The RETECH program is born to deploy transformative digital projects, with 530 million euros

The Second Vice President and Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, chaired last Friday, July 8, the presentation of the Digital Spain 2026 agenda, which takes stock and updates the digitization roadmap approved two years ago by the Government and which has meant the launch of projects in the field of connectivity, 5G, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, digital skills, digitization of the administration and SMEs and the deployment of Spain as an audiovisual hub in Europe.

The Spain Digital Agenda update for the 2026 horizon has been presented at an event at the Ministry of Economic Affairs that has had the participation of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, the Executive Vice President of the European Commission and the Commissioner for Competition and Digital , Margrethe Vestager, and the Ministers of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, of Science and Innovation, Diana Morant, and of Universities, Joan Subirats, together with representatives of the public and private sectors and beneficiaries of the Recovery Plan programs.

In addition to incorporating the 11 PERTE Strategic Projects for Economic Recovery and Transformation launched with European Next Generation EU funds, this update incorporates the innovative RETECH program, to invest 530 million euros from the Recovery Plan in 2022 and 2023 to deploy networks of technological and transformative projects in the digital area based on the proposals of the autonomous communities.

The first vice-president announced that the Government is going to initiate dialogue and negotiation with the Community of Madrid for the establishment of the National Center for Neurotechnology (Spain Neurotech), so that Spain has a reference center in Europe and at the international level. world, attracting professionals of global reference in this field, based on the project presented by the Autonomous, Carlos III and Polytechnic universities of Madrid, in collaboration with the North American universities of Columbia, Berkeley and Harvard.

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, underlined at the closing of the event that the digital transformation of the Spanish economy is an absolute priority for the Government and highlighted the allocation of 20,000 million euros so that Spain is “the most promising place for many leading digital companies.

The Chief Executive also highlighted the creation of the Global Observatory of Spanish in La Rioja, as our languages ​​are one of the main assets, also in the world of technology and artificial intelligence, as well as the promotion of the Kit Digital program to digitize a million SMEs.

In fact, thanks to the Recovery Plan and the Digital Spain agenda, the State's investment in digitization in the 2021-2022 period has multiplied by 9 that of 2019-2020, promoting this leap in its triple dimension of infrastructures and technologies, economy and people.

New axes: PERTE and RETECH project

The Agenda España Digital 2026 includes as novelties two new transversal axes referring to the digitization processes included in the 11 Strategic Projects for the Recovery and Transformation of the Economy (PERTE), already approved and launched, and the RETECH program to promote the Territorial Networks of Technological Specialization and articulate the projects proposed by the autonomous communities that do not fit into the PERTEs.

The Government will initially provide 530 million euros of investment for this innovative initiative for the 2022-2023 period, which will have additional financing from the autonomous communities and, depending on success, could be reinforced with the funds from the addendum to the Recovery Plan .

In coordination with the autonomous communities and taking into account their interests, demands and potentialities, RETECH will identify and launch networks of projects with high territorial and economic impact, both at the regional and state levels, based on the priorities established in the Recovery Plan.

The strategic projects that will integrate RETECH respond to different areas of action such as Artificial Intelligence, Digital Twins such as technological solutions for virtual simulation of objects and systems; “green by design” technologies (GreenTech), Cybersecurity, Digital Entrepreneurship Networks, digitization in rural and depopulated environments (RuralTech), the fashion and textile industry (FashionTech) and Digital Health.

These projects will be financed by the General State Administration and will have additional financing from the territorial administrations, which will take advantage of the existing investment instruments in the Recovery Plan and in its future addendum.

Reindustrialization of Spain through the PERTE

Throughout the event, several videos were shown with examples of centers and companies benefiting from the European resources of the Recovery Plan and three high-level round tables were held with the participation of public and private representatives, as well as benefits from these programs.

The Secretary General for Industry and Small and Medium Enterprises, Raül Blanco, has underlined the opportunity to give a significant boost to industrial policy with resources and large value chain projects like never before thanks to the Recovery Plan.

In this sense, Jaime Martorell, from the Special Commissioner for the Microelectronics and Semiconductors Project (PERTE Chip), celebrated that the Next Generation EU European funds will allow Spain to place itself at the level of any European country to establish the technology and manufacture of chips. The goal for Europe is to double the percentage of semiconductor manufacturing to reach 20% by 2030.

Cristina Gallach, Special Commissioner of the PERTE New Economy of the Language, has indicated that this strategic project is “very collaborative, throughout the territory and very cohesive, with a view to Latin America, and with inter-ministerial and inter-institutional collaboration”. For his part, Juan Romo, rector of the Carlos III University and president of CRUE, stated that Spain has a “good university” to advance in the modernization process as it is the third country in the world in universities within 5% of the best in the world.

This process, pointed out the general director of Rural Development, Isabel Bombal, is essential in the field of the demographic challenge and the common agricultural policy and has urged that all European resources and aid for rural development contribute to achieving a transformed sector , digital and innovative.

Digitization: driving technological change

In the second round table, dedicated to digitization, the Secretary of State for Digitization and Artificial Intelligence, Carme Artigas, emphasized the emblematic project of the Digital Kit, endowed with more than 3,000 million euros from the Recovery Plan to digitize a million SMEs. With the launch of the first tranche of 500 million for companies with between 10 and 49 workers, more than 68,000 subsidies have already been managed, 12,000 digitization bonuses and thousands of agreements have been granted.

The general director of AMETIC, Francisco Hortigüela, has highlighted the relevance of this program to achieve the fundamental digitization of companies, SMEs and micro-SMEs in all sectors.

Another highlight has been the positioning of Spanish public universities in all European 5G projects, as reported by the professor at the University of Malaga, Pedro Merino, who has advanced the intention of also going to the 6G-PPP program with a year in advance thanks to the program financed by the Secretary of State for Digitization and Artificial Intelligence.

Bet on R&D

The last round table, focused on the firm commitment to R&D, was moderated by the General Secretary for Innovation, Teresa Risk, who celebrated the boost given to R&D with the Recovery Plan by placing herself at the center of the same.

The important quantitative and qualitative leap in terms of R&D has been reflected in the different interventions. The general director of the CDTI, Javier Ponce, has announced that this year the organization is going to try to break a milestone by uniting two aids in the same project, one based on commercial law and the other on public law to address the problem of technology transfer in Spain.

Mónica Martínez Walter, president of GMV Soluciones Globales Internet, has highlighted that the grants from the Science and Innovation Missions program are giving a boost to leading digital transformation projects, such as sustainable automotive and autonomous driving, the agricultural sector to predict harvests or detect pests with Artificial Intelligence or health to detect diseases such as Alzheimer's or prostate cancer early.

Another example of the usefulness of the advances achieved with CDTI aid has been explained by Meritxell Teixido Tura, president of Gate2Brain, a startup recipient of Neotec aid, which has made it possible to attract talent and promote a new technology project for transport of drugs to the brain.

Javier Perea Sáenz de Buruaga, president of Empresarios Agrupados Internacional, has detailed the usefulness for this company of 1,200 employees of the CDTI subsidies for the development of technologies and processes and materials to work with the production of energy through nuclear fusion. He also works at IFMIF-DONES, a new European-wide scientific infrastructure that is going to be installed in Granada.

Lastly, Vicente Blanes, director of the Textile Industry Research Association (Aitex), has indicated that in the last three years he has participated in 130 projects with 170 companies involved with CDTI, an organization from which he has highlighted that “it works very well in economic endowments and efficiency”. “It is an example of a public body. If it did not exist, it would have to be invented because it is the lung and the number one driver and catalyst of applied R&D in Spanish companies”, he emphasized.