The CDTI Innovation and the Korean agency KIAT open a new Joint Call KSSP between Spain and Korea

The Center for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI), an entity belonging to the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, and the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT), have today, 21 September, opened a new joint call for the submission of proposals for technological cooperation in the field of advanced materials, within the framework of the KSSP Program. Under this agreement, both entities are committed to promoting, supporting and financing joint technological projects of Spanish and Korean business entities, being able to count on the support of non-business entities, which on the Spanish side must be subcontracted.

The call 2026-2027 of the KSSP Program provides funding in the form of a grant to support joint projects of great scope and high impact in technologies related to advanced materials. The submission period will be open from 21 September 2026 to 28 January 2027, with the aim that the selected projects will begin on 1 August 2027.

The KSSP Program, a pioneer in its modality with a third country, aims to make a qualitative leap in the typology of international technological cooperation projects, with a greater intensity in R&D and a greater budgetary volume. The approved projects will obtain a "seal of quality" which, in addition to being an acknowledgement of the technological level of the proposal, in the case of this call will allow access to public funding. Each country will assume the financing of its participating entities and, in the case of Spain, the financing of Spanish companies in the KSSP Program will be carried out through a call for direct allocation managed by the CDTI, from which only companies that previously obtain the quality seal can be beneficiaries.

Characteristics of the projects

The projects must meet the following requirements:

• The result of them must be an innovative product, process or service
• The consortium must be made up of at least two Spanish companies (one large or medium as leader and an additional SME) and one Korean, independent, and the project must be relevant to all partners (no country or member of the consortium must have more than 60% of the budget).
• None of the applicants will be able to participate in more than one consortium for the same call. If so, the participant will be asked to select an application and withdraw from the others.
• The duration of the projects may be between 12 and 36 months
• The proposals, always of civil use, must be framed in the technological area of advanced materials
• For the Spanish part of the consortium, the overall target budget will be between 2.5 and 6 million euros and there should be a minimum SME budget contribution of 10% on the total budget of the Spanish part. The budget must be consistent with the developments to be carried out and with the technical/financial capacity of the participants

In addition, participants must sign a consortium agreement that specifies the rights and obligations of the parties with respect to the development carried out and the possible rights of intellectual property, exploitation and marketing of the results.

Presentation of proposals

The filing procedure distinguishes between the PCTI-PSI International Application and the SPSI National Aid Application.

For the International Application, participants must submit, at the CDTI and KIAT respectively, until 18:00 h on January 28, 2027 (local time at each agency) the corresponding online KSSP application accompanied by the following mandatory international documentation (in English), common to all partners: the KSSP Application Form, signed by all partners.

On the Spanish side, the International Application (PCTI-PSI) must be submitted online through the CDTI electronic headquarters and will be unique by project, despite the fact that there are two or more Spanish companies in the consortium.

Once the International Application has been finalized, the CDTI and KIAT will begin the verification of the eligibility of the proposals. All proposals that meet the eligibility characteristics for the call will be evaluated by a panel of independent and qualified experts with a score. Only those proposals with a total score above the predefined threshold of 70 points out of 100 will form a ranking list.

In order of punctuation, between 2 and 4 projects can be selected, then receiving the approval letter KSSP (grant of the KSSP seal) that confirms the availability of funds. The allocation of national funds to the selected applications will follow the order of the ranking list.

Spanish applicants who receive the KSSP approval letter should contact CDTI as it is mandatory for each Spanish participant to make the SPSI National Aid Application individually.

The deadline for the submission of the National Aid Application at the CDTI will be 28 June 2027 at 18:00 h (Spanish time).

You can download the English document of the call KSSP 2026-2027 at this link.

To clarify any doubts about the call KSSP 2026-2027, an online information day will be held in Spanish on October 15, 2026 at 9:30 am (CET).

Contacts

It is recommended that each partner contacts their national agency as soon as possible, as soon as they have a project idea.

CDTI Innovation:

• Headquarters of the CDTI in Spain: +34 91 581 0489 (merced.perez@cdti.es)
• Office of the CDTI in Korea: +82 (0)70 4117 0888 (jordi.espluga@cdti.es)

KIAT (Korea):

• Mrs. Jee Hyun Woo: +82 (0)2 6009 3767 (jeehyun.woo@kiat.or.kr)

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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