Spain launches the “Activa Industria”, “Activa Crecimiento” and “Activa Cybersecurity” programs with funds from Next Generation

Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan

The objective, according to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, is to support more than 10.000 SMEs.

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El Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism has published in the BOE the order that establishes the regulatory bases for the granting of aid through the programs “Activate Industry”, “Activate Growth” and “Activate Cybersecurity” in the framework of Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.

 

The objective of these programs is to provide the necessary capabilities to companies so that they can grow and be more competitive, and will be applied through individualized advice on business growth, digital transformation to Industry 4.0 or cybersecurity, with a personalized action plan for the SME in each of the programs.

 

La School of Industrial Organization (EOI Foundation), attached to the General Secretariat of Industry and SMEs, will be in charge of managing this aid that amounts to 57 million euros from the fund of the Recovery and Resilience mechanism, and they have a goal of supporting 10.400 SMEs before the end of 2023.

 

The individualized advisory service to beneficiary SMEs will be provided by collaborating entities with accredited experience that will be selected through a competitive bidding procedure. Both this bidding procedure for collaborating entities and the calls for aid to SMEs will be published starting in September of this year.

 

The three programs are already being developed by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism in coordination with all the Autonomous Communities through EOI, since 2016 within the framework of the National Strategy for Connected Industry 4.0 and the current objective, with the application of the Recovery and Resilience mechanism fund, is to scale the scope of the three programs given the good results obtained.

 

The School of Industrial Organization will call for aid for 10.400 SMEs in total in the three programs

 

The characteristics of the three aid programs that will be announced are the following:

 

a) «Activate Industry 4.0»: offers an exhaustive diagnosis of the company's starting digital situation and the development of a Transformation Plan. Program aimed at helping 3.300 SMEs in the manufacturing industry in their transition to Industry 4.0.

 

b) «Active Growth»: offers an analysis of the company in order to detect its potential areas of growth and the development of a Growth Plan with specific improvement actions in innovation, human resources, operations, digitalization, marketing and commercialization and finances, among others. Program aimed at benefiting 2.600 SMEs from all sectors, especially small companies with the capacity for business growth.

 

c) «Activate Cybersecurity»: carries out an audit of the company in terms of Cybersecurity to know its security level and the development of a Cybersecurity Plan. Program aimed at all types of SMEs, with the aim of helping 4.500 companies that wish to improve or enhance their cybersecurity processes

 

In all programs, advice is complemented by the implementation of thematic and demonstrative workshops. The duration of the programs will be four months for each beneficiary company, with 50 hours of advice in the "Activa Industry 4.0" and "Activa Growth" programs and 20 hours of advice in the "Activa Cybersecurity" program.

 

These initiatives to support the growth of SMEs are added to the programs that EOI already has in place with financing from the PRTR. Within the same investment C13.I2. "Growth", is developing the C13.I2.4 "Activa Startups" program, which aims to promote open innovation among SMEs and startups with aid of up to 40.000 euros per innovative project. To date, the first calls have been published in Basque Country, Murcia, La Rioja, Catalonia, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura and Galicia (specializing aid based on the specialization strategy of each autonomous community) 

 

All the programs described are aligned to the Strategic Framework in SME Policy 2030, to the España Digital 2025 Agency, and are part of “Spain Entrepreneurial Nation”, the long-term vision promoted by the Government to turn Spain into a reference country in innovative entrepreneurship in the year 2030.