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies on Software Development Technologies

To place Madrid among the regions that generate knowledge we require there to be a balance between public and private initiative.In other words, the development of science requires both public and private funds and for there to be a certain balance between them.In the United States and Japan this balance exists, in Europe and especially in Spain it does not.In Europe and Spain there is too much public intervention and too little private intervention.

Therefore, the Community of Madrid wishes to create an institutional framework that combines public support for science and the stimulus for the participation of all social players to achieve the balance between public and private financing.To achieve this, it is necessary to orient research on the frontier of knowledge towards market needs, whilst encouraging the private sector at the same time to participate in the design of the new field of science and its financing.IMDEA was set up for our future well-being and for a sustainable development that improves the competitiveness of our companies.

All institutes, even those that have a marked character independent of their scientific activity, will share many elements in their management as well as the same brand image but the most important thing is for them to share the same strategy around the following guidelines:

• Investigating excellence: Scientific research that is carried out in IMDEA will be top quality, on the frontier of scientific and technological knowledge.
• New research groups: All research groups will be newly created, and will be a hybrid of the best that we have in Madrid, with the talents that we manage to attract from the best international institutions. International character: at least 50% of researchers will be recruited in foreign institutions by means of international competitions with a clear aim of recovering Spanish researchers and attracting foreign scientists.
• Multidisciplinary and interinstitutional character: The areas of knowledge will be tackled from different disciplines by teams of researchers that arise from different institutions.
• Technical support: The institutes will have sufficient laboratory technicians and engineers who are qualified and trained to undertake the complex experimental programs that will be set up.
• Professional management: The economic and administrative management of projects in the institutes will be carried out professionally and with corporate criteria with the aim of optimising resources and achieving the results set down. The aim is for researchers to have the necessary support to be able to fully dedicate themselves to their scientific work.
• Programming and planning: Each institute will have a four-year program that will define: research lines, aims, resources and sources of financing.
• Continuous evaluation: Of researcher activities and aims.Annual follow-up and special evaluation of the end of each four-year period.
• Work environment: attractive for researchers, also for those of international relevance. Institutes will be areas for quality meetings and scientific communication that will encourage creativity and capacity for concentration and work.
• New capacities, infrastructures and equipment: To take on this initiative it is necessary to improve the capacity of our system with top-quality buildings, laboratory and other facilities and equipment.In some cases, this will mean renovating areas that are already available and in other cases building new facilities that are capable of housing more complex research infrastructures and equipment.
• New equipment: In some cases, to carry out top-quality research, especially in more experimental areas, it is necessary to have latest generation equipment, many of which will not be acquired but rather built by technical units.

Another of the essential aims of this initiative is to support universities with new instruments and capabilities that boost top-quality scientific and technological research and help them to compete in the international science market when attracting the best researchers.Therefore it is not enough to speak of new financial help but rather it is necessary to create new instruments and new areas internationally, but located in universities themselves or in university environments that favour the creation of new research groups with a significant international component and that have the latest technical means and progress to carry out their work on the frontier of the unknown.

Institutes will be located in university environments and will have researchers from universities in Madrid or public research institutions as the design of the initiative especially seeks to help universities in many aspects:

• Financing: Universities will benefit in two ways: on the one hand, IMDEA offers a new framework of financing for top-quality research in institutes and on the other hand, the most active universities and those with the highest number of researchers will benefit when the time comes to compute R+D into the program of contracts with the Community of Madrid.In other words, IMDEA not only does not retract resources from universities but also offers new opportunities to achieve more financing.
• Complete integration: Researchers that comprise IMDEA at different levels, will not stop belonging fully to their universities, faculties or departments and their work in IMDEA will be carried out in such a way that it boosts and levers the institutions to which they belong.Under no circumstances should the registration of researcher personnel from universities to IMDEA mean the decapitalisation of these; rather to the contrary, by offering new opportunities for professional growth at all levels IMDEA will contribute significantly to the capitalisation of universities, thereby dynamising human resources by introducing more interinstitutional mobility.
• Training: IMDEA can offer an incomparable framework so that universities have international postgraduate programs with the best possible facilities and the best teachers.Therefore, full collaboration between institutes and universities is essential.
• Common infrastructures: IMDEA institutes will offer the latest generation new research infrastructures to all universities that will be managed as common platforms or facilities shared by means of competitive access. This system will benefit the entire researcher community, even groups who, despite not belonging to IMDEA, work on the same areas of knowledge.
• Internationalisation: The institutes will be a major opportunity for universities to manage to attract international talent.Therefore, IMDEA offers an instrument that enables budgeting new contracts and especially a new international work environment and new areas and infrastructures with which to welcome them.International researchers of IMDEA will integrate into the daily life of the campus as a positive and enriching factor for the entire university community.

The 21st century has brought major changes, now irreversible, to the global economy.On the one hand, trade barriers have been blown into oblivion, globalising markets and production factors and on the other hand, creative talent and capacity for innovation have turned into the principal factors for competition.This new globalised situation has caused states to lose weight and power and has turned regions into the principal actors of global competition whose aim is to generate and attract knowledge.This context of globalisation and competition between metropolitan areas has occurred before in periods of major change and progress in history as for example occurred in ancient Greece or in Europe during the Renaissance.

Madrid is not a stranger to these changes, rather the contrary is true. It is one of the European regions that is most affected by globalisation as demonstrated by the spectacular increase in immigrant population or the delocalisation of traditional industries. The effects that globalisation can bring to Madrid are also uncertain since any period of profound changes generates uncertainty and these may be negative or positive, something that to a large extent will depend on our collective capacity for adaptation and reaction.

There are regions that are already benefiting from the effects of globalisation and they have managed to ensure that the principal actors that make up their socio-economic framework join together to confront these challenges thanks to the coordination of governments of three levels of the administration and the implementation of public policies that encourage joint actions and promotion of infrastructures.It seems logical therefore that the government team of the Community of Madrid is leading the way and coordinating the response of our region to these new challenges.

Madrid, as a metropolitan region or area follows an economic model that is directed towards the provision of all types of service. This may seem natural if we bear in mind the fact that the city of Madrid is full of institutions that are dependent on the administration, the headquarters of major national companies and representation offices in Spain of many multinational companies where furthermore, the boom in tourism and leisure has led especially to the growth of more tertiary sectors.

There is obviously very effective reverse feedback for this economic model but this is not sustainable in the long-term and this is not sufficient for Madrid to be able to compete effectively against other regions in the world.Madrid also needs to cultivate and attract major doses of creative talent that generate new technological and social progress, new products and services. To summarise, Madrid needs to turn into an attractive region of persons with major capacity for generating new knowledge, i.e. scientists and researchers who are capable of retaining and supporting their own talent and attracting talent from other locations.

If we were able to make this change a reality we would also be capable of attracting immigrants with top intellectual qualifications: scientists, businesspersons, creators who would choose to live in Madrid due to the opportunities for development that our Community would offer them.

To make this dream a reality the Government team of Esperanza Aguirre wishes to provide with this initiative a strategic twist to the economic model of the Community that enables Madrid not only to resist the push of globalisation but to take advantage of the situation of change in the game rules to put forward jobs and successfully compete against other regions, thereby placing Madrid at the top of the global ranking of regions that generate knowledge.

To boost this change we need to have a solid base of generation of knowledge and we should ask ourselves whether Madrid has this creative potential before undertaking any strategic change. In other words, whether or not our region has structures and organisations that generate new knowledge.

Within the Community of Madrid are some of the best scientific research centres in all of Spain: the network of public universities in the region, the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, a large number of the research institutes of the CSIC, the CIEMAT, INTA, etc. The reality is that very few regions have similar investigative power, of course in Spain none whatsoever and in Europe, barely any at all.This extensive network of research groups, if taken advantage of and efficiently managed with sufficient support could turn into a major source of new ideas and discoveries for Madrid.

We have official figures on public investment made in the Community that is approximately 2% of its GDP, placing our region in a good position with respect to Europe.Furthermore, if we bear in mind the fact that the majority of research centres are within the municipality of Madrid and that universities are the principal recipients of these funds, we can say that Madrid has sufficient levels of public investment in R+D.However, although positive, these data are still a statistical illusion as they do not reflect the major shortcoming our system is suffering which is the lack of private investment into research, development and innovation given that investment is mainly public.

What is for sure is that our region as a whole is turning its back on its researchers and the majority of its citizens are unaware of the enormous potential of laboratories and institutes located in Madrid to generate knowledge and therefore the enormous social and economic benefits that could arise from this are not fully utilised. Furthermore, very few companies take advantage of this scientific offer.

This lack of permeability between scientific and corporate Madrid occurs among other reasons because a large part of the scientific research that is carried out does not consider of needs of the market or society and on the other hand because companies in the main do not understand the importance of investing in knowledge.

This lack of a relationship between companies and research centres is the biggest obstacle that Madrid has to face in order to turn its economic model around and be in a position to be able to compete equally with other more innovative regions of the planet and whose principal force is specifically that they have known how to create connection infrastructures and they have turned into intelligent territories.

In fact, despite the major concentration of R+D carried out in our region and companies that have their headquarters here, the reality is that Madrid is not perceived internationally as a region that generates knowledge and technology.In short, this lack of international research centres is not only an obstacle to transform the economic model of Madrid and improve its exterior image and attract the best human capital, but it even endangers the current economic model of the region.

Indeed, the progressive deindustrialisation of Madrid is due in part to the fact that traditional companies in the 20th-century are being delocalised to other regions and these have not been replaced by new technologically based companies from the 21st century.In other words, companies capable of producing goods with a significant technological content and high added value without contaminating and in more or less urban environments.

To provide a response to these challenges, the government of the Community of Madrid has carried out a round of consultations with experts and after analysing their recommendations it is boosting the CREATION OF A NETWORK OF MADRID INSTITUTES FOR ADVANCED STUDIES (IMDEA) that gives the Community the capacity to attract the best researchers in the world to join our best research groups to work on the frontier of knowledge in order to resolve the problems that most affect all of us, individually but especially, as a society.

For more information consult:

Rubén Lafuente
Fundación Cotec (Cotec Foundation)
(Tf.: 91 5626550)