Ion Etxeberria - IKERLAN

"The commitment to the Basque language is not only emotional, it is also practical, something that gives value to the company"

Ikerlan is a Technological Research Center founded in 1974 and belongs to the Mondragon Corporation. It is the bridge through which the knowledge generated at the university is transferred to its technological application in the company.

Ion Etxeberria, general manager of Ikerlan, welcomed us at the center's headquarters in Arrasate for this interview as part of the Indeus interview project. Etxeberria believes that those who designed Ikerlan almost half a century ago were absolutely right: "It is a center that was designed almost 50 years ago, this building we are in was created at that time, at the beginning about 10 people started, now there are 360 of us and the technological lines have not changed that much. They saw the importance of electronics, mechanics, organization... they bet on basic technologies, related to basic engineering."

We have also talked to the general manager of IKERLAN about the objective of companies to create a link between the company and the people who work in it, and the different tools to achieve it: “cooperativism can be one. The Basque language can be another one and we believe it can be. It can be a form of link between the person and the company. We believe in it and the commitment to the Basque language is not only emotional, but we want and believe that it is also practical, it should give value to Ikerlan."