The Retos-Colaboración programme is part of the State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation, which aims to promote experimental development projects in collaboration between companies and public research entities, such as Universities and Research Centres. In this way, it aims to promote the development of new technologies and boost innovation in the Spanish business ecosystem.
The budget allocated this year by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness 500M, of which €100M will be in the form of grants. The rest of this support will be in the form of ERDF repayable advances and loans, with an interest rate of one-year Euribor, a ten-year repayment period and a three-year grace period.
The 2017 Challenges-Collaboration grants will be aimed at promoting projects related to the following types of challenges:
- Health, demographic change and well-being.
- Food safety and quality: productive and sustainable agriculture, natural resources, maritime and marine research.
- Safe, efficient and clean energy.
- Intelligent, sustainable and integrated transport.
- Action on climate change and efficiency in the use of resources and raw materials.
- Social changes and innovations.
- Digital economy and society.
- Security, safety and defence.
The themes of the projects must be aligned with the priorities established in the challenges of the state R&D programme mentioned in the previous point, as well as all those complementary technologies of a cross-cutting nature that serve to develop and complement the challenges.
Proposals submitted may only address a single challenge, although the project may address more than one challenge. Projects must be experimental development projects in the form of cooperative projects, and must involve at least two entities, one of which must be a public or private research organisation.
The minimum project budget shall be €500,000 for the duration of the project. Projects must be multi-annual and start their implementation during 2018. The new call for proposals will cover projects submitted until the end of 2017 and will only include expenditure generated from 1 January 2018. Projects must be completed by 31 December 2019 at the earliest and by 31 December 2021 at the latest.
Support will take the form of a loan (for private sector companies), an ERDF reimbursable advance (for public universities and public research organisations) and a grant (for public sector entities and private research organisations).
Loans: for the calculation of the interest rate at which the loan is granted, the one-year Euribor published by the Bank of Spain on the same day of the month preceding the month in which the call for applications is published, or, where applicable, on the first following working day, shall be used as a reference. If this is negative, the applicable interest rate will be 0%. Fixed period of grace period: 3 years. Maximum repayment period: 7 years. Maximum repayment period: 10 years.
ERDF Reimbursable Advance: the payment shall be made in formalisation without physical outflow of funds and shall be applied to the repayment of the repayable advance. The interest rate shall be 0% and the maximum repayment period shall be up to two years after payment of the final balance.
The eligible budget per company and project will be limited to a maximum of €15M.
The new call for R&D projects will soon be open for the 2017 Collaboration Challenges
What's new in the 2015 Partnership Challenges programme?
Abra-Invest has a team of experts in alternative financing at your disposal, with a successful track record in preparing projects for Challenges. If you are considering participating in this call, please contact us. Call + 34 946.42.41.42 or fill in the contact form below:
EN 
ES