In recent years, many companies have associated public innovation funding with a very specific idea: extraordinary funds, large calls for proposals, and a hard-to-repeat availability of resources. The arrival of Next Generation EU completely altered the landscape of aid and accelerated investments that, under other circumstances, would have taken years to materialize.
But that phase is coming to an end, and it would be a mistake to interpret this change as a withdrawal of the public sector from R&D&I funding. What we are seeing is something different. Spain and Europe are evolving towards a model where resources are increasingly concentrated on projects capable of responding to strategic challenges: artificial intelligence, energy transition, health, defense, dual-use technologies, new materials, biotechnology, decarbonization, or industrial autonomy.
It is no longer enough to have a technically sound project and then look for a call that fits. It will be increasingly important to understand where public priorities are heading and anticipate how a company's technological roadmap can align with them. Public funding is becoming part of business strategy.
Spain continues to build its own innovation funding map
Spain maintains a solid ecosystem of support for R&D&I, with instruments such as NEOTEC, Missions Science and Innovation, or public-private collaboration projects, but the trend points towards an increasingly strategic innovation policy.A good example is the new Deep Tech Spain Strategy 2026-2030, which plans to mobilize over 8 billion euros to strengthen technologies such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, quantum computing, robotics, new materials, semiconductors, or clean energy. This strategic plan will allow, for example, recent calls such as INNTERCONNECTA STEP, which finances R&D projects in cooperation between Spanish companies, focused on digital technologies, clean technologies, and biotechnology, aligned with the European strategic priorities STEP, to have greater continuity.
The key is not just in funding, but in the objective: turning scientific knowledge into companies, industry, and markets.
This focus well reflects where Spanish public funding is heading: fewer isolated projects and more emphasis on technological capabilities, strategic sectors, and business growth.
Europe faces the same challenge: turning innovation into companies
For decades, Europe has demonstrated an enormous capacity to generate science and technology. The problem often arises afterwards: transforming that knowledge into companies capable of growing, industrializing, and competing globally. A large part of European instruments precisely aim to close that gap.Horizon Europe remains the main research and innovation program, but initiatives like the European Innovation Council have introduced a different logic: supporting companies beyond the research phase. Programs like EIC Accelerator or STEP Scale Up combine grants and investment and reflect an idea that is gaining traction in Brussels:
It is not enough to fund technology; you also have to fund its market entry and scaling.
The isolated project loses prominence
Decarbonizing industrial processes, developing new therapies, building defense technologies, transforming mobility, or advancing in artificial intelligence requires combining knowledge, industrial capabilities, and talent from different organizations.That's why more and more calls for proposals encourage collaborative projects.Companies, startups, universities, technology centers, and research organizations must work together to be more competitive. Companies will have to learn to identify partners in advance, build relationships within innovation ecosystems, and design projects that make sense beyond their own corporate boundaries.
Different funding mechanisms.
For many years, talking about public R&D&I funding was almost synonymous with talking about grants. That has changed, as new models increasingly incorporate loans, guarantees, repayable financing, public equity, and co-investment instruments with private investors.Public money increasingly tends to act as a catalyst. A single project may require a grant in the research phase, financing for its industrialization, and capital to subsequently address its international growth.
The question shifts from “what aid can I get” to something much more relevant: “What is the most suitable funding combination to bring this technology to market?”
Administrative simplification remains a pending issue
However, there is a growing paradox. Europe is promoting an agenda of simplification and reduction of administrative burdens, but in practice, many funding processes remain complex and demanding.Forms are being reduced or more agile processes are announced, but at the same time, evaluation layers, depth of analysis, interviews, or environmental impact requirements are increasing. The result is that despite attempts, evaluation processes are becoming more complex.
One example of this is the EIC Accelerator Evaluation process, which initially began as an independent evaluation by different experts and now involves two presentation phases, two submission phases, and a final interview before a jury of evaluators.
Another example affecting both European and national public funding projects is the DNSH (Do No Significant Harm) principle. This is the European principle of "do no significant harm" to the environment, which requires demonstrating that a project does not negatively affect the EU's main environmental objectives. In practice, it adds requirements for analysis, justification, and environmental documentation, as well as associated costs for applicants.
This tension will be key in the coming years: public funding needs to maintain rigor and control, but also offer faster, more predictable, and proportionate procedures.
For companies, it's not just about preparing good projects. It's also about managing the associated administrative complexity better and better.
Artificial intelligence is also changing the way we compete
The advent of generative artificial intelligence is transforming the preparation of R&D&I proposals.Today, it is much easier to structure a report, improve texts, analyze documentation, or prepare initial drafts of a proposal. But this apparent simplification has a significant effect: if everyone can write better and faster, formal quality ceases to be a differential advantage and becomes a basic and essential requirement.
The real value lies again in the technology, strategy, market knowledge, consortium quality, and the ability to correctly interpret what the funding body is looking for.
AI can accelerate proposal preparation, but it also raises the average level of competition and makes critical content review even more important.
Anticipation will likely be the biggest advantage
The companies that best leverage public funding in the coming years will not necessarily be those who know the most calls. They will be those who plan ahead.Competitive projects require time: defining a technological strategy, building a consortium, preparing an investment, analyzing markets, setting objectives, and demonstrating impact.
Waiting for a call for proposals to be published before starting to think about the project will be increasingly ineffective.
Companies should do the exact opposite. First, define which technologies they want to develop, what investments they need to make, and what capabilities they want to build over the next three to five years.
Then, identify which national or European instruments can support each phase. This change in order may seem small, but it completely transforms the approach.
From managing grants to managing an innovation strategy
This change in order, first the technological strategy, then the instruments, is also a change in the way of working. Evolution Europe works on a personalized basis to define the most suitable R&D&I funding strategies for each company, providing the necessary structure to consolidate their present and future activities and applying the optimal saving tools at each project stage.National and European programs are complemented by tax incentives for R&D&I, which operate under a different accounting logic but impact the same profit and loss account. Mapping both regulatory frameworks from the outset allows for clear imputation of global project costs, both in the presentation, management, and justification phases for Brussels and in certifications with the tax administration.
After channeling over 250 million euros using this methodology, the consultancy's conclusion is that efficiency is not measured by the volume of tools requested, but by the ability to definitively and transparently consolidate that support on the company's balance sheet.
About Evolution Europe
Evolution Europe is a consultancy specializing in innovation funding that assists startups, SMEs, large companies, universities, and research centers in identifying, obtaining, and managing funding for R&D&I and industrial investment projects.Headquartered in Madrid with a team of 60 professionals, it works with European and Spanish programs:
Horizon Europe, European Innovation Council, CDTI, and with tax incentives for R&D&I, including deductions, social security bonuses for research staff, and the Patent Box.
Its approach combines technological strategy, public funding, private investment, and project execution, from initial diagnosis (free) to final justification.
