The CDTI Innovation joins MIT’s Industrial Liaison Program to connect the Spanish business fabric with deep-tech research
The declaration of intent (DoI) signed with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) opens to Spanish companies and startups access to the knowledge and innovation ecosystem of the university with the greatest scientific and technological impact in the world
The CDTI Innovation, the state innovation agency of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have signed a declaration of intent within the framework of the Industrial Liaison Program (ILP) with a validity of four years to promote technological collaboration between the MIT and Spanish entities in technologies of strategic interest for the national innovation ecosystem, with emphasis on deep-tech technologies. Through this agreement, the CDTI becomes an institutional member of the ILP, the world reference program in the connection between the university and industry with more than four decades of activity and presence in all technology-based sectors.
The agreement is based on the orientation of direct access to frontier scientific knowledge as a differential factor for the competitiveness of technological companies in global markets. From this approach, the CDTI-MIT ILP collaboration is approached as an institutional bridge between the scientific and technological ecosystem of greater worldwide projection and the innovative Spanish business fabric, with the specific objective that this connection materializes in specific technological collaborations.
The agreement is based on the diagnosis that the capacity of companies to absorb and apply frontier scientific knowledge largely determines their potential for differentiation and scale in global markets, in which the MIT ILP operates. The incorporation of the CDTI as an institutional member opens the Spanish ecosystem a channel of access to MIT researchers, networks and technologies in high-impact areas such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, advanced materials, energy or quantum computing. By 2026, the priority areas selected are fusion and microelectronics.
In 2024, the United States stood out as the main international partner of the CDTI in its call for bilateral technological cooperation, with eight projects approved. The new CDTI-MIT ILP agreement brings institutional continuity to a relationship that is already the most active of the CDTI’s international cooperation network.
The agreement includes three specific lines of activation: the access of the CDTI to interactions with representatives of the community and the ecosystem of the MIT; the joint organization of events aimed at exploring opportunities for technological collaboration between the MIT and Spanish entities; and a specific advisory channel managed through the CDTI Office in the United States to guide companies in the use of this new framework.
This cooperation is part of the technology transfer and international technological cooperation vectors of the CDTI Strategic Plan 2024-2027 and is connected with the CDTI’s drive for science-based innovation through programs such as NEOTEC, aimed at startups with a high technological base, and Innvierte, the public risk capital program that supports technology companies with scale potential.
For additional specific information on actions in the scope of the agreement, you can contact the CDTI Office in the United States in the USA@cdti.es.
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 more than 2 billion euros of support to Spanish companies and startups.
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