The CDTI Innovation allocates 147 million in INNTERCONNECT STEP 2025 to 100 R&D projects in regional cooperation for digital, clean and biotechnology technologies

The CDTI Innovation, the innovation agency of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICIU), has resolved the 2025 call for INNTERCONNECT STEP, initially endowed with 150 million euros, with the approval of 100 R&D projects with regional cooperation and oriented to the technological fields of the Platform of Strategic Technologies for Europe (STEP). The grant granted amounts to 146.9 million euros, 98% of the available budget, and will mobilise a total eligible budget of 231.5 million euros in R&D projects with a marked approach to territorial cooperation. Specifically, 100 consortium projects have been approved, in which 388 entities have participated. Of these, 251 are SMEs, 64.7% of the total, and 9.8% of these SMEs act as consortium leaders.

INNTERCONNECT STEP combines three vectors of public action, specifically in relation to the STEP framework that concentrates investment in critical technological capabilities for the autonomy and competitiveness of the Union; in terms of cohesion policy, with ERDF cofinancing orienting action towards the less developed and transition regions; and in the field of the national innovation ecosystem, with a call profile that integrates business cooperation, connection with science and market orientation. This multiple approach places the INNTERCONNECT STEP instrument among the main public levers to promote in the territory the creation of business consortiums in strategic technologies for Europe, in an international scenario marked by technological competition and the need to strengthen industrial resilience.

The approved projects focus on the three STEP technology areas. Digital technologies, including those linked to the Digital Decade Strategic Program, account for 62.1% of projects and 65.3% of the grant awarded. It is followed by biotechnology, as a transversal vector for health, industry and resilience, with 21.6% of projects, and clean and resource-efficient technologies, aligned with the orientation towards a zero net emissions industry, with the remaining 16.2%. These three areas, defined as fundamental strategic technologies by the STEP framework, concentrate determining capabilities for industrial competitiveness and European technological autonomy.

By regional distribution, the call has approved operations in all eligible territories, with the exception of Ceuta and Melilla, which have not participated in any application. Andalusia concentrates the largest volume of funding, with 34% of the total, followed by Galicia (22%) and the Valencian Community (20%). This territorial allocation is supported, among other factors, by the recent reprogramming of the Spanish Multiregional Program FEDER 2021-2027, which has increased the availability of funds for several of the eligible communities and reallocated at least 10% of the resources of the program to Specific Objective 1.6, to which the actions of INNTERCONNECT-STEP contribute.
 
The distribution by autonomous community is as follows:

As for interterritorial cooperation, one of the central requirements of the call that obliges the participation of entities from at least two eligible communities, Andalusia leads the territorial collaboration, with entities that have cooperated with the eight participating communities. It is followed by Galicia and the Valencian Community, with collaboration in seven communities each, and Murcia, in fourth position, with six. The rest of the communities have lower levels of collaboration.

In addition, the call establishes a minimum of 10% subcontracting of the eligible budget to knowledge generating centers, a threshold that has been exceeded in all approved projects until reaching 14.8%. By territories, Murcia has the highest percentage of subcontracting (17.0%), followed by Galicia (15.6%) and the Valencian Community (15.5%). Then there are Castilla-La Mancha (15.1%) and Andalusia (14.0%), while Extremadura (12.9%) and Castilla y León (11.3%) recorded the lowest levels, although all territories remained above the minimum required in the call.

Profile of the announcement

INNTERCONNECT STEP 2025 is the first call for applications for this grant instrument, launched in 2025 and co-financed with ERDF funds through the Spanish Multiregional Program ERDF 2021-2027. Designed to foster cooperation between companies and research organisations for cohesion funds, the programme requires projects to be developed in at least two of the ten eligible autonomous communities or cities (Andalusia, Canary Islands, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Ceuta, Valencia, Extremadura, Galicia, Melilla and the Region of Murcia) and is aligned with the European framework of the Platform of Strategic Technologies for Europe (STEP). In this call, the CDTI Innovation has also enabled a direct or fast-track access to the CDTI Partially Refundable Assistance (APR) instrument for those positively evaluated proposals that could not receive funding due to the exhaustion of the budget, without the need to submit a new application.

The instrument’s profile is materialized in competitive grants, with aid intensities that can reach 65% of the eligible budget for large companies, 75% for medium-sized companies and 80% for small companies, depending on whether the activity is classified as industrial research or experimental development. The eligible projects should be between 1 and 4 million euros of eligible budget, with a minimum of 175,000 euros per participating company, and be developed through groups of between two and six companies without their own legal personality, in which one of the entities acts as coordinator before the CDTI, and a minimum subcontracting of 10% of the eligible budget to knowledge generating centers. The call for proposals, aimed at multiannual projects, also required the groups to sign, prior to the request, an internal agreement to regulate its operation.

More information about the resolution is available at:

https://www.cdti.es/sites/default/files/2026-06/resolucion_definitiva_itc2025_firmado.pdf

https://www.cdti.es/ayudas/innterconecta-step

About the CDTI Innovation

The Center for Technological Development and Innovation, CDTI E.P.E. It is the innovation agency of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, whose objective is the promotion of technological innovation in the business environment. The mission of the CDTI is to ensure that the Spanish business fabric generates and transforms scientific and technical knowledge into globally competitive, sustainable and inclusive growth. In 2025, within the framework of the Strategic Plan 2024-2027, the CDTI provided 2,423 million euros of support to Spanish companies and startups.

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