Enforcement Funds The new generation of the European Union (NGEU) is giving impetus to innovative efforts to shorten the distance that separates us from Europe. It therefore coincides with the period of realization of these funds, R&D/GDP ratio in Spain increased from 1.24% of PIB in 2019 to 1.50% in 2024 (latest available and highest historical data).
However, while the breach with the EU-27 has decreased, it continues to widen (0.74 percentage points). In parallel, the NGEU funds contribute to the progress of the digitization process: from 2019 to 2023, the digital value increased to 54,000 million euros, with an increase of one weight point in the total added value, it reached 21%.
The importance of research, development, innovation and digitization (I+D+i+d) for economic growth and product growth justifies the interest of the Cotec fund in cooperation with Ivie to monitor the implementation of NGEU funds and its real impact on the economy.
The fruit of this interest is the dissemination of a follow-up report with information that will lead to June 2025. The main contribution of the information is the identification, called and resolved funds, those who have I+D+i+d as their destiny.
Of the 79,854 million euros of non-refundable transfers granted to Spain, tenders and subcontracts worth 78,481 million euros were announced until June 2025, of which 58,394 million were linked to the real economy this year (resueltos fondy).
Of this last amount, 36.8% was allocated to R+D+i+d (€21,498 million), a percentage that is 40% set as the original target in the recovery, transformation and resilience programme.
Of the mentioned 21,498 million euros intended for R&D+i+d, 59% was intended to support digitalization (12,682 million) and the remaining 41% to support investigative or innovative activities (8,816 million euros). The public sector implemented a campaign of funds intended for R+D+i+d much higher than achieved by the territorial public sector (78% vs. 22%).
The main recipients of R+D+i+d support are companies, which account for 70% of the funds. Of this corporate part, 55% have the ability to start large companies (more than 250 employees), while 45% remain at a low level. Companies in the service sector concentrate 75.1% of the resulting amount, if we exclude the information and communication (TIC) sector, which occupies 44.5%, followed by trade (9.2%) and legal, engineering and consulting activities (7.3%).
The recipients of funds dedicated to R&D+i+d collected more than 812,000. In the case of digitization implementations, the beneficiaries are mostly companies, while they are tied to R+D+i because companies still lead rankingit’s less about relative importance, ya que Universities, technology centers and research centers are more represented.
If the territorial distribution of resources is governed by the place where the actions are carried out (purchase of goods or provision of services), this indicates a high concentration in Comunidad de Madrid (32.5% of the total), Muy lejos de Cataluña (15.2%) and Andalusia (10.5%)if this distribution is consistent with the inversion in R&D according to INE data.
Madrid is also the community where resources spent on R&D+i+d are heaviest in relation to PIB (1.66%), as well as Castile and León (1.14%) and Murcia (1.20%). On the contrary, the percentage is not at the level of 0.5% in the Balearic Islands.
The Fundación COTEC-Ivie report reaches the municipal sphere when analyzing the implementation of recovery funds. Based on this analysis, we know that more than two-thirds of Spanish municipalities (specifically 5,453) count on at least one recipient of NGEU funds intended for R+D+i+d.
However, one out of every three euros from the funds dedicated to the digitization of R+D+iy was compared to only one of these 3 municipalities: Madrid (34%, 4,908 million euros), Alcobendas (8%, 1,144 million euros) and Barcelona (8%, 1,081 million euros). Funds dedicated to digitization have the greatest understanding, mainly thanks to the program digital kitof those 717,000 independent businesses benefited.
Another aspect of interest, bordering on the informal, is the distinct bias that exists between regions in terms of the portion of funds they allocate to the R&D+i+d of those who manage them. Thus, while in Cantabria, Extremadura and Andalusia more than 25% of its distinction is for R+D+i+d, in Aragón, Baleares and Castilla-La Mancha the percentage does not reach 15%.
There are differences in what may affect aspects such as field specialization, political priorities or difficulties in managing specific meetings.
The following information exports NGEU funds implemented by June 2025, starting it takes a year for funding projects to fully develop.
This means that the initial objective of the recovery, transformation and resilience plan is to allocate 40% of the funds for the implementation of R&D+i+ds with an implementation budget of approximately 10,500 million euros, summing up the funds for convocation and convocation, but not yet implemented.
Therefore, the network is implemented in a year in cases where a third of all funds are intended for investigation and digitization. It is not an unattainable goal if you keep up the pace of the last semester.
*** Joaquín Maudos is Professor of Economics at the University of Valencia, Deputy Director of Ivie and Expert 100 from Cotec.
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