CDTI 2025: R&D Grants for Technology Projects
The public funding landscape in 2025
Spain’s CDTI (Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnologico y la Innovacion) remains the primary public funding channel for R&D projects in the country. In 2025, the total budget exceeds EUR 1.2 billion across soft loans, grants, and European program participation. For a technology company operating in or from Spain, this is available money that many leave on the table due to unfamiliarity or poorly prepared applications.
The flagship line this year is Next Tech, with EUR 125 million earmarked for advanced digital technology projects. But it’s not the only option. The funding ecosystem includes permanent lines (PID, NEOTEC, Direct Innovation Line) and specific calls published throughout the year.
Next Tech: EUR 125 million for digital technology
Next Tech is CDTI’s instrument for funding research and development in digital technologies. Framed within the PERTE Chip (formerly Digital Strategy), it funds projects in:
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning: Models, frameworks, sector-specific applications.
- Cloud and edge computing: Infrastructure, platforms, services.
- Cybersecurity: Tools, protocols, detection systems.
- Blockchain and DLT: Non-speculative applications.
- IoT and advanced sensing: Industry 4.0, smart cities.
- Quantum computing: Algorithms, simulations, early applications.
Key conditions
- Beneficiaries: Companies (any size), company groupings, and company-research center consortia.
- Aid intensity: Up to 50% for SMEs, up to 40% for large companies (direct grant). Cooperation projects may receive additional bonuses.
- Minimum budget: EUR 500,000 per project for individual projects. EUR 1,000,000 for consortium projects.
- Duration: 12-36 months.
- Application deadline: The 2025 call typically opens in Q2 and closes in Q3. Check the updated CDTI calendar.
What it doesn’t fund
A common mistake: submitting a product development project as R&D. Next Tech funds industrial research and experimental development. Adapting an existing product to a new market isn’t R&D. Developing a novel route optimization algorithm that doesn’t exist in the literature is. The line between the two is thick, but CDTI enforces it.
Another mistake: including infrastructure costs as the main expense. Software licenses, cloud servers, and hardware are eligible as costs associated with the R&D project, but they can’t be the bulk of the budget. CDTI wants to see research personnel (minimum 50% of budget in personnel costs is a good benchmark).
Other relevant CDTI lines
PID (R&D Projects)
CDTI’s permanent line. Financing through soft loans (0% interest, with a 20-33% non-repayable tranche). No fixed call; you apply anytime.
- Minimum budget: EUR 175,000.
- No maximum limit.
- Duration: 12-36 months.
- PID’s advantage: continuous processing. You don’t wait for a call. The downside: it’s a loan, not a pure grant (though the non-repayable tranche softens it).
For projects developing cloud platforms, data pipelines, or applied AI tools, PID is the most accessible route if the project has a genuine technical component.
NEOTEC
Non-repayable grant for tech startups under 6 years old. Up to EUR 250,000. Highly competitive (300+ applications for 50-70 places), but pure funding with no repayment.
Key requirement: the business plan must demonstrate that technology is the differentiating element, not a complement. NEOTEC doesn’t fund service companies that use technology; it funds companies whose product IS technology.
Direct Innovation Line
For projects closer to market than to the lab. Soft loan without a non-repayable tranche, but with very favorable conditions (Euribor + 0.1%). Useful for technology product development projects that don’t reach the R&D threshold of other lines.
European programs via CDTI
CDTI is the national contact point for Horizon Europe and acts as intermediary for:
- EIC Accelerator: Up to EUR 2.5 million in grants + EUR 15 million in equity. For startups and SMEs with disruptive innovation.
- Eurostars: Collaborative R&D projects between SMEs from at least two Eureka countries. Up to EUR 500,000 per project.
- CDTI Missions: Large national collaborative projects. Budget of EUR 5-30 million per project. Require consortia of at least 3 companies.
How to frame your project for CDTI
The difference between an approved and rejected project rarely lies in technical quality. It’s in the presentation. After supporting tech companies through CDTI applications, these patterns work:
1. Define the scientific-technical advance
CDTI wants to know: what doesn’t exist that your project will create? Not “we’ll use AI for X” but “we’ll develop a model for XYZ that addresses the current limitation of ABC, which existing solutions don’t tackle because…”
For AI projects, this means going beyond “apply GPT-4 to our domain.” That’s product development, not R&D. R&D would be: “we’ll develop a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) system specialized in customs documentation that addresses the hallucination and terminological precision problems that generic LLMs don’t solve in specialized legal domains.”
2. Credible state of the art
The CDTI evaluator is a technical expert. They want to see you know the literature, existing tools, and why your approach differs. A state of the art citing only commercial competitors without academic papers is weak. One citing 15-20 relevant academic references and explaining why your approach improves or complements existing work is strong.
3. Work plan with verifiable milestones
Not “quarter 1: research, quarter 2: development.” CDTI wants measurable milestones: “milestone 1: baseline model trained with accuracy > 85% on dataset X,” “milestone 2: prototype integrated with system Y with latency < 200ms.” Verifiable milestones demonstrate rigor and the ability to assess progress.
4. Team with credentials
The R&D team is the highest-weighted element in evaluation. PhDs, publications, patents, experience in previous R&D projects. If your team is senior but lacks a research profile, incorporating a research center as a partner (university, technology center) significantly strengthens the application.
5. Exploitation plan
CDTI doesn’t fund basic research. They want to know how project results will become products, services, or competitive advantage. The exploitation plan must be concrete: “in the 12 months following the project, we’ll integrate results into our platform [X] and expect to reduce processing times by [Y]%, translating into EUR [Z] in savings for our clients.”
Numbers that matter
| Indicator | 2024 value |
|---|---|
| PID approval rate | ~65% |
| NEOTEC approval rate | ~20% |
| Next Tech approval rate | ~35% |
| Average resolution time | 4-6 months |
| First disbursement after approval | 2-3 months |
PID’s approval rate is high (65%) because it’s a permanent line without direct competition between applications. Next Tech and NEOTEC are competitive: your application is compared against others, and the best get funded.
Common mistakes
Presenting a product project as R&D: CDTI has technical evaluators who distinguish between “we’re going to build a SaaS” and “we’re going to solve a technical problem requiring research.” If your project is essentially product development, the Direct Innovation Line is your place.
Inflated budget: Including costs not justified by R&D activity. CDTI cuts budgets (a 10-20% reduction on the requested amount is common). A tight, well-justified budget generates more confidence than an inflated one that will be cut.
No analytical accounting: To justify CDTI project expenses, you need analytical accounting differentiating project costs from general company costs. Companies without it before the application face serious problems during justification.
Forgetting gender and sustainability: Recent calls include gender equality criteria for the R&D team and environmental impact. They’re not decisive, but they add points. Ignoring them means giving away points.
Practical 2025 calendar
| Line | Estimated opening | Estimated close |
|---|---|---|
| PID | Permanent | Permanent |
| NEOTEC | February 2025 | April 2025 |
| Next Tech | May-June 2025 | September 2025 |
| Missions | Q3 2025 | Q4 2025 |
| Direct Line | Permanent | Permanent |
Preparing a competitive application takes 4-8 weeks. If you have a project in mind, starting the technical definition and state of the art now is the difference between submitting a strong application and an improvised one.
The money is there. The question is whether your project is prepared to capture it. A specialized consultant in CDTI application preparation can multiply your odds, but the raw material — a project with real technical advance and a capable team — has to exist first.
About the author
abemon engineering
Engineering team
Multidisciplinary engineering, data and AI team headquartered in the Canary Islands. We build, deploy and operate custom software solutions for companies at any scale.