Last updated: June 17, 2026. By Anna Casòliva, Head of Funding at Intelectium.
In 2026, the allocation amounts to 30,250,000 euros co-financed by ERDF funds, with aid intensities of up to 80% of the eligible budget for small businesses. The call is open from June 17 to July 16, 2026.
If your company has an ongoing R&D project with international partners or is exploring participation in programs such as Eureka, PRIMA, or large scientific cooperation projects, this article explains exactly what INNOGLOBAL funds, who can apply, and how the process works in practice.
In this article, you will find:
- What INNOGLOBAL is and its framework
- Budget and distribution by autonomous community
- Who can be a beneficiary
- Funding characteristics and percentages
- Project requirements: what it covers and what it doesn't
- Eligible expenses
- Evaluation criteria
- Included international programs
- Application deadline and process
- What to prepare before submitting
- Frequently asked questions about INNOGLOBAL 2026
What INNOGLOBAL is and its framework
INNOGLOBAL is a non-repayable grant from the Centre for the Development of Technology and Innovation (CDTI) aimed at funding the activities of Spanish companies participating in R&D projects within international technological cooperation consortia or Big Science initiatives.
It is part of the State Plan for Scientific, Technical and Innovation Research (PEICTI) 2024-2027, specifically in two of its pillars: the Transfer and Collaboration Program, which supports R&D&I projects between private entities and with universities or Public Research Organizations (PROs), and the cross-cutting Internationalization program, aimed at strengthening Spain's presence in the European Research Area and facilitating collaboration with foreign partners.
Unlike other CDTI funding lines, such as R&D Projects (partially repayable), INNOGLOBAL is a pure grant: the granted funds do not have to be repaid if the project is executed and justified correctly.
Budget and distribution by autonomous community
The total allocation for the INNOGLOBAL 2026 call is 30,250,000 euros, funded from CDTI's own assets and with ERDF 2021-2027 funds from the Pluriregional Program of Spain.
One of the most relevant aspects of this call is that ERDF co-financing is distributed by autonomous community and has maximum limits per region. The availability of ERDF funds in the autonomous community where the project is located is a requirement to obtain funding.
The eligible regions and their maximum co-financing amounts are:
Important note: the communities not appearing on this list, including Madrid, Catalonia, the Basque Country, or Navarre, are not eligible for INNOGLOBAL 2026, as they are not covered by ERDF funds for this call. If the project is to be developed in one of these communities, INNOGLOBAL is not the appropriate program.
Who is eligible
Companies that simultaneously meet the following requirements are eligible for INNOGLOBAL 2026 grants:
- Be a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) according to the EU definition, or be a large company with one of these characteristics: the project development management is located in the Canary Islands, or it has fewer than 499 employees (a small mid-cap company that is not an SME). In any case, the company must be validly constituted, have its own legal personality and tax domicile in Spain, and carry out the activity subject to the aid in Spanish territory.
- The project must be carried out in one of the eligible autonomous communities or cities: Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Castilla y León, Comunitat Valenciana, Galicia, Region of Murcia, Ceuta, or Melilla.
- A critical requirement of the process: for PCTI projects, the applicant must have previously submitted an application to CDTI for participation in the corresponding international program before submitting the national application.
Grant characteristics and percentages
INNOGLOBAL provides non-repayable grants, with maximum intensities depending on the company size:
These intensities may be increased depending on the project's development region:
- In the less developed regions (Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, Ceuta, and Melilla), ERDF co-financing can reach up to 85% of the eligible expenditure.
- In the transition regions (Balearic Islands, Castilla y León, Comunitat Valenciana, Galicia, and Region of Murcia), the co-financing percentage is up to 60%; in the Canary Islands, it can reach up to 85%.
The minimum guaranteed grant is 30% of the eligible budget, regardless of the type of company and autonomous community.
The final amount may not exceed the thresholds established in Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 651/2014 (General Block Exemption Regulation). INNOGLOBAL operates under the GBER framework, not under the de minimis regime, which means it does not count towards the €300,000 limit over three fiscal years that applies to other smaller grants.
Project requirements: scope and exclusions
Projects must be multi-year, starting on January 1, 2027, and ending on December 31, 2028, or June 30, 2029. This 2026 call for applications requests funding for the 2027 fiscal year. The minimum eligible project budget is 175,000 euros, with a balanced distribution of expenditure throughout its duration.
Projects must fall into one of these two categories:
- International Technological Cooperation Programs (PCTI). This includes multilateral programs (Eureka, Iberoeka, PRIMA, and similar), bilateral programs with countries such as Brazil, Japan, China, India, South Korea, Egypt, Morocco, or Qatar, among others, and unilateral projects developed by international consortia with partners from countries included in the call's list.
- International Cooperation Programs for Big Science. Projects aimed at meeting the needs of large scientific and technical infrastructures in which Spain participates, such as CERN, ITER, ESO, ESS, SKAO, ELI, ESRF, European XFEL, FAIR, CTAO, or the Einstein Telescope, among others.
A critical requirement of the process: for PCTI projects, the applicant must have previously submitted an application to CDTI for participation in the corresponding international program before submitting the national application. Furthermore, prior to INNOGLOBAL's provisional resolution, the project must have obtained international certification from the relevant body, or an international dimension report issued by CDTI itself. The date of this certification cannot be earlier than January 1, 2025.
This implies that INNOGLOBAL has a two-phase process: first, the international seal must be obtained, and only then can the national funding application be submitted. INNOGLOBAL cannot be applied for a project that has not yet been internationally evaluated.
Eligible Costs
The following direct costs are eligible under the INNOGLOBAL 2026 call:
- Costs of in-house technical staff allocated to the project. Personnel expenses must correspond to individuals registered at a workplace within the autonomous community of development defined in the grant resolution.
- Costs of instrumentation and inventory material acquired for the project.
- Contract research costs, technical knowledge, and patents acquired or licensed from external sources under arm's length conditions.
- Overhead and other additional operating expenses directly arising from the project.
- Audit costs, up to a maximum of 1,500 euros per beneficiary per year.
- Travel expenses related to coordination meetings between consortium members, up to a limit of 10,000 euros per beneficiary.
- Indirect project costs, calculated as a fixed cost of 15% of personnel costs.
Evaluation Criteria
Applications are evaluated on a competitive basis. The criteria and their weighting are as follows:
Criteria with a minimum threshold are eliminatory: failing to reach 15 points in technology or 12 points in international projection automatically excludes the application from the competition, regardless of the total score.
Two aspects to consider from a preparation perspective. The most heavily weighted criterion (technology and innovation) requires rigorous documentation of the state of the art, the project's technological differential, and objectives in the form of verifiable hypotheses; a generic report will not score well. The international projection criterion values both the consortium's composition and the ambition of the results at a supranational level: a consortium with partners from countries with which Spain has limited prior cooperation, or with projects aimed at global markets, has an advantage in this section.
International Programs Included
The INNOGLOBAL 2026 call covers a wide range of cooperation frameworks. The most relevant for Spanish companies are:
- Eureka Initiative and its variants (Network and Cluster projects): covers 47 countries, including all EU members, as well as the United Kingdom, Israel, Turkey, Norway, Switzerland, South Korea, Canada, Singapore, South Africa, and Brazil, among others.
- Iberoeka: projects with partners in Latin America, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay, among others.
- PRIMA (Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area): Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Israel, and other Mediterranean countries.
- Bilateral programs: with countries such as Japan, China, India, South Korea, Brazil, Qatar, Malaysia, Thailand, or Taiwan.
- Unilateral projects: international consortia with partners from a broad list including the USA, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, or Ghana, among others.
- Big Science: focused on large infrastructures such as CERN, ITER, ESS, ESO, ESRF, European XFEL, SKAO, or the Einstein Telescope.
Application deadline and process
The application period for the INNOGLOBAL 2026 call is from June 17 to July 16, 2026, at 12:00 PM (noon), Peninsular time. The call is currently closed.
Applications are submitted electronically through the CDTI's e-headquarters: sede.cdti.gob.es.
What to prepare before submitting
Unlike other grants, INNOGLOBAL requires preparatory work that is not dependent on CDTI. Companies that allow more preparation time consistently achieve better evaluation results.
The first step is to identify the appropriate international program and submit the application for participation to CDTI well in advance. This step is a formal prerequisite for any national application.
The second is to build a strong international consortium. The score for international projection largely depends on who the partners are, what they contribute technologically, and in which countries they operate. A weak consortium, with partners lacking demonstrable R&D activity, is severely penalized in the evaluation.
The third is to prepare the technical report with the same rigor required for any competitive CDTI call: detailed description of the technology, state-of-the-art analysis, verifiable hypotheses, phased work plan, and risk analysis. The report is the document that has the most impact on the final score.
Fourth, and most critical from a financial perspective, is to verify that the company has correct financial closings, separate accounting per project, and personnel expenses correctly allocated to the eligible autonomous community's work center. An error in territorial allocation can invalidate part of the expenses during subsequent justification.
At Intelectium, we work with startups and SMEs throughout the INNOGLOBAL process: from identifying the appropriate international program to preparing the technical report and subsequent justification. We work on a success-fee basis. If you want to assess whether your project fits this call, write to us at dealflow@intelectium.com.
Frequently Asked Questions about INNOGLOBAL 2026
Is INNOGLOBAL compatible with other CDTI grants?
The INNOGLOBAL grant is incompatible with any other public aid that has identical objectives and purpose during the project execution period. However, it is compatible with other CDTI programs or other organizations that finance different or complementary activities, provided there is no double funding of the same expenses. The same cost cannot be allocated to two different programs.
Does INNOGLOBAL count towards the de minimis limit?
No. INNOGLOBAL falls under the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER, EU Regulation 651/2014), not the de minimis regime. This means that the granted subsidy does not count towards the €300,000 limit over three fiscal years that applies to other minor aid, and can be combined with them without using up that quota.
Can a company based in Madrid or Catalonia apply for it?
Not for the 2026 call. ERDF coverage is restricted to autonomous communities included in the program: Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Castilla y León, Valencian Community, Galicia, Region of Murcia, Ceuta, and Melilla. Communities such as Madrid, Catalonia, Basque Country, or Navarre are not eligible for this call.
What happens if the project does not obtain international certification before INNOGLOBAL's provisional resolution?
The project cannot receive a favorable resolution. International certification is a formal requirement prior to the provisional resolution, not prior to the submission of the application. This means that companies that have not yet obtained that certification at the time of application can still apply, but if they do not obtain it before CDTI issues the provisional resolution, the application cannot proceed.
What is the minimum budget required for the project?
€175,000 of eligible budget. There is no established maximum amount for individual grants, although in no case can the maximum ERDF co-financing amount assigned to the autonomous community where the project is developed be exceeded.
Is your company participating in an international R&D consortium and want to know if it fits with INNOGLOBAL? At Intelectium, we have been managing grants from CDTI and other public funding entities for over 21 years public funding for Spanish startups and SMEs. Write to us at dealflow@intelectium.com and we will provide you with an initial, no-obligation assessment.
