The Spanish Government will launch 105 million in subsidies for artificial intelligence projects
The government will launch next week grants worth 105 million euros for projects that apply artificial intelligence.
Cantabria Liberal
September 1, 2021
The president of Red.es, Alberto Martínez Lacambra, has advanced the call in the meeting of Digital Economy and Telecommunications of Ametic that begins this Wednesday in Santander.
Martínez has specified in statements to the press that the aid will have an intensity of 50% to 80% and are within the recovery, transformation and resilience plan.
He also pointed out that "there is a lot of interest from companies" and predicted that "a lot of work" will be done until the end of the year to "give a good boost" to the funds. In his speech, the president of Red.es also announced that a road show will begin at the end of October to show SMEs the digitalisation model (Digital Toolkit) through micro-subsidies.
To this end, he called for private "help" so that these subsidies "permeate" the territory" and expressed the hope that the funds would help to improve Spanish productivity.
Greater control
Likewise, the secretary general for Industry and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, Raül Blanco, has pointed out that the funds will have greater controls than normal public spending and will be subject to "continuous examination". Blanco advocated "transforming the administration" as far as possible, since now "money is not a problem".
Furthermore, the secretary general justified the call for public aid in August, which has been criticised in some sectors, by the need to execute the budget before the end of the year. Specifically, Blanco stated that "the government does not stop in August" and that implementation is a challenge due to the availability of human resources, to which "temporary challenges" must be added in order to implement the budget.
«Sin duda en próximos ejercicios intentaremos mejorarlo y sacarlos a principios de cada año», pero ha recalcado que esto no era posible en esta ocasión debido a que el plan de recuperación no estaba aprobado. En el último mes, se han prestando algunas subvenciones ligadas al plan de recuperación como la del programa de extensión de banda ancha, dotada de 250 millones de euros, Industria conectada, 95 millones de euros, y, por el mismo importe, otra línea de préstamos y subvenciones para innovación en el mismo sector. Asimismo, ha avanzado que el Gobierno seguirá lanzando convocatorias de apoyo en el ámbito industrial en los próximos meses.
"No doubt in the coming years we will try to improve it and to release them at the beginning of each year", but he stressed that this was not possible on this occasion because the recovery plan had not been approved. In the last month, some subsidies linked to the recovery plan have been provided, such as the broadband extension programme, with 250 million euros, Industria conectada, 95 million euros, and, for the same amount, another line of loans and subsidies for innovation in the same sector. He also announced that the government will continue to launch calls for support in the industrial sector in the coming months.