Some funding calls only really make sense once you see how they got resolved. Innterconecta-STEP is one of them. CDTI — the Spanish public agency under the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities that funds business R&D — has been financing cooperative R&D projects led by companies for years, with a strong regional focus and meaningful SME participation. The 2025 edition has just resolved, and the figures are substantial: 102 approved projects, €149 million in grants awarded, and an initial demand of €518 million — almost six times the starting budget. And the 2026 call already has confirmed dates in CDTI's Annual Plan.
Below I outline what happened in 2025, what the data tells us about the projects that made it through, and what to keep in mind if you are considering applying next year.
The story of the 2025 call: it opened small, it grew large
The call was published on 9 April 2025 with an initial budget of €90 million, co-funded by ERDF (FEDER) 2021-2027. It was a redesigned call, repositioning the classic Innterconecta programme around the STEP technologies defined by EU Regulation 2024/795 (Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform).
Demand far exceeded expectations: 318 applications for a total of more than €518 million. Companies requested almost six times the available budget.
Later, through amendments to the call published in March 2026, the budget was expanded — first partially and then definitively — bringing the total to €150 million.
The provisional resolution was published in April 2026 and the final one in May 2026, with an appeal phase that added 29 more projects.
The operational takeaway for a company considering applying: design the proposal as if the initial budget would not be expanded. If it is expanded, all the better. But assuming it will be is risky.
Anatomy of the 102 approved projects
Beyond the headlines about budget size, what really helps a company decide whether to apply is understanding what the winning projects actually look like. These are the relevant figures, calculated across the 102 projects approved in the provisional resolution:
| Indicator | Average value |
|---|---|
| Eligible budget per project | €2.31 M |
| Grant per project | €1.46 M |
| Average coverage (grant / budget) | 63 % |
| Number of partners per consortium | 3.9 |
| Total eligible budget mobilised | €235.6 M |
| Total grant mobilised | €149.2 M |
Quick read: a typical Innterconecta-STEP project is a consortium of 3 to 4 partners, with a budget of around €2.3 M and a grant close to €1.5 M. The 63 % average coverage is above the statutory base intensity for industrial research without bonuses (50 % for large companies, 60 % for medium, 70 % for small), which confirms that most projects unlocked the "effective collaboration" bonus (more on this below).
Distribution by STEP category: biotechnology is surprisingly underrepresented
Innterconecta-STEP requires projects to fall within one of the three strategic technology categories of EU Regulation 2024/795:
- A) Digital technologies, including those of the Digital Decade Strategic Programme.
- B) Clean and resource-efficient technologies, as defined in the Net-Zero Industry Act.
- C) Biotechnology, including the medicines listed in the EU List of Critical Medicines and their components.
I have classified the 102 approved projects based on their titles and keywords. This is the resulting distribution:
| Category | Projects | % of total |
|---|---|---|
| A — Digital technologies | 49 | 48 % |
| B — Clean tech / Net Zero | 45 | 44 % |
| C — Biotechnology | 7 | 7 % |
| Unclassified (incomplete data) | 1 | 1 % |
What struck me the most: the biotechnology category is clearly underrepresented. Only 7 approved projects — less than 7 % of the total — versus 48 % digital and 44 % clean tech.
Why? Probably a combination of factors. The perimeter of STEP-eligible biotechnology is strict and tied to the EU List of Critical Medicines, which limits the number of projects that fit. In addition, the consortium profile in industrial biotech tends to be less consolidated than in digital or clean tech, and companies in those two other verticals have accumulated more experience applying to this type of CDTI call.
For a biotech company with a product within the scope of the EU List of Critical Medicines or their components, this is good news: competition is significantly lower than in the other two verticals. Well-structured, a biotech proposal starts from a more favourable competitive position.
Among the seven approved biotech projects there are advanced therapies with antisense oligonucleotides for neuromuscular diseases, cell therapy for systemic lupus with a Phase II clinical trial, preclinical evaluation in rheumatoid arthritis, and functional peptides, among others. A range that illustrates the programme's reach: it accommodates pharmaceutical, industrial and agri-food biotechnology.
Aid intensity: the "effective collaboration" bonus changes the game
Innterconecta-STEP is a mandatory-consortium call. That unlocks a very relevant intensity bonus. These are the maximum gross intensities per the 2025 call (EU Regulation 651/2014, article 25, combined with Ministerial Order CNU/161/2025):
| Type of activity | Small company | Medium-sized | Large company |
|---|---|---|---|
| Industrial research | 70 % | 60 % | 50 % |
| Industrial research + effective collaboration | 80 % | 75 % | 65 % |
| Experimental development | 45 % | 35 % | 25 % |
| Experimental development + effective collaboration | 60 % | 50 % | 40 % |
What is "effective collaboration"? Defined in the annex of Order CNU/161/2025: it occurs when no single company in the consortium bears more than 70 % of eligible costs and at least one is an SME, or when the project is developed between companies from two EU Member States (or an EU Member State and another EEA country). Subcontracting does not count as effective collaboration.
In other words: to activate the bonus, SMEs must carry real weight in the consortium — not be token participants — and no single company can monopolise the project. This is one of the reasons the average coverage of the 102 approved projects sits at 63 %, clearly above the base intensity without bonuses.
Three more rules from the call worth keeping in mind from day one:
- Eligible budget minimum €1 M and maximum €4 M per project.
- Eligible budget minimum €175,000 per company.
- Mandatory subcontracting to public research organisations of at least 10 % of the eligible budget. It is not optional — it is a requirement.
- Minimum grant per beneficiary: 40 % of the eligible budget.
These limits are not mere formalities: proposals that fail any of these basic requirements are dropped from the procedure before the technical content is even evaluated.
The 2026 call: what we already know
CDTI's 2026 Annual Action Plan (published in December 2025) confirms there will be a new edition:
- Expected opening: third quarter of 2026 (July-September).
- Expected resolution: 2027 (will form part of the PAA 2027).
- Initial budget: €70 million, according to CDTI's February 2026 press release that puts CDTI's direct funding for 2026 at €1,817.6 million.
The regulatory framework remains: ERDF co-funding, alignment with EU Regulation 2024/795 STEP, focus on digital, clean and biotechnology.
An important observation about the initial budget. The 2025 call opened with €90 M and ended at €150 M after a subsequent expansion. The 2026 call will open with €70 M. Design the proposal assuming the initial budget, not an expansion that may not occur.
What to start preparing now
Speaking from experience with this call: proposals that arrive at the submission portal in a rush rarely succeed in competitive procedures, and Innterconecta-STEP is no exception. If your company is considering applying in 2026, these are the critical points to mature before the summer:
- Technical project definition: description, objectives, methodology, expected results and fit within one of the three STEP categories. This is the block that weighs most heavily in the evaluation.
- Well-structured consortium: three or four partners is usually the winning format. At least one SME with real (not token) weight, balanced distribution of tasks and a budget that activates the effective collaboration bonus (no company above 70 % of the cost).
- Public research organisation identified and committed, with its 10 % subcontracting integrated into the project design — not added as a last-minute administrative formality. The quality of this collaboration is explicitly evaluated.
- Clear inter- or intra-regional approach, with real anchoring in the ERDF Autonomous Communities where the companies are located. Not a statement of intent — a co-funding requirement.
- Financial plan: balanced budget distribution across partners and annual instalments, complying with the minimums (€175,000 per company) and maximums (€4 M total per project).
- Administrative documentation: certificates, financial statements, declarations and evidence of not being an undertaking in difficulty. Administrative work is not evaluated on content, but lateness or incompleteness leads to exclusion from the procedure.
- Justification of incentive effect: the project must be additional to the consortium's regular R&D activity, and the aid must be necessary for it to take place. This is evaluated rigorously.
If I can help
For CDTI calls such as Innterconecta-STEP I work in collaboration with Soros Gabinete, a technical consultancy specialised in R&D project management with which I work as an external consultant. From there we support companies and consortia with an end-to-end approach: structuring the project, technical and impact narrative, budget, coordination with research organisations, administrative documentation, and post-award monitoring.
If your company is considering applying for Innterconecta-STEP 2026 and would like to talk the project through calmly before the call opens in September, write to me at contacto@alamosinnovacion.com. The earlier we see it, the better we can structure it and arrive with the consortium, the research organisation and the narrative already in place before the submission period opens.
Note: the figures and percentages in this article come from the Innterconecta-STEP 2025 call, its modifications published in March 2026, the provisional resolution of April 2026 and CDTI's 2026 Annual Action Plan. The exact conditions of the 2026 call will be published in the official call itself. I will update this article when it is available.