The regulatory bases of the aid of the ‘Digital Kit’ to digitize SMEs and self-employed are published

The Official State Gazette has published the bases that regulate the granting of the aid of the ‘Digital Kit’ Program to promote the digitization of SMEs and self-employed in Spain. This order of bases establishes the framework for the launch of the calls for proposals.

The program has a budget of 3,067 million euros for the period 2021-2023, to facilitate SMEs and self-employed people to adopt digitization solutions in various areas, such as Internet presence, e-commerce, social network management, the digitization of customer relations, business intelligence and analytics, the implementation of e-invoicing, virtual office services and tools, secure communications and cybersecurity.

The basic order of the ‘Digital Kit’ specifies that when the calls are launched, depending on the number of employees, companies will be able to access grants of 12,000 euros, in the case of having between 10 and 50 employees; 6,000 euros, for those between 9 and 3 employees; and 2,000 euros, for those of less than 3 and no employees.

It also indicates the conditions that must be met by companies to apply for this aid. In particular, in addition to complying with the regulations of the General Law of Subsidies, companies and self-employed workers must have the evaluation of Digital Maturity, according to the diagnostic test made available by the platform Accelerate SMEs.

The figure of the ‘digitizing agent’

Digitalization solutions and services for SMEs and self-employed will be offered by entities affiliated to the ‘Digital Kit’ program, which will become ‘digitizing agents’. Companies interested in being identified as ‘digitizing agent’ will be able to join through the electronic headquarters of Red.es, entity attached to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, soon.

In order to make it easier for SMEs and self-employed professionals to access the aid, the participating digitising agents will be able to collaborate in the application tasks and they will be the ones who submit all the supporting documentation.

SMEs and the self-employed will be able to find out about the digitizing agents adhered to the official website www.acelerapyme.es.

Deadlines for applying for grants in the next calls

The BOE states that when the calls are launched, companies interested in applying for the ‘digital voucher’ will have at least three months from the publication of the corresponding call – or until the exhaustion of the budgetary credit – to submit their application.

And they will have a maximum period for the signing of the ‘Digitization Solution Provision Agreements’ between the beneficiary companies and the ‘Adhered Digitizing Agents’ of six months from being notified of the granting of the ‘digital bonus’.

The first call for grants, which will be launched at the beginning of 2022, will go to SMEs with between 10 and 49 employees and will have a budget of 500 million euros.

Advice and support from Acelera SME and its offices

The Accelerate SME program is the initiative of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation aimed at building the reference ecosystem of the digital transformation of SMEs. It is developed by Red.es and is part of the Digitalization Plan for SMEs 2021–2025, which has more than 4,000 million euros in budget.

Interested companies can check on the official website www.acelerapyme.es their level of digitization through a ‘self-diagnostic test’, consult the catalog of digitizers, find their nearest Acelera SME office and access useful content to improve and enhance their digitization. They can also access all the information and receive advice on the telephone 900 909 001, or in person in the Acelera SME offices distributed throughout the Spanish geography.

For more information, please consult the order at: /content/dam/portal-mtdfp/avan-digital/https:/boe.es/boe/dias/2021/12/30/pdfs/BOE-A-2021-21873.pdf