The Government launches a public invitation to the autonomies for the creation of the Spain NeuroTech Institute

The First Vice-President and Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, announced today, in Madrid Leaders Forumthat the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation convenes a public invitation to select the autonomous communities that will join a consortium that will launch the creation of the Institute Spain NeuroTech. In order to apply Artificial Intelligence in the field of neurotechnology, the communities will participate in this emblematic project of the Recovery Plan, through the financing and intervention of one or several public universities of reference in the field of neurotechnology located in their respective territories.

Neurotechnology research is part of the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (ENIA), which aims to place Spain as a leading country in this discipline. This strategy envisages the creation of a multidisciplinary research centre in neurotechnology. In this sense, it is considered that a consortium is the most appropriate instrument to promote research in this field, the generation of knowledge and the application of the results obtained for the benefit of society.

Spain has important capabilities in the field of neurotechnology, which will be strengthened through the investments of the Recovery Plan to become the European reference center in the field.

In the creation of the consortium, the General Administration of the State will participate through the Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, the public entity Red.es, which will be in charge of the state financing, and the autonomous communities, to which this invitation is addressed and which will channel their participation through the financing of the projects in the public universities of reference in the field of neurotechnology. These institutions of higher learning are considered the ideal ones, given the high specialization of the scientific discipline and the public commitment of the centers, so that scientific and technical innovations are transferred to society as quickly as possible.

In order to respect the principles of transparency, publicity and neutrality when deciding the participants in the consortium, this invitation is issued. It will be accessible to all those autonomous communities that, with the help of one or more previously selected public universities, are interested and meet the following requirements:

They will provide all the documentation that is considered relevant to help assess the criteria established in the call, which will be those that are objectively used to select the Universities and Autonomous Communities that will be part of the consortium.

In order to finalize the invitation, a period of 15 working days is opened for the submission of proposals, which will be carried out through the requests section of the electronic headquarters.

About Spain NeuroTech

To promote research in neurotechnology, the Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence launched in November 2021 a Manifestation of Interest with the aim of providing proposals for its promotion, identifying the needs of the sector and trying to promote an ecosystem around artificial intelligence. The wide interest that aroused this call in turn encouraged the creation of the consortium and this Invitation.

Research in neurotechnology falls within the framework of the Recovery Plan, the agenda Digital Spain and the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (ENIA), which has as one of its objectives to generate an environment of trust regarding the development of an inclusive and sustainable technology.

One of the pillars of the ENIA is the promotion of the discipline of neurotechnology through the creation of new national centers of technological development in multidisciplinary fields that complement each other such as Psychology, Sociology or Political Science, to name a few.