ANNUAL REPORT 2017

Although the new process intends to delve deeper into specific issues related to electronic products, the overall approach is coherent relative to our general approach with regard to how industrial products must be developed. As regards technological developments in the field of industrial IoT (IIoT), work has addressed the interoperability and reliability of wireless communication protocols and their deployment to monitor networks related to industrial environments and applications. Actions are also focused on solutions enabling these networks to be connected to superior systems (Cloud or CPS) and on how security can be provided for connections within the IIoT network and its link with the Cloud. In addition to the food business, these technologies have been developed in other sectors to cover production and processing phases (the Internet of Food 2020 project). Lower power consumption is another of the pillars supporting IIoT systems meaning that there is now a focus on low-power electronic systems and wireless communications such as Energy Harvesting solutions. As regards industrial maintenance activities, close attention has been paid to developing solutions that can discover how mechanical systems and components behave when in use and how predictive maintenance can be performed in the context of relevant projects such as ECSEL MANTIS. With respect to specialising in data analytics applied to predictive maintenance, work involving new paradigms is currently underway on the hybrid modelling of operational, experimental and simulation data to improve the performance of models predicting the behaviour of components and systems when in use. Predictive and descriptive analytics, another area under development to optimise the climatisation of buildings and, generally speaking, managing energy demands in buildings and districts by, incorporating, among other things, renewables and energy storage systems. Before closing, however, I would like to stress that our specialisation indicators have kept us fully in line with the priorities set by the Basque Government with regard to Advanced Manufacturing (73 %), Energy (19 %) and Biosciences (5 %). Our indicators of excellence, moreover, are linked to what is to be expected from a technology centre such as IK4-TEKNIKER, with 42 indexed papers, 21 of which stand within the upper quartile and 8 new researchers who received their PhDs during the year. Our specialisation indicators have kept us fully in line with the priorities set by the Basque Governmen. INDEX 01 MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR 02 REPORT BY THE GENERAL MANAGEMENT 03 MARKET MANAGEMENT 04 TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT 05 THE VOICE OF OUR CUSTOMERS AND COLLABORATORS 06 REVENUES AND BOOK BALANCE 07 COLLABORATING ORGANISATIONS & GOVERNING BOARD 08 IK4 RESEARCH ALLIANCE