NUTRIALITEC, an artica+i commitment to Innovation Ecosystems
CDTI Innovation recently published its decision on aid for Innovation Ecosystems, with a total of 13 approved applications for funding. Among them is **NUTRIALITEC**, an initiative we are part of to promote food innovation, focusing on sustainable extractive technologies and omics applied to functional nutrition.
These grants strengthen the Spanish Science, Technology, and Innovation System as a whole, fostering collaboration and knowledge transfer.
Included in the State Subprogram for Public-Private Collaboration, the aid for Innovation Ecosystems aims to foster collaborative, open innovation structures that bring together agents or entities at the local, regional, or national level to stimulate technological development, innovation, and the transfer of technology and knowledge in a specific sector.
This aid program is a recent initiative managed by the Center for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI Innovation), part of the actions foreseen in the National Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan (PRTR), funded by Next Generation EU funds.
Specifically, the first call (2023) for Support to Innovation Ecosystems, resolved in July 2024, has funded the work of managers of Innovation Ecosystems based on Cervera Excellence Networks, which aim to strengthen technology centers that conduct applied research in Spain, as well as their driving role in the broader Spanish Science, Technology, and Innovation System.
In this way, the 2023 call has provisionally approved 13 applications with a total budget of more than €18M, with more than €9M in financing. Among them is the NUTRIALITEC initiative, in which we participate.
NUTRIALITEC, one of the 13 Innovation Ecosystem initiatives
NUTRIALITEC is a consortium of companies and technological and research centers in which we collaborate alongside five other leading entities in Innovation and sustainability in the national agri-food R&D sector, operating across seven autonomous communities.
This Ecosystem, building upon the Cervera Network AGROMATTER—focused on revaluing agri-food by-products through bio-ingredient extraction—will work under the title: “Ecosystem to promote food innovation: sustainable extractive technologies and omics for functional nutrition – NUTRIALITEC.” It is important to highlight that the Cervera Network is a program promoted by CDTI Innovation aimed at positioning Spain at the forefront of 27 strategic and impactful areas for the Spanish economy.
Thus, under the coordination of the National Technological Center for the Canning Industry (CTNC), and together with the National Agrofood Technological Center of Extremadura (CTAEX), the Basque Culinary Center Fundazioa (BCC), the Catholic University of San Antonio of Murcia (UCAM), and the biotech company oloBion, we are part of the beneficiary group, with an overall budget of €1.9M.
NUTRIALITEC will receive more than €975,000 in funding from CDTI Innovation as a grant to carry out a project over 21 months (ending in December 2025).
Our involvement in the project will be primarily as a technical office in charge of the dynamization, coordination, and technical-administrative monitoring of the project. Additionally, we will actively collaborate in the communication and dissemination plan and lead the working group on project promotion and management, driving R&D&I initiatives and identifying public funding lines that best suit their characteristics and needs. Furthermore, we will promote the design of a strategic agenda linked to this Cervera technology, which is key to building a safe and healthy food chain.
During this first year of operation, NUTRIALITEC will design its governance structure and begin the activities of its six internal working groups, always with the long-term goal of ensuring a Continuity Plan for the Ecosystem.
Given that our corporate strategy favors collaboration as a growth path, as well as fostering institutional and business relationships and promoting public-private partnerships that facilitate collaboration and the transfer of R&D&I results, it is logical to place our company’s focus on these kinds of actions.
Under this strategy, we participate in the activities of well-established groups in Spain, such as the Food for Life Spain Technological Platform, the R&D working group of the Federation of Food and Drink Industries (FIAB), the Agri-Food Cluster of Galicia (CLUSAGA), or the European Association of Innovation Consultancy (EAIC). Additionally, we hold the position of Technical Secretariat of the Spanish Wine Technology Platform (PTV), having managed it since 2011.
Linkage with Cervera priority technologies
Given the interest and prominence that these types of structures have in driving sectoral innovation and the EU’s commitment to their development and expansion, **CDTI Innovation** launched the 2023 call—the first for Innovation Ecosystem aid—requiring alignment with **Cervera** priority technologies, which are prioritized around the following 11 strategic areas:
- Advanced materials
- Circular economy
- Energy transition
- Smart manufacturing
- Health technologies
- Safe and healthy food chain
- Deep Learning, Artificial Intelligence
- Advanced mobile networks
- Intelligent transportation
- Information protection
- Quantum computing
It is within the framework of the “Safe and Healthy Food Chain” technologies that NUTRIALITEC’s activities are situated.
While awaiting a future call, the 2023 one was characterized by the following requirements, which are expected to remain:
- Eligible budget: between €1M and €3M.
- Duration: The implementation period will be multi-annual, starting after the aid request submission (March 2024) and ending on December 31, 2025.
- Consortium: 4–8 entities with the participation of at least one technological center and/or center of support for Technological Innovation.
- Representative of the consortium: must be a company or a Technological Center and/or Center for Technological Innovation Support registered in the Centers Registry.
- Internal agreement: A consortium agreement regulating the functioning of the consortium must be signed before the aid application is submitted.
- No participant with a budget lower than 10% of the total eligible budget.
- Subcontracting: a maximum of 50% of the eligible budget for each member of the consortium.
- Maximum aid intensity: 50% of eligible expenses.
- All actions funded under this call must respect the principle of Do No Significant Harm (DNSH) to the environment.
