At the Spanish level, public funding lines for R+D+i for startups and SMEs are included and defined in the State plan for Scientific, Technical and Innovation Research. The classification of these grants is organized in lines of support for national and international R&D projects and aid for the hiring of technical personnel.
These public grants for startups and SMEs are mainly channeled through the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and the Ministry of Industry and Tourism (MINETUR) or agencies dependent on them, such as the Center for Technological and Industrial Development (CDTI), through calls for competitive competition.
Who is it aimed at?
The PID call can be requested by any type of company as long as it has a scientific-technical quality degree and a potential market for the developments it is going to carry out. In addition, the submitted project must last between 12 and 36 months.
What type of funding does the PID Program offer?
The minimum bankable amount of the PID Program is 175,000 euros for individual projects and 500,000 euros for consortium projects. The amount of PID aid will be at most 85% of the total approved budget and the% of TNR (Non-Refundable Trunk) will be allocated depending on the characteristics of the project and the beneficiary. The TNR may vary between 20% and 33%. For projects co-financed with FEDER funds, whether requested by an SME or a large company, both can achieve up to 30%, for international technological cooperation projects both the SME and the large company can obtain up to 33%, for the effective participation of research entities through outsourcing, the SME can achieve 30% and the large company 20%, finally, for R&D projects not included in the previous categories, the SME can achieve up to 30% and the large company up to 20%.
What expenses does the CDTI PID Program subsidize?
The expenses eligible for the PID Program are the necessary tools and equipment, personnel, subcontracts and general expenses. The PID Program offers a disbursement of the aid in the form of an advance for 35% of the amount granted with a limit of 250,000 euros. The rest of the Aid is disbursed in installments, as the company complies with the milestones defined in the project. As an alternative to the 35% down payment, companies can request bank pre-financing to make advance use of the aid granted or to have an ICO guarantee. If the projects are co-financed by the Technology Fund, an advance of up to 70% of the aid granted can be made available.
The PID Program grants loans with a repayment period of 7 to 10 years, counting from the center of gravity of the project, which is calculated based on the duration of the project and the amount of budgetary milestones. The first reimbursement is made 3 years after the project's center of gravity, with a minimum of 2 years from its completion date.
What are the main evaluation criteria?
The main criteria when evaluating the proposals for the CDTI PID call are the following: The scientific-technical quality of the proposal and the degree of innovation, the technical and financial capacity of the company to carry out the project, the company's ability to exploit the results, the potential market of the developments to be carried out, the impact on the internationalization of the company's activities and, finally, in cases of cooperative projects, the complementarity and balance of the proposed consortium to carry out carry out the project.
Support from the CDTI PID Program does not require additional guarantees for the granting of funding. However, as a result of the economic-financial evaluation of the company, financial conditions may be requested (mainly security in the form of personal guarantees and/or bank guarantees or mutual guarantee companies, capital increases and/or participatory loans), on which the CDTI loan will be conditioned. In the most favorable case, when the project is led by an SME and a high score is achieved in the technical section, these guarantees are reduced by up to 25% by applying the concept of reduced guarantees. To this end, the project budget should not exceed 500,000 euros in the case of small businesses and 1 million euros in the case of medium-sized companies.
What interest rate do you have?
The interest rate of the loan is Euribor +0% (if the Euribor is negative, its value will be considered 0).
How much will the aid be disbursed?
By default, an advance payment of 35% of the amount granted is offered with a limit of 250,000 euros, and the rest of the Aid is disbursed in installments and depending on the milestones defined in the Project. As an alternative to the 35% down payment, companies can request bank pre-financing to make use of the aid granted1 in advance or to have an ICO guarantee. In the case of projects co-financed by the Technology Fund, an advance of up to 70% can be granted.
What is your application deadline?
The CDTI PID Program is an aid that is open all the time.
