ICEX-Invest in Spain is launching the third call for the Innova Invest programme, an initiative with funding of 4 million euros to promote investments in Spain by companies that are at least 50% foreign-owned and with projects that offer a high innovative component.

The Innova Invest Programme, financed with European funds, supports foreign investment through a series of subsidies aimed at SMEs and small mid-cap companies with a viable R&D project in Spain. This initiative thereby promotes the integration of these international investment groups into Spain’s productive and research fabric and contributes to improving the competitiveness and productivity of the Spanish economy.

Specifically, the minimum amount of investment (made up of all the eligible items included in each application) must be at least 500,000 euros, while the maximum grant per beneficiary is 800,000 euros. The aid will be granted to contribute to covering the costs of industrial research or experimental development projects which fall within the eligible items, including personnel costs, instruments and equipment, buildings and land, and contract research, as well as additional overheads and operating costs.

The subsidy will be determined as a percentage of these eligible items, with percentages varying according to the size of the company and the type of project, from 25% to 50%.

Access to aid will be on a competitive basis, according to the criteria set out in the call for applications, and factors like their contribution to achieving the green transition and digital transformation, their impact on employment, their investment in technological resources dedicated to R&D and their business capacity, as well as other factors, will all be taken into account.

The deadline is now open and interested companies have until 8 April to submit their applications. Successful applicants may develop their projects anywhere in Spain and will have a deadline until 31 December 2026 for executing their projects.

Investment opportunity
The Innova Invest programme came into being under the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, co-financed by the Next Generation funds from the European Union. This new call for proposals is now co-financed through the Spanish ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) Multi-Regional Programme for the period 2021-2027.

The programme is aimed at SMEs and, in addition, at companies in the “small mid-cap” category. That means those companies which – while not being SMEs – have a number of employees not exceeding 499, an annual turnover not exceeding 100 million euros or an annual balance sheet not exceeding 86 million euros.

More information at the following link