The Government and the EU allocate 24 million euros to finance the participation of Spanish companies, private and public bodies in the Key Digital Technologies program

The Key Digital Technologies (KDT) programme, within the framework of the Horizon Europe programme, has launched its first call for funding for European R&D projects. The combined public investment for the programme is made with European and national funds with contributions in equal parts.

The Government of Spain participates in this program through the Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, which will mobilize 9 million euros of its budget to finance the participation of business and private R+D+I organizations, and the State Research Agency (AEI), which will allocate 3 million euros to public R+D+I entities in this call.

This program was born with a budget of 7.2 billion euros for the period 2021-2027. The European Commission assumes 1.8 billion euros (one quarter) and the Participating States, another 1.8 billion euros. The private sector assumes the remaining amount. For this first call, combined public funding of more than €360 million is estimated.

In addition to the overall thematic priorities that appear in the Work Programme 2021 and the SRIA 2021 (Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda), this year’s special thematic priorities are aimed at the development of artificial intelligence hardware and software solutions on the edge and open source hardware, in particular RISC-V.

Key Digital Technologies follows the current ECSEL initiative, created in 2014 with the aim of promoting R&D in electronic components and systems within the Horizon 2020 program. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, through the State Secretariat for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence (SEDIA), and the Ministry of Science and Innovation, through the State Innovation Agency (AEI), have participated as the national funding authority for private entities.

During the 7 years of the ECSEL program, 16 calls have been published and 92 projects with more than 3,100 participants have been funded. The cost of the projects amounted to around EUR 4.8 billion, of which the Commission and the participating states funded around EUR 2.2 billion and the industry the remaining EUR 2.6 billion. With regard to Spain, during those 7 years it has managed to finance 155 entities, having received aid of 46.5 million euros from the national funding authorities and 48 million euros from the Commission.

In these calls, from 2014 to 2020, 52 ECSEL projects were selected with Spanish participation, all of them, mainly, research and innovation actions (RIA) and innovation actions (IA) in cooperation along the entire value chain of electronic components and systems, with a high number of participants and budget, led by companies and other reference entities at European level, some with Spanish leadership. These projects have been implemented in different systems, use cases and applications p.ej. In transport and intelligent mobility, in digital connectivity and networks, in energy, in health and social welfare, in digital lifestyle and in digital industry, among others.

The KDT program is broader than the previous ECSEL program, comprising the set of Digital Enabling Technologies specified in the aforementioned SRIA 2021, with a focus on both fundamental technological layers and transversal technologies, now including artificial intelligence, edge computing, advanced control, connectivity (5G/6G), architecture, design, reliability and cybersecurity, among others. This new approach of the KDT program is aligned both with the Digital Agenda Spain 2025, where the strengthening of R&D in all Digital Enabling Technologies is contemplated, and with the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, where the other digital enabling technologies are also contemplated in addition to artificial intelligence.

On the occasion of the recent first call for KDT JU, next Friday, January 14, there will be an information day organized by the Center for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI), in which the Subdirectorate of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Enabling Technologies of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation and the State Research Agency (AEI) will participate. For more information and registration for this information day: https://eventos.cdti.es/ES/Infoday_KDT_2021, and more information about the first call for KDT JU in the link: https://www.kdt-ju.europa.eu/news/kdt-ju-first-call-now-open.