Government launches Artificial Intelligence R&D Missions program to fund AI business projects in strategic sectors
25/06/2021
The Government of Spain launches the R&D Missions in Artificial Intelligence 2021 program with the publication of the order of bases that regulates the granting of aid. Within the framework of Recovery Plan, this program is endowed with 50 million euros of public investment and will finance large industrial research or experimental development projects that use AI in sectors of great relevance and high capacity for disruption and impact. The objective is to promote the development of AI in the productive fabric, the economy and the data society, taking advantage of the projection of the Spanish language and with a humanist perspective.
La iniciativa Misiones de I+D en Inteligencia Artificial 2021 forma parte de la agenda Spain Digital 2025, de la National Digital Intelligence Strategy and is included in Reform 1 of Component 16 of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan for which it will be financed with European funds.
The Government of Spain launches the R&D Missions in Artificial Intelligence 2021 program with the publication of the order of bases that regulates the granting of aid. Within the framework of Recovery Plan, this program is endowed with 50 million euros of public investment and will finance large industrial research or experimental development projects that use AI in sectors of great relevance and high capacity for disruption and impact. The objective is to promote the development of AI in the productive fabric, the economy and the data society, taking advantage of the projection of the Spanish language and with a humanist perspective.
La iniciativa Misiones de I+D en Inteligencia Artificial 2021 forma parte de la agenda Spain Digital 2025, of the National Digital Intelligence Strategy and is included in Reform 1 of Component 16 of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan for which it will be financed with European funds.
Five key sectors
The five strategic sectors in which the projects must be part of the programme and receive funding are agriculture, health, environment, employment and energy of the 21st century.
In the case of agriculture, it aims to contribute to developing a new sustainable global agricultural industry with a neutral carbon footprint, using AI, robotics and bioenergy to identify new agricultural production methods in 2050.
With regard to health, it seeks the creation of an intelligent system of data analysis that will allow us to anticipate and act early and ultra quickly in the face of the main physical and psychological diseases in 2050, in the context of the decentralization of the health system and aging.
As for the environment, the goal is to reverse the pollution generated in the last 100 years based on AI, the circular economy and taking into account the constant increase in population in large cities.
In the energy sector, we want to reinvent the electricity network in the era of intelligent digital technologies, combining AI and energy-neutral algorithms (green algorithms), in distributed renewable generation and storage environments.
In the case of employment, the aim is to reduce unemployment drastically and improve its resilience to external shocks, taking into account the jobs of the future and the personal and professional development necessary to address them, as well as the relocation of companies in emptied Spain.
Project funding process
Through the Artificial Intelligence R&D Missions program, projects will be funded that are presented in the form of cooperation, that is, they must be part of the consortium at least, a large company, a research and dissemination agency and five SMEs.
The grants will go to projects with low technological maturity (known as industrial research) and medium technological maturity (experimental development). In any case, the projects must have a budget of between 10 and 20 million euros and a maximum duration until December 31, 2024.
SMEs will be able to finance up to 80% of their budget if they are part of projects with low technological maturity and up to 60% if they work in projects with medium technological maturity; the maximum aid for large companies will range between 65% and 40%. No company will be able to assume more than 50% of the eligible costs. Among the program’s evaluation criteria, the impact of each project will be emphasized, taking into account factors such as the reduction of the gender gap in the field of AI, the territorial structuring of the country, the participation of SMEs as final entities that participate in the use cases, the ecological transition, the dissemination of results and knowledge or the employment generated.
The program will be managed entirely by the Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, from the processing of the basic order and the call itself, through the instruction phase where the proposals to be financed will be evaluated and selected; as well as the subsequent monitoring and audit on the projects and the measurement of the impact.
The deadline for submitting applications will be open through this link until August 3, 2021.