Catalonia dedicates 1.61% of its GDP to R&D and represents almost 1% of worldwide scientific production (similar to Finland and Scotland), i.e. 2.5% of EU-15 production and 25% of production in Spain. Nature magazine has highlighted this "Catalan scientific power".

• Promoted by the Catalan government, the National Agreement on Research and Innovation is a road map on the subject of research and innovation for the next 15 years in Catalonia.

• TECNIO is a network of more than 100 centres and technological-transfer agents in Catalonia whose aim is to make contact with companies and understand their needs and to favour the competitiveness and international projection of Catalan business.

• ASCAMM, Bdigital, LEITAT, Cetemmsa, Barcelona Media, CTM Centre Tecnològic, and Aerospace Research and Technology Centre are some of the main techology centres. Other centres are: Catalan Telecommunications Technology Centre (CTTC), Institute of Photonic Sciences  (ICFO), Catalan Institute of Chemical Research (ICIQ), Nanotechnology Catalan Institute (ICN) , International Centre for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE)...

• Major scientific infrastructures in Catalonia include syncrotron ALBA, the first and only particle accelerator in Southern Europe; MareNostrum, the most powerful supercomputer in Spain and one of the most powerful in Europe; IDIADA, dedicated to product development in the automotive industry and CNM, the largest public microelectronics research and development centre in Spain.

• Barcelona Scientific Park (PCB), Barcelona Biomedical Research Park  (PRBB), UAB Science and Technology Park (BIOCAMPUS) and Institute of Biomedical Research August Pi i Sunyer  (IDIBAPS) are the main science and technology parks, linked to renowed universities and hospitals.

• Catalonia stands out for its clinical research in the field of human health. There is a network of 215 hospitals. Six of the leading Spanish hospitals in terms of scientific production are in Catalonia.

• Catalonia's R&D is concentrated in the pharmaceutical, healthcare and ICT industries.

• The pharmaceutical sector in Spain is concentrated in Catalonia, which accounts for 50% of pharma companies, 60% of pharma production and 66% of fine chemistry companies.The four largest Spanish pharmaceutical companies were founded and have their head offices in Catalonia. Seven of the world's largest multinational pharmaceutical companies are established in Catalonia. Pharma companies in Catalonia lead in-house R&D, accounting for almost 50% of this R&D in Spain.

• Catalonia is the most dynamic region in terms of the creation of biotech companies, accounting for almost 30% of Spain's total, at an average rate of more than 10 companies in recent years. Most of the strictly biotech companies in Catalonia are focused on "red biotech" (> 65%), particularly drug discovery (70%) and, to a lesser extent, diagnostics (25%).

• Two of the six Innovation Centres that Microsoft has in Spain are located in Catalonia. Microsoft has chosen locations that have a strong number of IT professionals and excellent facilities, despite not being major cities. The only one R&D centre of Yahoo! in Europe is located in Barcelona, due to talent and the strong ties established with the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. The research focus of this centre is Web search and data mining.