This news article was originally written in Spanish. It has been automatically translated for your convenience. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace a human translator. The original article in Spanish can be viewed at
IK4-Ikerlan cierra un buen ejercicio 2011 pese al contexto de recesión económicaIK4-Ikerlan closes a good exercise 2011 in spite of the context of economic recession
11 June 2012
IK4-Ikerlan generated during 2011 a volume of income of 21,8 million euros, of which 14,5 million euros corresponded to projects of R&D under contract with companies and 5,8 millions to projects of generic and strategic investigation that have had the support of the Basque Government, the General Administration of the State, the Deputation Foral of Gipuzkoa and the European Union. These positive results, presented in the Annual Assembly and obtained in a context of economic crisis, answer, in words of the president of IK4-Ikerlan, Iñaki Aranburu, to that “further of the crisis, also live a time of opportunities”.
The centre participated in projects that act like spearhead to promote the investment in R&D of the companies like the seven of the program Cenit, the six of Etorgai, and the program Innpacto. With regard to the relation with the companies, the general director, Javier Mendigutxia, signals that “we have kept and strengthened our relation with companies leaders, but wanted to stand out that every year they are more the small and medium enterprises that advance in projects of R&D”. The income derived of the agreements signed with different companies have grown regarding the previous year, of the 12,7 million euros of the previous year to the 14,5 million euros of 2011.
The activities of transfer with tractor trucks companies and SMEs have grown above the foreseen in the Plan of Management. Like this, in 2011 the pertinent income of agreements with tractor trucks companies have reached the 8,3 million euros, 4% more than in 2010. In 2011 the pertinent income of agreements with small and medium enterprises reached the figure of 4,65 million euros, 17% more than in 2010, and has developed a special action, in collaboration with the Spri, that has allowed to diagnose the competitive positioning of 20 SMEs and have identified 46 projects of technological development that would improve this positioning.
Regarding the international projects, IK4-Ikerlan has presented 16 proposals of projects of investigation to the VII Program Mark of the European Union, of which three already have been approved with a figure of global returns of 5,2 million euros. Likewise, during the past year, 13 researchers of IK4-Ikerlan participated in exchanges of long length with centres and universities of international prestige.
Along 2011, have published 21 articles in magazines indexadas of the SCIE and researchers of the Centre have participated like speakers in 63 congresses. Regarding the protection of the knowledge generated by IK4-Ikerlan, have transacted two new patents in the area of Microsistemas.
Finally, the president of IK4-Ikerlan adds that “2011 has been, on the other hand, the year of a new image for the technological centre, that wants to transmit to the society his commitment to contribute, from the sinergias of the centres that compose the Alliance IK4, a greater value added to the companies”.
