The public entity Red.es has launched an initiative to promote the development of artificial intelligence (AI) models for startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as announced by the entity’s president, María González Veracruz, Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, at a digital economy event organized by the Spanish Chamber of Commerce.
This invitation aims to select entities or groups with which to sign collaboration agreements so that, by providing AI platforms, they develop use cases based on this technology that address real problems in their business processes.
As González Veracruz has noted, this Government of Spain initiative is “specifically designed so that our SMEs and startups can adopt this technology and apply it to real problems in their businesses. We want to do it, once again, hand in hand with the sector because this is the goal of everything we are doing: that artificial intelligence, as a national infrastructure, is not a technology accessible to a few, but a tool for competitiveness and growth for our entire productive fabric.”
Selected projects must develop solutions that enable startups and SMEs to experiment with and apply artificial intelligence in their production and business processes. To that end, each agreement must generate at least 30 use cases aimed at addressing productive and business needs across different economic sectors. At least 15 of the 30 use cases developed will be generalized, so that, with the necessary adaptations, they can be used by a broad number of SMEs and startups.
Budget of up to €40 million
The activities will be financed from Red.es’s own funds and contributions from the collaborating entities with whom agreements are signed. Red.es may finance up to 80% of each project, with a maximum contribution of €12 million per agreement, while the collaborating entities, the signatories of the agreements, will contribute at least 20%.
In the invitation, business and professional associations, as well as technology centers and innovation support centers, may participate, which carry out activities related to artificial intelligence and the improvement of SME competitiveness. Entities may apply individually or in groups of up to five members.
Applications may be submitted for two months starting the day after the invitation is published on Red.es’s electronic headquarters.
For selecting the collaborating entities, aspects such as the technical and human capacity of the applicant entities, the availability and capabilities of the proposed AI platform, experience in developing use cases, the planned methodology for its development and reuse, the mechanisms to encourage participation of startups, SMEs and technology partners, as well as the actions planned to disseminate the results will be taken into account.
The agreements formalized will have a duration of two years.
