Component 13 of the Recovery Plan, an opportunity for the digitisation of agri-food SMEs
The Spanish food industry is made up of more than 30,000 companies, 95% of which are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). For this reason, artica+i considers that it is of special interest to know the content of component 13 of the National Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (Recovery Plan) called “Boosting SMEs” and some of its main investment projects. This component is part of lever V “Modernisation and digitisation of the industrial fabric and SMEs”, consisting of 5 major investment projects with a budget of around €4.9 billion. I3 “Digitalisation and Innovation” which includes, among others, subsidy programmes for SMEs for the costs of adopting digital solutions and digital transformation, support for digitalisation projects in the value chain of the different industrial sectors (clusters recognised as Innovative Business Groupings) and support for Digital Innovation Hubs, within the framework of the SME Digitalisation Plan 2021-2025.
The Digital Toolkit Programme, with a budget of more than €3 billion, is part of this project to boost the digitisation of small businesses, micro-enterprises and the self-employed. This programme aims to promote the use of digital technologies in SMEs by encouraging the acquisition of basic digital software packages of interest to this type of company (CRM, ERP, etc.). For its promotion, direct aid will be provided in the form of subsidies through non-competitive calls for proposals, subject to de minimis. In any case, in order to access them, it will be necessary to have a Digital Maturity Diagnosis that will facilitate the possibility of receiving the aforementioned subsidy in a fixed amount that will depend on different variables such as the sector, the size of the company, etc. This diagnosis will be carried out in SMEs by implementing other existing programmes such as Acelera Pyme 2.0 or the intervention of facilitating agents, through the new Agents of Change Programme.
The latter aims to reach 15,000 Spanish companies between 2021 and 2023, incorporating an expert in digital transformation for one year in each company, with an eligible cost of up to €20,000, taking advantage of the training funds of component 19 “National Digital Skills Plan” of the National Plan. This action should enable Spanish SMEs to boost their digitalisation and even join the new Digital Innovation Hubs (DIH) that are being promoted in the different sectors of the economy through a specific support programme endowed in the same component 13 with nearly €40 million.
In this way, the Digital Toolkit Programme will allow each SME to choose a digital solutions provider and implement its own digitalisation plan to ensure its transformation and future resilience. As a company specialising in management and technology consultancy, we promote access to these funds from the European Recovery Instrument (NGEU 2021-2026) among our clients in the food industry, and we also have partners who implement these solutions while minimising their cost by taking advantage of this aid, which is a unique opportunity for our SMEs in their process of growth and improvement of global competitiveness. From the Engineering and Innovation Consultancy departments of artica+i, we help SMEs to find the best technological solution and we will recommend how to obtain the best financial aid within the framework of the aforementioned component 13 of the National Plan “Spain Can”.
Another component of the Recovery Plan that will directly contribute to the digitalisation of agri-food companies and farms is number 3. In fact, on Tuesday 19 October, the Council of Ministers approved the distribution among the autonomous communities of two packages of funds totalling more than €115 million for the granting of aid to projects that contribute to the “Environmental and digital transformation of the agri-food and fisheries sector”.
These two packages will go, on the one hand, to investments in precision agriculture, energy efficiency and circular economy in the agricultural and livestock sector (more than 102 M€) and, on the other hand, to the financing of projects in the field of animal and plant health that strengthen training and biosecurity systems in nurseries and centres for cleaning and disinfection of vehicles for land transport of animals (12.6 M€).
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