Access to different levels of public funding can enable small and mid-sized enterprises to finance strategic projects almost entirely on their own. To achieve this, it is essential to select the right project, implement an effective strategy to secure funding, and conduct thorough planning of the application.
This was one of the conclusions from the session “Financing and Funds. Opportunities available to transform your company,” organized by Grant Thornton and the Madrid Chamber of Commerce a few days ago. The gathering aimed to show companies how to access and successfully manage the entire portfolio of public funding available in a context shaped by the end of the European Union’s Next Generation program, whose execution window expires on August 31.
The institutional opening was led by Eva Serrano, vice president of the Madrid Chamber. For his part, Grant Thornton’s Public Sector partner, Jorge Jiménez, argued during his remarks for tackling public funding with a strategy that combines its four levels: European, through programs such as Horizon Europe, Digital Europe, or LIFE; national, via agencies such as CDTI, ICO, ICEX or IDAE; the regional and local.
A Differentiating Value
“The company that makes the difference does not seek a single funding source for its projects, but rather combines them strategically to co-finance a large portion of its spending. The key is not chasing the latest call for proposals, but first having a real business project and, from there, finding the help that fits it,” stated Grant Thornton’s Public Sector partner. According to him, this combination of programs can cover up to 80% of the investment for certain projects.
In this sense, the Grant Thornton partner highlighted that there are still mechanisms little known to SMEs that facilitate access to funds. One of them is cascade funding, which allows access to European funds through consortia and intermediary entities without the need to negotiate directly with Brussels. In his words, “Europe has many tools that seem very distant, but if you forge good partners, accessing them is relatively easy.”
España Crece, Spain’s Next Generation successor
Regarding the end of the Next Generation program this summer, Jorge Jiménez assured that it is simply the end of a project within a broader strategy. “The Next Generation program is a starter. Big, spectacular and special, but a starter. The main course remains for businesses,” he stated. The partner recalled that, at the European level, there is a Multiannual Financing Framework for 2021-2027 and negotiations are already underway for 2028-2034. “Financing is there and will continue for many years.”
At the national level, Jiménez highlighted the new instrument set to sustain transformational investment once European funds are exhausted. The government has launched the Spain Grows sovereign fund, managed by the Official Credit Institute (ICO), endowed with a base of 10.5 billion euros drawn from the Recovery Plan and conceived as a permanent vehicle.
Through co-investment with the private sector via loans, guarantees and equity instruments, the fund aims to mobilize around 120,000 million euros in high-impact productive projects, in areas such as housing, energy, digitalization and infrastructure. A program that reflects the growing weight that co-investment schemes are gaining relative to pure subsidy.
The Project Comes First, Before the Call for Proposals
Beyond the various programs currently in force, the conference emphasized the different phases that companies must undergo to access public aid and the most common mistakes firms make when applying. Grant Thornton recommends starting from a real and priority project and, from there, identifying the appropriate call for proposals. In that project-definition phase, 80% of the success of an application is concentrated, according to the firm’s partner.
Jiménez stressed that a subsidizable project must be well structured: it should have clear objectives, meet deadlines, deliver verifiable outputs, and include a budget broken down by item. For the relevant expenses, he advised always obtaining three offers—a practice that helps avoid issues later in justification.
The technical memorandum is another decisive element. It must meet four requirements—quality, capacity, impact, and implementation—and should favor clarity over density. “The entrepreneur themselves is the primary author of the memorandum, because no one knows or defends their project better, although the support of a specialized advisor helps steer the message toward the most appropriate call,” explained the executive.
Regarding the most frequent mistakes that trigger a rejection of a proposal, Grant Thornton points to deficient planning that forces deadlines, failing to verify basic eligibility requirements, reusing previous memoranda without adapting them, presenting budgets without market benchmarking, or not checking compliance with the caps on prior aid. “One should aim to submit all documents 48 hours in advance, because at times the e-portals suffer last-minute technical glitches due to high website traffic,” concluded Jiménez.
