Complementary R&D&I plans | Canary Islands7

Complementary R&D&I plans |  Canary Islands7


blue growth

These plans are part of the 9 planned investment measures (with a scope of €3,456 million) to strengthen the Spanish System for Science, Technology and Innovation (SECTI)

On the 19th, the Council of Ministers approved the second block of four
Complementary R&D&i Plans with an allocation of €116.5 M dedicated to: Agrifood, Astrophysics and High Energy Physics, Advanced Materials and Biodiversity, which together with the four included in the first block (approved in November 2021),
dedicated to: Biotechnology applied to health, marine sciences, quantum communication and renewable energy and hydrogen, will mobilize €456 million until 2025, contributed by the State Administration and the Autonomous Communities (€299 and €157 million respectively). The Complementary Plans constitute a new tool that is made possible as part of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, financed with the funds and mechanisms included in it.

These Plans are part of the
9 planned investment measures (with a scope of €3,456 million) to strengthen the Spanish Science, Technology and Innovation System (SECTI), which constitutes component 11 of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, giving extraordinary additional support to its three basic lines: (1 ) modernization of scientific infrastructure and equipment, (2) the scientific career, including the attraction and retention of talent and (3) the financing of research projects aimed at public-private collaboration and research transfer.

This new tool, organized in the form of specific Plans, presents
two characteristics that can be of great importance: The first is the choice and focus on specific objectives (in this case 8) of a significant amount of resources to "areas in which the country can increase its competitiveness, not only in the generation of knowledge, but also in the transfer to the productive sector", the second novelty is that these Plans are co-governed and co-financed by the State Administration and the Autonomous Communities jointly, not in a general way for the whole country, but through specific groups made up of all the Autonomous Communities that share the interests of the specific objectives of each of the Plans.

Reviewing the summaries of each of the Plans allows us to appreciate their importance, ensuring that the
eight topics are of enormous importance and therefore they must be in a selection of these characteristics (perhaps it could be evaluated if any topic of similar importance to those included has been left out):

Biotechnology applied to health: Aimed at the development of biotechnological tools that facilitate the deployment of Personalized Precision Medicine to improve prevention, diagnosis, prognostic evaluation and treatment, including advanced or targeted therapies.

Marine Sciences: This program will deploy a joint marine science research and innovation strategy to sustainably address new challenges in marine-maritime monitoring and observation, climate change, aquaculture and other sectors of the blue economy, with particular attention to improving of existing knowledge about the problems that afflict marine ecosystems and the threats to biodiversity, with the aim of improving adaptation strategies to climate change and the reorientation of the different sectoral activities responsible for its degradation.

Quantum communication: This program is aligned and seeks synergies with key European initiatives in the field of Quantum Communications, both the Quantum Flagship and the European Quantum Communications Infrastructure (EuroQCI), by creating cutting-edge infrastructures and acting as a driving force for the European quantum industry. .

Renewable Energy and Hydrogen: This program will develop strategic actions based on Hydrogen to transform the current energy paradigm and minimize the emission of greenhouse gases.

Agrifood: With the aim of promoting the transformation of the agri-food sector into a greener, more sustainable, healthier and digital scenario, bridging the gap between scientific discoveries, technology development and its implementation.

Astrophysics and High Energy Physics: Designed to make a qualitative leap in Spanish participation in the next generation of leading international projects in the area of ​​Astrophysics and High Energy Physics, with a particular emphasis on its more technological aspects.

Biodiversity: Focused on the development of solutions that are focused on nature, and that take into account how anthropic activities affect it, to stop the biodiversity crisis while allowing the mitigation and adaptation of natural systems to climate change.

Advanced Materials: This program seeks to consolidate R&D&I activity in the area of ​​Advanced Materials, supporting scientific leadership in strategic lines and fostering collaboration between the participating Autonomous Communities through a director program for research, generation and attraction of talent and the strengthening of existing scientific infrastructures, as well as promoting synergies between research centers, technology centers and companies to accelerate innovation and technological development.

Participation in the programs is proposed by the Autonomous Communities (after an evaluation process), so
its analysis allows knowing the degree of commitment of each one of them, since raising the resources provided by the Ministry requires the co-financing of a significant percentage with its own resources. On the other hand, the choice of the topics in which it participates, both the number of Programs and the amount committed, indicate the orientation and choice in which the regional R&D&I system is to be promoted.

The participation of the Canary Islands, Regarding the number of Programs to which it has opted, it falls within the majority group of 11 communities with low participation (only in two programs). For the topics chosen: Renewable energy and hydrogen and Biodiversity (focused from the use of unmanned aerial devices), the most innovative topics have been chosen, based on current limited capacities, not participating in areas where the resources of all types are major and contrasted, such as Marine Sciences or Astrophysics in which leadership could have been chosen. The amount committed to the Biodiversity Program (to be executed from the Technology Park of Fuerteventura) is the maximum, as is the proposal for Galicia in the same Program.

Objectively it can be valued as a participation above what corresponds to the current situation of the
canary science and technology systemwhich should be understood as a positive boost, but should also be seen as having a limited effect, as this opportunity could have been used for broader thematic and economic engagement to serve as a more general boost, given the current precarious situation.



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