The health crisis caused by COVID-19 has completely changed the landscape of the world economy, which is facing an unprecedented crisis. The disruption of international value chains, restrictions on the supply of certain activities and the drop in demand due to the necessary measures of physical distancing and restriction of mobility have led to an unprecedented recession in much of the world.

In the case of Spain, the economic and social impact has been particularly intense since mid-March, due to the containment measures adopted and the significant weight of the sectors most directly affected.

On July 21, in response to this exceptional situation, a historic agreement was reached in the European Council on a new Recovery Fund, which will allow Spain to mobilize an unprecedented volume of investment in the coming years. The Recovery Fund will allow, not only the overcoming of the crisis and the recovery of employment, but will facilitate the modernization of our economy, so that this recovery is green, digital, inclusive and social. Structural transformations and reforms will be implemented aimed at the transition towards a climate-neutral, sustainable, circular economy and society, respectful of the limits imposed by the natural environment and efficient in the use of resources.

On the other hand, the European Union in its Industrial Policy Strategy of 03/10/2020 establishes that the opportunities and challenges presented to industrial ecosystems must be carefully examined. These ecosystems encompass all the parties that operate in a value chain: from the smallest start-ups to the largest companies, from academia to research staff and from service providers to suppliers, and each of them with its own characteristics. The very working document for the preparation of the Recovery Plan establishes the need for an ecosystem approach and analyzes the investment needs of 14 industrial ecosystems.

In this context, on October 7, the Government presented the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR). It is a country project, which outlines the roadmap for the modernization of the Spanish economy, the recovery of economic growth and job creation, for a solid, inclusive and resilient economic reconstruction after the COVID crisis, and to respond to the challenges of the next decade.

The PRTR is structured around ten leverage policies, among which is policy number 5, referring to the Modernization and digitization of the industrial and SME fabric, recovery of tourism and the promotion of a Spain Entrepreneurial Nation. In turn, this includes a component on "Industrial Policy Spain 2030", whose objective is to promote the modernization and productivity of the Spanish industry - services ecosystem, through the digitization of the value chain, the promotion of productivity and competitiveness of key strategic sectors in the ecological transition and digital transformation.

Within the aforementioned Industrial Policy Spain 2030, is the Program to Promote Industrial Competitiveness and Sustainability tractor projects, which will support companies in the industrial sector, including industrial services, so that most of the components of the strategic value chains that make up the opportunity ecosystems defined by the European Commission.

Said program will have as a central element a line of financing in the form of loans and grants for strategic projects for the industrial transition. The aim is to support the implementation of projects focused on innovation and digitization in the following areas: energy efficiency and new sources of sustainable energy, circular economy and eco-innovation, improvement of value chains; decarbonization; advanced materials and products; improvement of quality and industrial safety processes; interconnection platforms of the company's value chain; solutions for advanced data processing; artificial intelligence solutions; industrial simulation projects; additive design and manufacturing; industrial projects of augmented reality, virtual reality and artificial vision; collaborative and cognitive robotics; sensory.

These actions are considered as tractor projects with long-term effects, carried out in a cooperative way, involving all or almost all the links of the industrial value chain in which it intends to insert itself and with a backbone character of the territory, as well as involvement of SMEs. In turn, they must have a significant impact on competitiveness, and contribute to the double green and digital transition established by the European Union. The benefits of the action will not be limited to the companies or sectors in question, but to the entire economy or society through positive indirect effects.

Notice of expression of interest (MDI)

The objective of this MDI notice is to identify areas of interest within the Program to Promote Industrial Competitiveness and Sustainability tractor projects, which will allow a mapping of possible large projects; of its conditioning factors; the environmental, energy efficiency, climate change and digitization objectives; of the companies participating in the project and the justification of its driving effect in the entire value chain; an analysis of the estimated impacts on growth, job creation, social and territorial cohesion and mitigation of the crisis; and a schedule through milestones and investment goals; the definition of compliance indicators, etc. so that there is an unbiased approach that allows the promotion of those strategic projects with maximum impact.

After the analysis and evaluation of all the proposals received, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism will define the areas of interest for the realization of future calls for aid for strategic projects for the industrial transition.

Participation in this MDI notice does not generate any right to access the potential financing that may be called by the Administration to support tractor projects, nor any obligation to the Administration.

Requirements that must be met by the projects submitted to this expression of interest

• It must involve a substantial part of a certain industrial value chain that must be identified. This representativeness will be justified by a sufficient number of companies and entities in said chain, including SMEs, and their adequate territorial representation.
• The project must be tractor and cooperative. For this, it will be required to detail a leading company that supports the joint project, as well as a minimum additional number of 5 participating entities. In addition to the group of companies or entities interested in carrying out the project, at least 40% must respond to the SME category.
• Among the participating entities there must be at least one that is a provider of knowledge, and that, as such, has sufficient technical and organizational capacity to carry out the R&D activities included in the tractor project.
• The project must have a marked innovative character and / or provide significant added value in terms of R & D & i, which allows new products or services to be developed with a high research content or a fundamentally innovative production process to be developed . Regular updates without an innovative dimension of existing facilities and the development of new versions of existing products are not considered tractor projects.
• The project must have a backbone character in the territory, with an impact on more than one autonomous community.
• Projects must have among their objectives energy efficiency, improving the sustainability of their process or product, the decarbonization of their activity, the incorporation of circular economy aspects, the best use of resources or the digitization of the value chain.
• The benefits of the project should not be limited to the companies or the sector directly involved in the project, but should be of greater relevance and application in the economy or society through clearly defined, concrete and identifiable positive effects.
• The beneficiaries must participate in the co-financing of the project.
• The project leader and the participating entities must commit to disseminating the new knowledge acquired in the context of the funded work beyond their only clients and suppliers. The project must allow the wide dissemination of the knowledge acquired, whether or not it is protected by a title or an intellectual property right.
• The companies that make up each tractor project proposal must be validly incorporated in Spain, not be subject to a court order to recover aid that has been considered illegal and incompatible in the context of a decision of the European Commission. None of the entities involved in the project should have difficulties within the meaning of the European Commission guidelines on aid for the rescue and restructuring of companies in difficulty.
• The minimum budget for the projects will be € 40,000,000

The completed Tractor Project Report must be attached to the email, as well as the budget form, according to the established formats. The maximum file size will not exceed 5 MB.

All MDIs received on time will be reviewed to verify that the information contained in them conforms to what is indicated in the attached template. During the review, you may, where appropriate, request additional information or documentation that you may consider useful or necessary. After this procedure, if the absence of any information required in the project proposal document persists or the non-fulfillment of the previous requirements will mean its exclusion in subsequent analyzes and in the mapping of large projects.

The information obtained by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism during the reception and review of applications will be considered the exclusive property of the interested parties and will be treated as confidential for all purposes. This information can only be made public with prior authorization from them.

Interested companies must submit their project proposals to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism until January 20, 2021 (11:59 p.m. CET).

Additionally, they have a prior advisory service to consult their doubts in the same mailbox financia_industria@mincotur.es, indicating in the subject: "CONSULTA PROYECTO TRACTOR – Breve descripción de consulta"

Memoria para la presentación de propuesta MDI [DOCX] [63.14 KB]

Memoria para la presentación de propuesta MDI [ODT] [27.62 KB]

Proyecto financiero propuesta MDI [XLSX] [15.27 KB]

Proyecto financiero propuesta MDI [ODS] [16.2 KB]