Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities to allocate €19 million to 90 Spanish R&D&I projects under the international collaboration framework

The Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICIU), through the State Research Agency (AEI), has published the draft resolution for the 2026 call for applications for grants for 'PCI International Collaboration Projects', with a budget of €19 millions, to be allocated to a total of 90 projects.

These grants are intended for research projects selected through competitive European or international calls for proposals, which form part of bilateral or multilateral research and innovation programme agreements requiring national funding. These grants will therefore be used to fund the Spanish part of these projects.

Under the 2026 call for proposals, funding will be provided for scientific and technical research and innovation projects carried out by regional and national research centres and organisations, public and private foundations, and universities based in 15 autonomous communities: Andalusia, Aragon, the Balearic Islands, the Valencian Community, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castile and León, Castile-La Mancha, Catalonia, Galicia, Madrid, Murcia, Navarre, the Basque Country and Asturias.

As regards the geographical distribution of the grants, organisations in Catalonia, Madrid and Andalusia account for 63.3% of the preliminary grant allocations, receiving €6 million, €3.6 million, and €2.6 million, respectively.

The 'International Collaboration Projects' grants form part of the State Programme for Transfer and Collaboration, within the State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation (2024-2027).

Programmes selected through international calls for proposals

The call for proposals funds projects selected from a wide range of international programmes, including:

• The ERA-Net COFUNDs and the Partnerships under the EU's Framework Programme for Research and Innovation: Horizon 2020 (2014-2020) and Horizon Europe (2021-2027). These programmes are based on grant agreements signed between the European Commission and the participating countries, and on consortium agreements signed by the participating partners.
• European Interest Groups (EIGs), based on a cooperation agreement between funding agencies from European countries and third countries, to which the agency is a signatory.
• The scientific and technical research and instrumentation development programmes of ESA and CERN, of which Spain is a member state.
• The 'Widening participation and spreading excellence' programme under Horizon Europe.

Non official translation