This investment is intended to give a strong impetus to knowledge transfer. To this end, six measures are proposed to address this challenge of improvement in all key actors necessary for scientific knowledge and research results to be applied to the development of new technologies to address societal challenges.
The six measures to be funded to boost knowledge transfer to the economy and society are:
New call for applications for competitive grants "Innovation Ecosystems based on the Cervera Networks of Excellence": This action is conceived as a mechanism to promote the arrival of the technological capacities developed through the Cervera Grants in the socio-economic environment and the enhancement of their value. In line with the actions carried out by the European Innovation Council, support will be given to the generation of spaces for promotion, collaboration, information exchange and the provision or channelling of specialised services for innovation in Cervera's priority technologies within a framework of public-private-social collaboration. Collaboration will take place between Cervera Technology Centres of Excellence, the productive fabric, start-ups, universities, public and private R&D organisations, cities, public authorities, social agents, NGOs, etc.
Improving the capacities and orientation of the Research Results Transfer Offices (RTOs): it is necessary to strengthen the interface between the knowledge-generating centres and the productive sector and for the RTOs to be genuine Knowledge Transfer Offices (KTOs).
Calls for Cervera Grants to Technology Centres, research centres and SMEs and mid-caps to carry out R&D in priority technologies, are of 2 types:
- Aid to Cervera Technology Centres of Excellence, to carry out strategic programmes in priority technologies and to promote public-private collaboration, especially with the business sector, becoming strategic technology and innovation partners that generate a significant impact on business investment in R&D.
- A new modality of the Call for R&D projects Cervera Transfer, in competitive tenders extended to research centres acting as partners. With this call (which combines grants and loans), projects will be carried out in effective collaboration between Technology Centres, Research Organisations and SMEs and mid-cap companies to solve technological problems associated with the products or services they produce or offer competitively on the markets. This new type of call for proposals will make it possible to relax the requirement for guarantees from participating companies.
This call will be coordinated with the Industrial Doctorates and Torres Quevedo Programme of Investment 4 (calls for the recruitment and incorporation of PhDs in companies) to reinforce the absorption capacity of the knowledge transferred. This is a cross-call coordination exercise that will enhance the impact of the measures.
Call for applications for aid to Spanish SMEs with the European seal of excellence: One of the measures to increase public-private collaboration in innovation is the call for grants for Spanish start-ups and SMEs that, having obtained the European seal of excellence, are not mature enough to receive support from the EIC Accelerator and are provided with similar aid to prevent them from disappearing and to enable them to perfect their business model or validate their technology in real environments after their start-up. It is therefore a call that generates synergies with other European initiatives.
Risk capital measures, co-investment and investment in companies with strategic technologies: two types of action are envisaged:
- Creation of technology transfer funds that value and exploit public knowledge: promoting public-private venture capital initiatives that invest in technology-based companies that are in very early stages of development (seed and start-up) and that are mainly based on knowledge developed in research organisations.
- Direct co-investments with private investors in technology companies, mainly SMEs, through the company INNVIERTE. These co-investments will be made in innovative companies, leveraging novel technology in the sector operating as a source of competitive advantage or developing an innovative product, service or process with the potential to lead to a sustainable business model that allows the creation of value in the market. They will be Spanish technological and innovative companies, mainly small and medium-sized, with high economic growth potential.
Reinforcement of the call for NEOTEC grants: NEOTEC is a call for proposals to support the creation and consolidation of technology-based companies. These are grants for business projects based on technologies or knowledge developed from research activity and whose business strategy is based on the development of new technology. The new call model to reinforce knowledge absorption and generation capacities will give priority with more aid to those projects that incorporate a newly recruited PhD graduate.
