- The aid will be aimed at creating research, testing and experimentation infrastructures aimed at strengthening industrial capacities in disruptive and strategic technologies.
The Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Service, Óscar López, has announced that during this month of June more than 162 million euros will be approved in aid for the creation of infrastructures for research, testing and experimentation in dual-use technologies. “A new stimulus package for innovation” aimed at strengthening industrial capabilities “in disruptive and strategic technological fields” such as semiconductors, AI, quantum, connectivity or robotics. He announced it during his speech this Wednesday at the South Summit 2026, the global entrepreneurship event that has been held in Madrid and that brings together for two days public institutions, startups, investors and corporations from all over the world with the aim of promoting innovation and entrepreneurship.
The minister explained that these calls will serve, on the one hand, to generate research infrastructures in public universities, public research agencies and public R&D centers; and on the other, test and experimentation infrastructures in technological centers at the state level and in companies. The amounts of aid will be between 900,000 and 8 million euros, depending on the budget of each requesting project, which will be evaluated according to the transformative potential of the proposal, measuring indicators such as the technical solidity of the project or its impact on the existing regional ecosystem. These projects will have to be implemented within 24 months of the concession being resolved.
“The Government’s entrepreneurial drive will continue”
In addition to this announcement, the minister has highlighted in his speech that “Spain is today an innovative nation that creates companies and employment in sectors until recently unimaginable”, which makes it “a European pole of industrial production in which sectors such as photonics, green hydrogen, satellites, electric cars and, of course, the best Artificial Intelligence: a reliable and competitive AI” converge.
Lopez has shown the government’s “pride” in its commitment to public-private partnership “as a central economic policy and as a launch pad for projects and opportunities for progress.” “An example of this is the holy digital trinity that makes up the National AI Strategies, Quantum Technologies and Deep Tech,” he said. A mobilisation of more than 10 billion euros, he recalled, “which will continue, like many other investments, through the Spain Grows fund”.
Before a forum composed of representatives of thousands of emerging companies, the minister has pointed out the measures promoted by the Executive in the field of entrepreneurship, such as the Startups Law approved in 2022 that has made it possible, among other things, that 2,100 companies have been certified as ‘startups’ between 2023 and March 2026, and that employment in this type of companies has grown by 46% since 2022. “Data that confirm that Spain is an entrepreneurial state that works and that scales the power of its industry”.
In that line, the minister recalled that his Ministry has invested in startups “made in Spain They’re compressing AI language models by 97 percent, they’re building low-orbit satellites that drive European sovereignty, and they’re laying the foundation for quantum computing that comes to redefining the rules of the game.”
As a sign of the government’s support for emerging companies, López has exemplified the case of the company Lain Tech, winner of last year’s South Summit Startup Competition. A company dedicated to sustainable mining that, the minister said, had received the Digital Kit and “illustrates how it has permeated a program that has benefited more than one million SMEs and self-employed people in the 50 provinces of Spain.” Therefore, López has made it clear to those present that “the entrepreneurial impulse of the Government of Spain is going to continue” and has asked those present “to continue investing and innovating” in Spain because “a country that undertakes is a country that advances”.
South Summit
The South Summit Madrid is the main event organized by South Summit, to which the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Service contributes 800,000 euros since 2024, and where the National Entrepreneurship Office (ONE platform, managed by Red.es) has a stand in which the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT) is also involved for its dimension of innovation and investment.
Under the slogan AI Convergence, more than 7,000 emerging companies and more than 2,000 investors will meet from June 3 to 5, in a meeting that will bring together some of the main international actors of the entrepreneurial and technological ecosystem with Artificial Intelligence as a central axis, addressing it from a very complete perspective: from the chips and infrastructure that make it possible, to its impact on cybersecurity, defense, regulation and European strategic autonomy.
One of the main topics of the event will be how innovation can improve the lives of people with disabilities, generate autonomy and an opportunity for social connection. In addition, this year South Summit will have a specific vertical of Defense & AI, with the participation of NATO through DIANA, its innovation accelerator in defense, together with large companies in the sector, startups, investors and companies specialized in technologies dual-use.