The Official State Gazette (BOE) published, last December 21th, 2024, the new call for the Ports 4.0 fund for its Pre-commercial Projects program. This call regulates the granting, by Puertos del Estado, of public aid within the framework of the Plan to Promote Entrepreneurship for Innovation in the Port Sector, with the aim of promoting and facilitating the transition of the logistics-port sector towards the “smart ports” of the 4.0 economy.
Similarly, in this new edition, the Port Authority of the Algeciras Bay (APBA) provides support to ideas and projects that are aligned with its strategic focuses and objectives of innovation in order to attract the interest of national and international companies and start-ups and continue to strengthen its consolidation as a Port Living Lab of international reference. To do so, interested parties can submit their request for support through the following link Proposal form provided by the Port Authority.
The APBA has played a leading role during the first two calls, where it received and analyzed a total of 99 proposals, of which it supported 74 proposals as a facilitating agent or letter of support, of which 16 proposals were finally awarded the grant, representing almost 22% of the total number of projects supported.
This third call of the Fund, whose Regulatory Bases are governed following the same ministerial order of previous calls, maintains the budget allocation of the previous edition for the term of the same, set at 11,250,000 euros, thus consolidating the agency’s commitment to this successful initiative.
As for the deadlines to apply for grants, the deadline for submitting Pre-commercial proposals will be open until March 24th, 2025.
The Pre-commercial Projects susceptible of being awarded grants, they must develop a new product, service, process, or improve an existing technology with a new innovative component, developing its application for the port-logistic sector. Applications must also promote the achievement of measurable breakthrough solutions in one or more areas of port-logistics activity. These areas are: logistics efficiency in the infrastructural, operational or service delivery domain, environmental sustainability and energy, safety and security, digitization of intelligent processes and platforms, and any other innovative product, service or process with an impact on the port-logistic sector or on the nautical or fishing port sector.
In addition, the submitted project must have a certain, demonstrable and clearly defined innovative component, at least in terms of its scope, contents and costs, as well as not existing, both at national and international level, its application for the sector. This innovative component of the applications must account for at least 50% of the total budget, even if this percentage exceeds the funding limits established for each type of project. In this case, the aid will consist of a maximum amount of 60% of the costs associated in the project budget to the innovation component, with a maximum limit of 1,000,000 euros.
Likewise, there is the possibility of accessing acceleration or advisory services to boost the commercial deployment, growth and ensure the business success of the project. These services are established in the territorial headquarters of the incubator-accelerator associated with the Entrepreneurship Promotion Plan for Innovation in the port sector “Ports 4.0”.
Interested parties can obtain further information on the call and register through the web page: www.ports40.es. In addition, Puertos del Estado makes available to interested parties the address puertos40@idom.com, to which they can address any clarification or query about the program.
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