R&D&i Projects: Financing Tools for the Wine Sector
On March 18th, the online event “R&D&i Projects: Financing Tools for the Wine Sector” took place, organized by the Wine Technology Platform (PTV), in which we participated from artica+i (Technical Office).
It is a webinar that is part of the training cycle that PTV carries out within the framework of the SISVITIMAD 2.0 project, whose main objective is to facilitate the approach of technological offerings and knowledge transfer to wineries in Madrid, and to give a new boost to the R&D&i system of the wine sector in the Community of Madrid, as well as to promote the consumption of ‘zero-kilometer’ wines from the DOP Wines of Madrid.
The roadmap for this project began last November 2023 with a diagnosis of technological transfer. Since then, work has been done on the content of a survey to identify the technologies that are currently under development and/or already available in the market with the aim of determining those that are of greatest interest and are likely to be integrated into the production processes of wineries and companies in the Madrid wine sector. In addition, through this survey, a prioritization of the five strategic lines outlined in the Research and Innovation Agenda of the Wine Sector of Madrid (AGIVIMAD) will also be carried out.
Key Points in Identifying and Designing R&D&i Projects
During the event, some of the key strategies for identifying and designing innovative projects were discussed:
- Understanding the sector’s challenges, those common objectives to the sector as a whole whose resolution would result in greater competitiveness for all. In the case of the wine sector, for example, addressing the adverse effects of climate change or the sector’s adaptation to the digital environment.
- Identifying new technologies that allow us to meet these challenges. Advanced sensors, new packaging materials, the implementation of Digital Twins, or Artificial Intelligence.
- Creating synergies to promote collaboration between companies and research centers.
With these three pillars, innovative projects could be proposed to provide solutions to current challenges by surpassing the current state of the art. That is, the idea should not only be novel and disruptive in the environment of the involved companies, but it should also be clear what has already been advanced in a specific field.
Steps in the Presentation of an R&D&i Project
With this training webinar, the steps to follow for the presentation of an R&D&i project to Public Administrations could be learned firsthand:
- Design and development of the initial project idea: at this stage it is important to define the project’s needs, objectives, problems to be solved, hypotheses for possible solutions, or their applicability.
- Preparation of the proposal, including diagnosis, planning, and identification of optimal financing tools for the proposal. This stage includes consortium formation, where it is vital to find participants committed to the project and whose activities complement each other to develop a high-quality technical report.
- Presentation and management: at this point it is essential to frame the proposal within the limits of the call for proposals to which we are submitting our initiative.
- After approval by the funding entity: along with the project, the stage of monitoring and technical and economic justification of the report presented in the application begins, where the management of administrative documentation becomes key.
R&D&i Financing Tools
In addition, the event highlighted some of the national aid lines that the public Administration makes available to Spanish companies and that may be of interest to the wine sector.
Individual and Collaborative R&D Projects
• Funding Entity: CDTI
• Objective: financing of business R&D projects of an applied nature for the creation or significant improvement of a production process, product, or service.
• Call: not in competitive concurrence, but fulfillment of conditions.
• Type of aid: partially reimbursable (Euribor at 1 year). Grant up to 85% and company contribution of 15%.
• Budget: minimum of €175,000 per company.
• Project duration: 12-36 months for individual projects and 12-48 months for collaborative projects.
Direct Innovation Line Projects
• Funding Entity: CDTI
• Objective: business projects, individual, of an applied nature, very close to the market and with medium/low technological risk, which support the company in improving its competitiveness by incorporating emerging technologies in the sector.
• Call: not in competitive concurrence, but fulfillment of conditions.
• Type of aid: partially reimbursable (Euribor at 1 year). Grant up to 85%.
• Budget: minimum of €175,000 per company.
• Project duration: 9-24 months.
Public-Private Collaboration
• Funding Entity: Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.
• Objective: financing of experimental development projects in collaboration between companies and research organizations.
• Type of aid: grant, loan, and repayable advance FEDER or a combination of both.
• Budget: €400,000.
• Beneficiaries: minimum 2 partners (1 company + 1 research organization).
Supra-Autonomous Operational Groups
• Funding Entity: Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
• Objective: financing of projects aimed at benefiting an entire sector or subsector at the national level and will be executed in at least two autonomous communities.
• Type of aid: 100% subsidy of expenses, except for productive investments, for which the subsidy is 65% (in projects of Annex I of the EU).
• Budget: maximum aid for the entire Group of €600,000.
• Beneficiaries: groups of at least two individuals, physical or legal, independent from each other.
• Project duration: 2-3 years.
PADIH Grants (Support Program for Digital Innovation Hubs)
• Funding Entity: Ministry of Industry and Tourism.
• Objective: Improvement of the competitiveness of Spanish SMEs, from any productive sector, through the provision of advisory and support services in innovation for the implementation of disruptive digital technologies.
• Budget: the maximum amount equivalent to the services received by the SME will be €30,000.
• Beneficiaries: SMEs.
• Project duration: 12 months.
Digital Kit
• Funding Entity: Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service.
• Objective: initiative to subsidize the implementation of digital solutions available in the market that meet the needs of small businesses, microenterprises, and self-employed workers. They are aimed at any sector or type of business.
• Beneficiaries: SMEs and self-employed workers.
• Budget: depending on the segment to which the beneficiary belongs, it will range between €2,000 and €12,000.
Focusing on the SIVITIMAD 2.0 project, some regional aids from the Community of Madrid that may be relevant to the wine sector were also mentioned, such as the Innovation Voucher and the industrial digitization grants of the Community of Madrid or the IMIDRA grants for R&D&i.
Here is the complete webinar video to learn about the financing tools available for the wine sector.
