Under the banner "Towards a New Horizon", the City of Toledo hosted the 10th Conference of the European Union's Framework Programme for Research and Innovation in Spain, held by the Spanish Industrial Technology Development Center (Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial: CDTI) and the European Commission, with the collaboration of the Regional Council of Castilla La Mancha.
The opening address was given by the Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Pedro Duque, who highlighted Spain’s fine results in the European R&D financing program, Horizon 2020, winning Spain fourth place in the funding ranking. Other notable participants included Ángel Felpeto, the Regional Minister of Education, Culture and Sport of Castilla-La Mancha; Signe Ratso, the Deputy Director General of the European Commission for Research and Innovation; Rafael Rodrigo, the Secretary General of Scientific Policy and Coordination, and Javier Ponce, CDTI Director General.

 

Pedro Duque underlined the success of Spain’s participation in the European Union’s Framework Programme and urged authorities to continue backing Europe for the next two years the program is due to run. Figures were then quoted to vouch for Spanish companies’ involvement, such as the 3.302 billion euro grant received to date, adding up to a Spanish R&D investment of at least 3.9 billion euros. The return obtained is 10.1% of the EU-28. In Duque’s opinion these results show the high expertise and capability of Spanish companies.
Furthermore, about 8900 organizations have participated in over 37,500 proposals, of which about 4900 were funded. As regards collaboration projects, 2300 of them involve Spanish participation; 662 are being coordinated by Spain, making it the country leading most projects, with 15.8% of the total.
Luis Fernando Álvarez-Gascón, Director General of GMV’s Secure e-Solutions sector, was one of the invited expert speakers, representing the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (Confederación Española de Organizaciones Empresariales: CEOE) in his capacity of Vicepresident of the R&D Committee.

 

Álvarez-Gascón kicked off his speech by congratulating the CDTI on its 40-year track record and called for a rethink of innovation promotion in Spain, with merely 10,000 companies carrying out R&D in the country. He also announced that the CEOE is now working on a “Decalogue of urgent R&D-driving measures”, proposing, among other measures, a “State Pact for Science and Innovation. Finally, he put forward some items that should be taken up by the new Europe Horizon framework programme, such as more generous funding for pillar 2 and its structuring in a greater number of clusters. He also put forward a defense of the SME Instrument, in which Spain has chalked up great results. He finally stressed the importance of the proper treatment of industrial property.

“Horizon 2020” and “Horizon Europe”

Endowed with a 75-billion-euro budget for 2014-2020, Horizon 2020 is Europe’s main funding instrument for activities of research, technological development, demonstration and innovation. This program is implemented mainly by means of calls for proposals that are then assessed by independent experts observing criteria of excellence, impact and implementation. Only the best proposals win grants under this program.
Work is currently underway on negotiating the new 2021-2027 funding program. The EC has already presented the proposal for the future framework program, called “Horizon Europe”.