One-liner: CDTI's national grant program funding groupings of 4–7 Spanish Technology Centers (Centros Tecnológicos) to run multi-year strategic R&D+I programs in "Cervera priority technologies" — successful groups get accredited as "Centro de Excelencia Cervera." Not a direct founder-facing grant, but material for founders because it funds the technology-center partners (AIMPLAS, ITE, AINIA, ITI, REDIT institutes, etc.) that startups rely on for lab access, testing, and applied-R&D collaboration.
RESOLVED 2026-07-05: confirmed directly on cdti.es — this is a single active 2026 call, not two competing programs. The "€20M" figure (from gvanext.gva.es) is the call's base budget; the "€70M" figure (from ite.es) is the expandable ceiling (base €20M + a possible top-up of up to €50M under RD 887/2006 art. 58.2.a). Both figures are real and refer to the same call. Deadline confirmed: 10 July 2026, 12:00 noon peninsular time — 5 days from today (2026-07-05). No separate "Redes de Excelencia" sub-line exists in the current call; historic Cervera editions used that label but the 2026 ficha only names one program with two technology annexes (see below).
What you get
- Grants of up to 100% of the strategic program's budget (subvención, not a loan) for a multi-year (3–4 year) collaborative R&D+I program, execution starting 2027.
- Per-project eligible budget: €2,000,000–€5,000,000.
- Funds personnel, equipment, intangible assets, materials/supplies, IP filing costs, subcontracting (capped 25% per beneficiary, not between consortium members), shared-facility management, publication/dissemination (up to €5k/beneficiary/year), training (up to €20k/beneficiary/year), conference attendance (up to €10k/beneficiary/year), access to ICTS/major scientific infrastructure, audit costs, and coordination travel.
- Successful beneficiaries are accredited as "Centro de Excelencia Cervera" — a prestige/visibility label plus continued eligibility for future Cervera-linked support.
- Does not generate "informes motivados" (R&D tax-deduction certificates) — unlike some other CDTI lines.
Who it's for
- Not for individual startups. Beneficiaries must be groupings of 4–7 Centros Tecnológicos and/or Centros de Apoyo a la Innovación Tecnológica registered in Spain's official Registro de Centros Tecnológicos. The coordinating entity must itself be a Centro Tecnológico.
- Each center may join up to 3 applications total, only 1 of which may be under Anexo II, and may coordinate at most 2 groupings.
- Relevant to Valencia founders indirectly: the region's technology institutes (AIMPLAS, ITE, ITI, AINIA, and other REDIT-network centers) are the kind of entity that applies — a founder working with one of these institutes may see expanded lab/testbed capacity land as a result of this call.
- Two technology tracks for 2026:
- Anexo I (linked to Plan Industrial y Tecnológico para la Seguridad y Defensa): advanced digital twins for defense, quantum sensors for defense, hypersonic-flight enabling tech, kinetic electromagnetic systems, advanced metamaterials/nanomaterials for defense/security. Minimum €5M of the base budget ring-fenced here.
- Anexo II (non-defense): circular economy, intelligent transport.
How to apply
- Coordinating Centro Tecnológico applies via CDTI's electronic HQ: https://sede.cdti.gob.es/AreaPublica/home.aspx
- Window: 11 June 2026 – 10 July 2026, 12:00 noon (peninsular time).
- Consultas: Cervera_CCTT@cdti.es
- Legal basis: Orden de bases CNU/161/2024 (as modified by Orden CNU/331/2026, 8 Apr 2026) — Resolución de 3 junio 2026 approves the 2026 call, published in BOE (boe-b-2026-18852) and BDNS (convocatoria 910610).
Key facts
- Budget: €20,000,000 base (partida 28.08.467C.74911, PGE 2023 prorrogados 2026), expandable to €70,000,000 total if additional credit becomes available before award (RD 887/2006 art. 58.2.a).
- Minimum €5M of the base ring-fenced for Anexo I (defense-linked) proposals; unused Anexo I remainder can roll to Anexo II proposals.
- Approved by Consejo de Ministros / CDTI Presidencia resolution dated 3 June 2026.
- Evaluation criteria: alignment with Cervera priority technologies (10%), strategic R&D objectives/viability (30%), training/HR (20%), internationalization (20%), exploitation/dissemination of results (20%).
- Indirect costs: flat 21% of validated direct costs.
- Incompatible during execution with any other public aid (EU/national/regional) with identical objectives.
- Prior editions exist for 2025, 2023, 2020, 2019 — this is a recurring annual/biennial CDTI line, not a one-off.
Relations
- Run by: CDTI
- See also: NEOTEC 2026
- See also: CDTI Sello de Excelencia EIC 2026