We all know that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being successfully applied in sectors such as medicine, industry, and mobility, where there are millions of data points, images, and models with which to train increasingly accurate algorithms. However, when it comes to Cultural Heritage, the situation is quite different.
Heritage assets (monuments, artworks, archaeological sites, or historical archives, among others) are fragile and, in many cases, irreplaceable. There are no large datasets from which to derive the thousands or millions of examples needed to “feed” an AI system. Each heritage asset has its own architectural, material, conservation, and historical particularities that make it unique. This scarcity of data turns the application of AI techniques, as used in other fields, not only into a challenge but into a real difficulty.
Moreover, even when enough data exists to build a useful knowledge base, there is often reluctance to share it, let alone make it public. In many cases, information about the real state of conservation of an asset, whether movable or immovable, is considered sensitive or confidential. Revealing deterioration, vulnerabilities, or pathologies could have unintended consequences, ranging from legal or security issues to economic or reputational impacts.
Even so, AI can help extract maximum value from the available information by combining data from multiple sources: technical reports, scientific analyses, surveys, 3D models, historical images, or even expert insights.
What is very clear is that, unlike other fields that will be dominated by AI, in Cultural Heritage it will never replace the human expert. Decision-making regarding the conservation or restoration of an asset requires deep contextual knowledge, sensitivity (we’ll talk another day about what this means), ethical judgment, and creativity, qualities that no machine can replicate.
However, what AI can -and inevitably will- do is support specialists: analyzing volumes of information that used to take weeks of work, detecting patterns, or proposing hypotheses about the behavior of materials, artworks, or entire buildings under different scenarios. In short, it can offer professionals an integrated and rapid view that enables them to make more informed decisions.
Looking to the future -which, in the case of Cultural Heritage, always means the long term- as more digital data is generated about heritage assets (3D scans, photogrammetric records, images in various spectral bands and resolutions, chemical analyses, or sensor data for preventive conservation), opportunities will grow. And they will do so exponentially. But always following a fundamental principle: AI is a tool to assist conservation, not a substitute for the human judgment that ensures our cultural legacy remains alive, understandable, and authentic.
CARTIF is already working in this direction alongside organizations that play a key role in the research, protection, conservation, restoration, and dissemination of Cultural Heritage. Projects such as iPhotoCult at the European level -where the applicability of AI to assess the structural integrity of historic timber roof frames inspected by a robotic dog in the Church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción (Roa, Burgos) as a reference- will be evaluated. Likewise, the recently approved MINERVA project in Spain, which will digitize the processes of technical inspection of historic buildings defined in the previous ITEHIS project (recently presented to the Spanish Standardization Technical Committee for Conservation, Restoration, and Rehabilitation of Buildings), will contribute business and expert knowledge to guide how AI can best be oriented in this field.
There’s a long road ahead, but step by step. Shall we walk it together?”
Imagine if waste stopped being a problem for companies and became a source of income. This is not a futuristic idea but an increasingly tangible trend.
In a world where natural resources are finite and waste is growing exponentially, the transition towards a circular bioeconomy stands out as an essential pillar for a sustainable future—especially considering that every year, millions of tonnes of agri-industrial by-products, food waste, and organic streams remain underused, despite their high content of carbon, nutrients, and valuable compounds.
10% of food available for consumption in the EU is wasted in the supply and consumption sectors
So much so that it is estimated that around 10% of food available for consumption in the EU is wasted in the supply and consumption sectors (households, food service, and retail), according to Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union. But what if this waste, far from being a problem, could be turned into an opportunity—and become the raw material of the future?
Each year, around 59 million tonnes of food waste are generated in the EU, equivalent to 132 kg per person, with an estimated economic value of €132 billion (Eurostat, 2022). Behind these figures lies an opportunity for innovation: transforming this waste into bioplastics, organic acids, proteins, or biofuels capable of replacing fossil-based derivatives and reducing the industry’s carbon footprint—potentially meeting up to 20% of its demand for basic chemicals with renewable carbon.
20% of the industry’s demand for basic chemicals could be met with renewable carbon
The concept of a circular bioprocess goes beyond recycling. It involves redesigning production flows so that each carbon molecule has more than one life. As highlighted in the European Bioeconomy Strategy (2024–2025), the challenge lies in turning agricultural and urban waste into feedstocks for new bioproducts, thereby reducing impacts on soil, water, and biodiversity.
This momentum is being reinforced by new regulations: the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), which will take general effect in August 2026 and requires all packaging to be recyclable or reusable (Design4Recycling). This regulation is creating a ripple effect throughout the value chain, where the demand for bio-based and recyclable materials is growing at an unprecedented pace.
From waste to resource, or how to turn waste into valuable molecules: the technology that makes it possible
Industrial biotechnology is today an essential tool for transforming organic waste, lignocellulosic biomass, or even CO₂ emissions into high value-added molecules. This conversion is achieved through platforms that combine microbiology, catalysis, and green chemistry. In CARTIF’s Biotechnology and Sustainable Chemistry (BQS) area, the process is structured around four main stages:
Smart Pretreatment: The first step is to break down the complex structure of the waste (lignocellulosic biomass, molasses, used oils) through physical, chemical, or enzymatic methods to release sugars and fermentable compounds.
Advanced Fermentation: At this stage, engineered microorganisms convert substrates (sugars, CO₂, syngas) into organic acids, biopolymers, alcohols, or single-cell proteins (SCP). This is a critical step, as productivity, selectivity, and stability determine the feasibility of the process.
Selective Biocatalysis: To convert an intermediate metabolite into a final molecule of interest, specific enzymes or biocatalytic pathways are used. These operate under mild conditions and increase the purity of the final product.
Separation and Purification Stage (Downstream): Membranes, chromatography, ultrafiltration, or spray drying techniques are used to isolate, concentrate, and prepare the product to meet industrial and quality regulatory requirements.
When all these processes are integrated into a biorefinery —which simultaneously produces several bioproducts from a single waste stream— carbon use is maximized, while costs, emissions, and risks associated with fossil raw materials are reduced.
In the Biotechnology area, we work with methodologies based on the development of technologies at the laboratory scale for subsequent scaling up to pilot plant and pre-industrial phases (TRL 2–5). These are accompanied by techno-economic analysis and carbon footprint assessment tools to ensure that innovation is both scalable and transferable to industry and the productive sector.
Technologies that generate value and market
It is not enough for a process to work — it must produce competitive products in terms of volume, cost, and quality. Circular bioprocesses make it possible to access growing industrial markets. Among the bioproducts with the greatest commercial potential are:
Organic acids (lactic, acetic, succinic): building blocks for the chemical, cosmetic, and bioplastics industries.
PHA/PHB biopolymers: biodegradable alternatives with high potential in sustainable packaging.
Microbial proteins: a source of alternative protein for animal feed or aquaculture.
Natural antioxidants and bioactive peptides: high-value ingredients for nutraceuticals and cosmetics.
Bio-oils and biochars: precursors for adhesives, coatings, or porous materials.
The European market has already begun to turn interest into figures: with a high growth rate, competition among biotechnological producers is increasingly focused on niches where local supply chains, sustainability, and traceability are differentiating factors compared to fossil-based plastics.
In 2024, the packaging sector accounted for 45% of the demand for bioplastics in Europe (European Bioplastics). Forecasts point to an annual growth rate of 18% between 2025 and 2030, increasing from 0.67 to 1.54 million tonnes. Other segments, such as bioactive ingredients and technical biopolymers, are also joining this momentum, where traceability and renewable origin have become key competitive advantages.
What CARTIF contributes: infrastructure and risk mitigation
Turning a good idea into a viable industrial project requires an advanced technological platform, flexibility, and expertise in scale-up processes. This is where CARTIF contributes the experience of its highly qualified technical staff and its comprehensive laboratory and pilot plant infrastructure.
The Biotechnology and Sustainable Chemistry (BQS) area has a complete infrastructure that enables the scaling of processes from laboratory to pilot plant, featuring automated fermenters (1–200 liters), pressurized reactors capable of using gases such as CO₂ / H₂ / CO, SCADA systems, and a state-of-the-art analytical laboratory (HPLC, GC-MS, UPLC-MS, FTIR, SEM, TGA, etc.).
With these capabilities, we can simulate industrial conditions, optimize key parameters (yields, productivity, enzymatic/energy costs), and validate feasibility before scaling up.
From idea to project: recommended roadmap
For those working in companies, clusters, or technology centers, this quick guide can help design a strategy to valorize and benefit from by-product and waste streams:
1. Identify your residual streams: analyze their composition, volume, and variability.
2. Define your product portfolio: select one or two “anchor products” plus potential co-products.
3. Choose a technology and develop it with innovation and competitiveness criteria — from laboratory to pilot scale — with clear KPIs such as productivity, titers, and gross/net yield.
4. Conduct economic (TEA) and environmental (LCA) assessments under relevant regulatory scenarios.
5. Secure supply and off-take agreements with suppliers and distributors.
Thanks to its multidisciplinary expertise and collaborative network with companies, CARTIF supports industry throughout the entire development cycle — from waste characterization to pilot validation and techno-economic evaluation — applying an integrated approach that reduces technological risk and accelerates the transfer of results to the market.
📩 Contact us to develop biotechnology solutions tailored to your industry
In summary, biotechnological waste valorization is no longer a futuristic promise: it has become a necessary strategy for companies seeking to stay ahead of regulations, reduce costs or environmental reputation risks, and capture new market niches. With strict regulations such as the PPWR coming into force and ambitious targets set for 2030, those who integrate circular bioprocesses will gain a solid competitive advantage.
Circular bioprocesses offer a real pathway to transform environmental challenges into opportunities for innovation. At CARTIF — and specifically within the BQS area — we work to ensure that every molecule counts, driving a more sustainable, competitive, and knowledge-based industry.
Isaac Newton, working from an eminently mathematical foundation, made it clear more than 300 years ago that the most solid way to understand the world is to formulate hypotheses and gsubject them to experimentation and observation, in order to empirically conclude wether they hold up or not. Thanks to this method, we have achieved unthinkable milestones: preventing and curing diseases that once devastated us, reaching the moon, and even allowing you to read this from anywhere on the planet.
For 21st century engineers, this story may sounds repetitive. However, today it´s more necessary than ever not only to hear it, but to listen to it and reflect on it. Our profession consists of designing and developing products and services- in the broadest sense- that solve real problems for people. Clearly, we try, but with some perspective, too many cases emerge in which we invest our most valuable resources (time, money and energy) in perhaps brilliant solutions…that no one wanted.
“The most solid way to understand the world is to formulate hypotheses and subject them to experimentation and observation”
The result is often waste, demotivation and, at best, learning. Very expensive learning. Isn´t there a cheaper way to achieve the same lesson? Yes: the Build-Measure-Learn cycle. This approach, popularized by Eric Ries in his book The Lean Startup, is equally applicable to engineering, where early hypothesis validation can save huge amounts of resources. The dynamic is simple: we start with a hyptohesis (that point of convergence between the creator´s vision and what the client could accept) and design an empirical and frugal way to obtain tangible observations that validate or refuse that hypothesis.
Infography Build-Measure-Learn.
The sequence is: Idea; Build (product); Measure; Data; Learn; New idea. The objective isn´t to “guet it right the first time”, but to minimize the resources neede to achieve useful learning. The tool that best optimizes this cycle is the MVP (Minimum Viable Product): a product simple enough to generate measurable results as quickly as possible, convert them into data, extract clear learning from them, and thereby validate or reject the initial hypothesis.
For it to work, it takes more than just method. It takes intellectual humility. Sometimes the “brilliant idea” was nothing more than a fantasy and it´s time to pivot. Just as empiricism helped us abandon geocentrism, spontaneous generation, humoral theory or witchcraft, perhaps its time to return to that same apporach to test the hypothesis on which we build not only our profession, but also our society.
In short, less faith in our assumptions and more respect for the evidence. Let´s build small, measure earliy, learn fast. And, if necessary, change course before continuing to invest in something no one is expecting.
🤝 Looking for a technology partner to develop your idea? Contact our team.
Every October 16th, we celebrate something that unites us all: food. This year, we also commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), an institution that, since 1945, has worked tirelessly to ensure the right to a dignified life through something as essential as food. Eight decades later, the message of World Food Day continues to call for the collaboration of all of us who are part of the system’s challenges: “Hand in hand for better food and a better future.”
A simple sentence, yet filled with shared responsibility. Because feeding the world in a fair, sustainable, and healthy way is not only the task of major international organizations. It also involves each of us — in every decision we make, in every food we choose, in every process of innovation. Every small contribution matters. That’s why I ask to myself, and we should all ask ourselves: How can I help?
A look toward the great transformation of food
The way we produce, distribute, and consume food defines not only our health but also the planet’s. The recent publication of the EAT–Lancet Commission 2.0 report (2025), presented a few days ago at the Stockholm Food Forum, once again highlights the urgent need for a Great Food Transformation, based on three pillars: health, sustainability, and justice.
The inclusion of the justice pillar is no coincidence. The global context we live in, marked by strong geopolitical instability, rising food prices, the emerging impacts of climate change, and other cascading effects, continues to undermine food security and, consequently, human health. Social injustice is growing, and the resilience of nations is increasingly fragile. Although current food systems have, to a large extent, managed to keep pace with population growth and ensure sufficient caloric intake for many, they remain the main driver of planetary boundary transgression and require joint and urgent action grounded in these three pillars.
The EAT–Lancet report reminds us that the global adoption of healthy diets derived from sustainable food systems would safeguard our planet and improve the health of billions of people. It also warns that, if we fail to act, the world risks falling short of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and other key actions linked to the future of food..
Professor Johan Rockström, one of the study’s authors, summed it up clearly: “The world’s food production threatens climate stability and ecosystem resilience. It is the single greatest driver of environmental degradation” His words resonate strongly on this FAO anniversary, reminding us, as the organization has done for eight decades, that food should not only nourish us but also protect the very land that makes it possible
Source: Twitter Johan Rockström
“The world´s food production threatens climate stability and ecosystem resilience. It is the single greatest driver of environmental degradation”
This call to action is not directed solely at governments or institutions. It speaks to all of us: researchers, producers, companies, and consumers. Because food is not an isolated process; it is a living, interconnected system in which what we decide at one end has consequences at the other.
How can I help?
Remember that every action counts. Ending hunger, preserving our ecosystems, ensuring the food of the future, and understanding the impact this has on the world — it’s a lot, isn’t it?.
It all begins with the choices we make every day. We can choose local and seasonal foods, eat more plant-based meals, drink tap or filtered water, buy only what we need and reduce food waste, use reusable packaging, choose minimally processed foods, value the effort behind every product that reaches our table, and support sustainable farming practices.
Becoming aware means understanding that the food we choose is also a tool for change. It’s in our hands to help build a model where the health of people and the planet are not opposing goals, but two sides of the same coin. When that awareness multiplies, it turns individual action into collective strength.
Seasonal fruits. Source: Freepik
CARTIF: innovation at the service of a fair and sustainable food system
At CARTIF, we firmly believe that science and technology are key allies in achieving this transformation. That’s why we work hand in hand with companies, public administrations, and society to develop technological solutions that address the major food and environmental challenges of our time.
From our Food Area, we focus on the valorization of food and food by-products, promoting the efficient and sustainable use of natural resources.
We are advancing in food industrial processes decarbonization, driving technologies that reduce the environmental impact of new food production. In addition, we are currently an active partner in the Vision4Food EU project, which aims to tackle the challenges associated with food systems through the development of tools and models that help us move from strategy to action within territories.
I can only say thank you for your help! And may every day be a happy World Food Day for everyone.
In the new era of Industry 5.0, robots are no longer just tools for automation, they are becoming active collaborators for people. The key is no longer only about producing faster, but about building flexible, personalized, and human-centric environments. And here comes a fundamental challenge: how can we enable robots to understand and communicate with us naturally?
The answer lies in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), a field that seeks to make machines perceive, interpret, and respond to people in an appropriate way. Yet, one of the biggest obstacles is the lack of a universal language that allows different systems and sensors to work together seamlessly
This is where ROS4HRI comes in: an open standard driven by our partner in the ARISE project, PAL Robotics. Within this ecosystem, PAL contributes its expertise in humanoid and social robotics, ensuring that ROS4HRI is validated in real environments from testing labs to productive scenarios such as hospitals and healthcare centers.
Standard ROS4HRI
What is ROS4HRI?
ROS4HRI is an extension of ROS2 (Robot Operating System) that defines a set of standardized interfaces, messages, and APIs designed for human-robot interaction.
Its goal is simple: to create a common language that unifies how robots perceive and interpret human signals, regardless of the sensors or algorithms used. With ROS4HRI, robots can manage key information such as:
Person identity: recognition and individual tracking.
Social attributes: emotions, facial expressions, even estimated age.
Non-verbal interactions: gestures, gaze, body posture.
Multimodal signals:voice, intentions, and natural language commands
ROS4HRI Architecture
The design of ROS4HRI follows a modular approach, breaking down barriers between different perception systems. This ensures robots can process human information in a coherent and consistent way, fully aligned with the open philosophy of ROS2. Its main components include:
Standard messages: to represent human identities, faces, skeletons, and expressions.
Interaction APIs: giving applications uniform access to this data.
Multimodal integration: combining voice, vision, and gestures for richer interpretation.
Compatibility with ROS2 and Vulcanexus: enabling deployment in distributed, mission-critical environments.
You can see part of its core modules in the figure below. For more details, the code and documentation are available in the official repository: github.com/ros4hri
In the European project ARISE, ROS4HRI plays a key role within the ARISE middleware, integrating with ROS2, Vulcanexus, and FIWARE.
This powerful combination enables Industry 5.0 scenarios where robots equipped with ROS4HRI can:
Recognize an operator and adapt their behavior based on role or gestures.
Interpret social signals such as signs of fatigue or stress, to provide more human-aware support.
Share information in real time with industrial management platforms, e.g. through FIWARE enriching decision-making.
What makes it even more interesting is that ROS4HRI does not operate in isolation: it leverages resources already available within the community. A great example is MediaPipe, Google’s widely used library for gesture, pose, and face recognition. With ROS4HRI, MediaPipe outputs (like 2D/3D skeletons or hand detection) can be seamlessly integrated into ROS2 in a standardized way.
A practical example
A practical example within ARISE using ROS4HRI is a module for detecting finger movements. A package was developed in ROS2 that follows the ROS4HRI standard and uses Google’s MediaPipe library to process video from a camera. The main node extracts the 3D coordinates of hand joints and publishes them in a ROS topic following ROS4HRI conventions, such as: /humans/hands/<id>/joint_states.
Thanks to this standardized format, other system components (for instance, an RViz visualizer or a robot controller) can consume this data interoperably, enabling applications like gesture-based robot control.
The evolution towards Industry 5.0 demands robots that can interact in ways that are more human, reliable, and efficient.On this path, ROS4HRI is emerging as a key standard to enable seamless human-robot collaboration ensuring interoperability, scalability, and trust. Its applications extend beyond industry, reaching into healthcare, education, and services, where the ability to understand and respond to people is essential.
References
Lemaignan, S.; Ferrini, L.; Gebelli, F.; Ros, R.; Juricic, L.; Cooper, S. Hands-on: From Zero to an Interactive Social Robot using ROS4HRI and LLMs. HRI 2025. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10974214
Ros, R.; Lemaignan, S.; Ferrini, L.; Andriella, A.; Irisarri, A. ROS4HRI: Standardising an Interface for Human-Robot Interaction.2023PDF link
On September 23, Zamora breathed innovation: researchers, doctors, technologists, companies, and institutions came together with a single goal in mind—the future of health and well-being.
The National Health and Wellbeing Forum, promoted byCARTIFtogether with ITCL as part of the CENTRATEC program, which was held in the city, became a space where innovation was not just a technological opportunity, but a key tool for improving people’s lives.
Technology at the service of care
The institutional opening was marked by the speech given by Isabel Blanco, Vice President of the Regional Government of Castile and León and Minister for Family and Equal Opportunities, who highlighted the importance of putting technology at the service of care. This message resonated throughout the day and set the tone for the work: innovation, yes, but always with the patient at the center.
The conversations began to flow with the first of the topics, moving from health research to the development of concrete solutions. The RIS3 strategy for Castile and León (2021-2027) recognizes health as one of its priority areas, focusing on fields with enormous potential such as personalized medicine, advanced therapies, and technological health products.
“ The objective of RIS3 is to position Castilla and Leon as a key actor facing new challenges and opportunities to improve people’s lives.“
-Beatriz Asensio, Head of the Technology Transfer Unit at the Institute for Business Competitiveness of the Regional Government of Castile and León.-
The underlying reflection was shared by all: how to translate enormous scientific potential into concrete results for patients, ensuring speed, safety, and sustainability?
Digital health: from data to decision
The digital future was also a key topic. Concepts such as artificial intelligence, big data, and telemedicine made it clear that the future is already here, and that the challenge is to learn how to use digital tools responsibly, both in prevention and in personalized care.
Ethics, training, and adaptation of healthcare systems were recurring themes in a passionate debate.
But if there was one moment when everyone seemed to be pulling in the same direction, it was when discussing public-private partnerships. Companies, startups, research centers, and government agencies agreed that the key lies in joining forces to ensure that innovations actually reach the healthcare system and the market.
“ We must commit to projects that can be implemented in real life.“
-Manuel Ángel Franco, Head of Psychiatry and Mental Health Services at the Zamora Healthcare Complex.-
“ The key is to optimize processes to make things easier for everyone, both professionals and users.“
-Alberto Saez, IT responsible of Affidea-
“ Users must always be at the center“
-Juan Ignacio Coll, Vice President of the Health Informatics Society-
In the demonstration area, that vision became tangible: a place full of technological solutions and ongoing projects that could be experienced firsthand and that seemed to open the door to new ways of caring.
