OHL, among the European companies that invest most in R&D

OHL is one of the 1,000 European companies that invest most in R&D, according to data collected in the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard 2016. The report, published yearly by the European Commission (EC), classifies the top 2,500 companies in the world in terms of their investment in research and development, on the basis of data from companies belonging to a range of sectors and headquartered in the European Union (EU), in addition to companies in the United States (US), Japan and China, among others.

According to the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard 2016, the OHL Group is placed twelfth in the ranking of European construction companies (R&D Ranking of the top 1000 EU companies by industrial sector) and seventeenth among Spanish companies in all sectors (R&D Ranking of the top 1000 EU companies). Moreover, the Group, together with another 16 Spanish companies, belongs to the list that includes the top 2,500 companies in the world in terms of R&D investment.

R&D&I activities are considered by the OHL Group as one of the basic planks of its strategy, together with its commitment to people and Corporate  Social Responsibility, in view of their contribution to the development and improvement of its productivity and competitiveness, through the addition of new more efficient and sustainable products, processes and services. In the period between 2000-2015, the company developed around 300 R&D&I projects and collaborated with around 100 universities and research centers in close to 20 countries.

Furthering innovation in the EU framework

FOTsis (Field Operational Test on Safe, Intelligent and Sustainable Road Operation), focused on the development of new road transportation technologies, and NeTTUN (New Technologies for Tunneling and Underground Work) are two of the projects promoted by the EU in the area of transportation infrastructures in which OHL participates.

In the field of unique building, OHL belongs to RESSEEPE (Retrofitting Solutions and Services for the Enhancement of Energy Efficiency in Public Edification), concerned with  the energy rehabilitation of public buildings; and  BUILT2SPEC (Built to Specifications: Tools for the 21st Century Construction Worksite), focused on the development of new  inspection and control techniques in efficient construction processes.

In addition, the Group has developed and patented the Cubipod, in conjunction with the Polytechnic University of Valencia.  The Cubipod is an element of artificial rockfill for the construction of the main armor of mound breakwaters for ports, whose first real application, in the Port of Malaga, won for the city’s Port Authority the National Award for Innovation. OHL has also been singled out with the Gold Medal in the 39th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva and with the prize to the best Spanish invention awarded by the Spanish patent agency, García-Cabrerizo. Likewise, in Geneva and on that same occasion, OHL obtained the silver medal for the SATOGrab, a device for the recovery of blocks of rockfill on port seawalls.