2th September 2019
The Council of Ministers today approved the authorization to publish the two main calls for R & D & i projects, which will be financed by the State Research Agency (AEI) for a total amount of 622 million euros, 432 million in grants and 190 in credits for innovation. These grants will make it possible to carry out basic and applied research projects and transfer of knowledge to companies and are framed in the State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2017-2020. With the publication of these two calls, the stable schedule of calls until the end of 2020 is fulfilled, which was published last June and which is one of the greatest demands of the research community.
According to the Minister of Science, Innovation, and Universities at the press conference following the Council of Ministers, the first call approved is for "R&D&I Projects," with a budget of €362 million, exceeding the €360,7 million awarded in the two joint calls recently approved.
This first call, the most important for the Spanish scientific community due to the quality of research projects, the diversity of scientific areas and the amount of funding, presents several new features: a single call and single budget is published for the first time, with two modalities, «Knowledge Generation» and «Research Challenges», instead of two calls with differentiated budgets. Pedro Duque has underlined that, by publishing the two types of projects in a single call, it will be possible to allocate funding more efficiently depending on the quality of the proposals, both to carry out basic and applied research. The minister also presented the main characteristics of the second call approved by the Council of Ministers at its meeting today, that of R + D + I projects called "Collaboration Challenges". This call, endowed with 260 million euros, of which 70 million are grants and 190 credits, will finance the creation of public-private partnerships between companies, public and private universities, Public Research Bodies, technology centers, public and private centers of R&D and business associations. This call was not published since 2017.
Calls calendar
The Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities has highlighted in the press conference that the Ministry and the Agency are working so that the new planning of the calls does not suppose any discontinuity in the future financing. For this, a flexible start of projects will be introduced according to the convenience of the researchers and, if new budgets are approved, it will be a priority to increase their funding.
In the first Call for R & D & I projects, in each modality there will be A projects, aimed at young researchers, and B, for researchers with a consolidated scientific career. In the «Research Challenges» modality, the JIN projects are also maintained, for young researchers without a contractual relationship or with a limited temporary link, and the RTA-type projects, managed until 2017 by the National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology ( INIA).
The funded projects will allow the incorporation and training of more than 900 young people so that they can start their research career through grants for pre-doctoral contracts to do their doctoral thesis in the context of projects that are approved in this call.
In order to advance the Agency's commitment to simplify administrative procedures, the justification of the expenditure executed is introduced in this call by providing an auditor's report, the amount of which will be attributable to the project. This measure will facilitate the economic justification of the aid by the beneficiaries and improve the administrative verification procedures. In addition, the information that will be transmitted to applicants to explain the result of the evaluation is improved, collecting the best practices of other European agencies.
It should be noted that this call extends the existing inequality corrective measures, childbirth, work disability and care for people in a situation of dependency, to new situations, such as temporary disability during pregnancy due to causes related to it, suspension of the contract for risk during pregnancy or during breastfeeding, leave of absence for child care, family or gender or terrorist violence, reduction of working hours for legal guardianship and care of family member or minor with serious illness. These measures will be applied both for the extension of the calculation of years from the reading of the thesis in the presentation of applications of young researchers, as well as for the calculation of the period for the evaluation of the curricular merits of the main researchers in all types of projects .
The objective of the "Collaboration Challenges" call is to facilitate, through public-private consortia, the incorporation of knowledge, new technologies, products, and services to foster technological development and innovation in Spain. "Collaboration Challenges" projects mobilize private funding for R&D&I, generate employment, contribute to economic growth, and improve our technological balance, thus strengthening the international leadership capacity of the Spanish Science, Technology, and Innovation system and improving the competitiveness of the business community.
