“España Puede” investment projects start to receive the first NGEU funding
Following the approval of the Spanish National Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (España Puede) by the Council of Europe last July 2021, the first €9 billion from the Next Generation EU fund have already arrived in Spain. And as expected, as announced in RDL 36/2020 of December 2020, the first public calls for the use of these funds at the state level have been published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) during the current month of August. It is worth highlighting the application of the same in the first calls linked to Innovation and Business Sustainability, trying to comply with some of the investments set out in the National Plan approved by Brussels, fundamentally in relation to components 12 (Industrial Policy 2030) and 17 (SECTI).
Specifically, component 17, Institutional reform and strengthening the capacities of the science, technology and innovation system, set out the objective of tackling the country’s economic and social recovery in the short term, and in the medium term to ensure that the State Science, Technology and Innovation System (SECTI) is the key instrument for tackling the major challenges such as ecological and just transition, digitalisation and the demographic challenge, increasing and accelerating investment in R&D&I in a sustainable manner and in strategic areas until reaching the European average in 2027. Among the investment projects included in this component, endowed with more than €4,050M, is investment in new public-private, interdisciplinary R&D&I projects, proofs of concept and access to international competitive calls for proposals, seeking cutting-edge R&D geared towards society’s challenges. This investment includes 35% of this budget (€1,167 M) and one of the first calls launched by the Government through the CDTI was the 2021 call for Science and Innovation Missions, given that this Centre is primarily responsible for promoting, within the new National Plan for Scientific, Technical and Innovation Research 2021-2023, the State Programme for Catalysing Innovation and Business Leadership, which includes the State Sub-programme for Public-Private Collaboration.
This call has been endowed with a budget of €140 million, double that of 2020, and is scheduled to close on 6 September 2021. It has identified 9 missions, including the promotion of Spanish agriculture in the 21st century, a theme on which artica+i focuses its consultancy activity for the management of public financial aid and which constitutes two of the challenges set out in Spain 2050, “Being more productive to grow better” and “Becoming a carbon neutral, sustainable and resilient society to climate change”. Likewise, CDTI launched in July 2021, a public call for funding aligned with the Component 17 investment project entitled “R&D in sustainable automotive (PTAS)” endowed with 40 M€. Other investment projects envisaged will focus on Environment, Climate Change and Energy (€100M), Health (€490M), Aerospace (€160M), boosting new scientific careers and knowledge transfer (close to €700M overall).
With the aim of promoting the digital transformation of industrial companies and, as a direct consequence, improving their environmental sustainability, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism (MINCOTUR) has allocated €95m to the Activa Financiación 2021 call for proposals, linked to investment project 2 (Programme to Boost Industrial Competitiveness and Sustainability) of component 12 of the National Plan (Spain 2030 Industrial Policy). MINCOTUR has also announced aid for industrial R&D&I projects in the manufacturing industry. Both aids are regulated by Order ICT/789/2021 of 16 July, aid for Innovation and Sustainability Plans in the field of manufacturing industry, announced in August 2021, which companies can receive in the form of a loan or as a combination of loan and grant, aimed at supporting research, development and innovation projects in the field of Connected Industry 4.0. In particular, this action aims to promote the incorporation of knowledge, technologies and innovations aimed at the digitisation of processes and the creation of technologically advanced products and services with greater added value in industrial companies.
These calls aim to improve knowledge transfer and boost investments in key areas for Recovery, Transformation and Resilience. The measures included in these investment projects will help EU Member States to invest 3% of GDP in R&D&I by 2030 and public investment will represent 1.25% of GDP (0.52% in Spain in 2018), which will mean reaching 0.75% by 2024, supported by the NGEU Fund.
Therefore, it can be stated that the new public calls for R&D&I with funds from the NGEU and in the new EU Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027 are already being published in Spain and it is the task of companies to organise themselves internally, prioritise their needs, identify entities of interest in the field of public-private cooperation and monitor their enactment to try to take advantage of the new opportunities that arise. It is important to remember that new calls for the implementation of investment projects within the National Plan “España Puede” are forthcoming, so relying on specialised consultancy firms such as artica+i, is an option of interest to ensure access to them in a timely manner, enjoy technical and economic success in the coming years and thus promote the recovery, transformation and resilience of our companies.
