The Generalitat launches a line of aid to finance 350 innovation projects with 49 million

   ALICANTE, 22 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Generalitat, through the Valencian Agency for Innovation (AVI), has launched a new call for competitive aid aimed at strengthening and developing the innovation system, endowed with around 49 million euros. It plans to finance around 350 R&D projects, in which different agents of the innovation system will collaborate.

This new public appeal has been published in the Official Gazette of the Generalitat Valenciana (DOGV). The call will serve to solve challenges of common interest through R&D and as a novelty, "both the participation of companies and the economic endowment will be reinforced" of the two programs with the greatest impact on the productive fabric, to promote strategic projects in cooperation and the consolidation of the business value chain, as indicated by the Generalitat in a statement.

In total, the AVI has arranged a maximum global budget of 48.95 million euros for this new edition of its support programs for R D i , which will remain open for the receipt of projects until April 21.

The new call is 60 percent co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), through the Valencian Community program for the period 2021-2027, and is aligned with the new S3 Smart Specialization Strategy, which has been designed the Ministry of Innovation, Universities, Science and Digital Society.

It is estimated that, with the current economic allocation, the AVI will be able to finance around 350 innovation initiatives, which will be executed in a maximum of three years, depending on the type of program and the characteristics of each project.

The six lines of help from the Agency encourage the development of innovation projects in companies and "facilitate the transfer of knowledge and its applications" to the productive fabric, promoting public-private collaboration and cooperation between technology and research centers and companies .

In fact, the AVI requires the collaboration of at least two system agents to opt for any type of incentive, while prioritizing, as up to now, those initiatives that offer responses to the challenges and solutions that have previously been identified the different committees of specialists that advise the entity.

As a novelty, this year the weight of companies in the main aid programs will be strengthened, with the aim of stimulating their participation and cooperation with other organisations. Thus, the companies will now have to assume half of the execution cost of each strategic project, which will also require the participation of at least one SME among the entities that will work jointly in the development of said R&D initiatives.

This last obligation of the participation of a small or medium-sized company will also be extended to collaborative projects that are submitted to the line of consolidation of the value chain, the second by volume of funds.

Both programs, which already accounted for the bulk of the call's budget, will experience a new increase in their allocation to reach 70% of the total. The Generalitat has highlighted that these are the two lines that, "year after year, arouse greater demand and those that also generate a more noticeable impact on the production system", since they are open to the participation of companies.

In the case of strategic projects in cooperation, the AVI has raised the economic item to 20.75 million euros, 20% more than a year ago, to encourage cooperation between the scientific community, technological institutes and business in the joint development of solutions to challenges of common interest.

In this way, the development of initiatives that necessarily require the collaboration of the different agents of the innovation system will be reinforced due to their complexity and the high economic effort they represent.

In the same proportion, the endowment of the support program for the consolidation of the business value chain increases, which will have 13.9 million euros to support the design of solutions that involve novelties in products or processes, or improvements in the exchange of information and work procedures with an impact on the entire value chain.

The adaptation of the call to the requirements derived from European funding also entails other novelties for organizations that request AVI incentives. From now on, they must justify that their innovation projects will not generate any negative impact on the environment.

Finally, in the Talent Promotion program, greater flexibility will be granted to research centers that apply to the line of innovation agents. Specifically, each entity may submit a maximum of four applications, compared to the maximum of three in force to date.

Likewise, the Generalitat has pointed out that "beyond the promotion of strategic projects and consolidation of the value chain", it highlights the support for the Valuation, transfer and research results program to companies, which has 7.6 million of euros.

These funds will not only allow the development of trials, pilot tests and demonstrators, but also guarantee financing for the Scientific Units for Business Innovation (UCIE) set up in universities and research centers of excellence.

Thus, AVI will continue to support the attraction and retention of qualified professionals through three specific help lines. The 4.85 million allocated for this will be able to support the current network of innovation agents, while supporting companies that train doctoral students and industrial doctoral students or that hire research and technical personnel for Vocational Training linked to the execution of innovation projects .

Another of the strategic lines for the Agency, that of promoting the Public Procurement of Innovation (CPI), will exceed one million euros this year. This budget will be used to boost both the demand for innovative products and services in the Administration, and to encourage companies to participate in this type of national and international tenders.

Finally, 800,000 euros are contemplated to promote actions to strengthen the Valencian innovation system. The aim of this program is to reinforce existing innovation support structures in the Community, as well as to facilitate the dissemination of R&D among companies.

Since 2018, a total of 520 different organizations, including companies, universities, technology and research centers and local entities, have benefited from AVI's competitive bidding aid. In total, it has granted around 139 million euros to support the development of cooperative R&D actions, in order to optimize the operation of the Community's innovation system and enhance synergies between its different links.