Science and Universities

Barcelona City Council, through Barcelona Activa, has today opened the call for Crea Feina Barcelona 2024 grants, a line of aid for companies and organisations that expand their workforces by hiring unemployed people under the age of 30 or that, as part of a new line created this year, hire research staff with doctoral degrees. The measure seeks to boost young talent and the competitiveness of companies, with higher amounts in the case of hiring women. Applications can be made from today until 31 October.

Specifically, this programme to promote hiring provides two lines of aid for companies and organisations that expand their workforces, each with one million euros:

• On the one hand, the Crea Feina Youth aims to promote the incorporation into the labour market of unemployed people under 30 years of age who live in the city, to fill jobs with permanent contracts. 
• On the other hand, the new Crea Feina Research line to favour the hiring of scientific and research personnel with doctorate degrees, with the aim of improving the competitiveness of the business fabric in the territory and promoting the transfer of knowledge in the productive sector. 

In the current edition, companies and self-employed workers may receive grants of up to €8,000 for each new contract of young people under 30 years of age (the amount varies by increasing in the case of women, or the situation of the person hired: unemployment, first occupation or long-term unemployment, or risk of exclusion) and up to €15,000 in the case of women with doctoral degrees. With regard to research staff, in order to be eligible for the subsidy, the company must guarantee the application of a salary of no less than 35,000 euros gross per year. 

Crea Feina Barcelona 2024 is expected to promote the hiring of 235 people on an indefinite-term basis. The hiring of people with doctoral degrees will be aimed at participating in Research, Development and/or Innovation Activities (R+D+i) projects, preferably within the framework of the strategic sectors included in the Barcelona Green Deal: visitor economy, trade, health and bio, social and solidarity economy, technology, creative industries, sport, agri-food, blue economy and care economy; especially those with an impact on areas such as ecological transition, digital transition and social impact.

Crea Feina Research

The Crea Feina Research line will also offer the people hired the opportunity to participate, at no financial cost to them or to the companies receiving the aid, in training actions that allow them to adapt to the business environment and its needs. In this way, it aims to promote the development of skills linked to project management, business leadership or financial knowledge, in order to encourage the transfer of research results and the business approach to research activity.

 To encourage the maximum participation of companies from Barcelona and its Metropolitan Area in the recruitment grants, the number of grants for hiring young people in the same company will be limited to three, and the number of grants that a single company can apply for to hire research staff in this 2024 call will be limited to five.

The previous Crea Feina calls, aimed at companies in the territory with the capacity to generate employment, have promoted the hiring of 1,681 unemployed people with quality working conditions since 2020 for a total amount of €9.95 million.