Science and Innovation

The application must be formalised through the electronic headquarters of the City Council. Open in a new window

The deadline is 40 days from the day after the publication of the call for applications in the BOPB (Official Gazette of the Province of Barcelona). That is, from April 8 to May 19, 2025, both included.

Projects must focus on research related to challenges in one of the following thematic areas:

• Life Sciences and Health
• Advanced therapies
• Digital health
• Community health
• Technological Innovation and the City
• Chips and semiconductors
• Artificial intelligence
• Quantum technologies
• Sustainability and Climate Change
• Climate emergency
• Responsible consumption and food
• Green and blue economy

The City of Barcelona will subsidize up to 80% of the project cost, with a maximum of €150,000. The remaining 20% must be obtained from other funding sources, which cannot be from the City of Barcelona.

Subsidizable and non-subsidizable items are detailed in section 10 of the call.

In this call, only projects led by a grouping of legal entities will be accepted.

The groupings must be formed by a minimum of three legally established and active legal entities, working in cooperation to foster synergies and optimise the design, implementation, and knowledge transfer.

The legal entities that are members of the groupings must fall within one of the following categories:

• Public universities, their affiliated university institutes, and private universities with proven capacity and activity in R&D&I (Research, Development and Innovation), in accordance with the provisions of Organic Law 2/2023, of 22 March, on the university system, and which are registered in the Register of Universities, Centres and Degrees, established by Royal Decree 1509/2008, of 12 September, which regulates said Register.
• Public research organisations as defined in Article 47 of Law 14/2011, of 1 June, on Science, Technology and Innovation.
• Public and private non-profit healthcare centres and institutions, linked to or associated with the National Health System, which carry out R&D&I activities.
• Biomedical or health research institutes accredited by ministerial order.
• National-level technology centres and national-level centres for technological innovation support, registered in the register of centres established by Royal Decree 2093/2008, of 19 December, which regulates national-level technology centres and centres supporting technological innovation and establishes the corresponding Register.
• Other public R&D&I centres, with their own legal personality, whose main corporate purpose is R&D&I.
• Private non-profit R&D&I centres, with their own legal personality, whose main corporate purpose is R&D&I.
• Foundations, entities and organisations related to the subject matter of the project, according to their corporate purpose.
• Enterprises with fewer than fifty employees and for which innovation is a primary objective.

Among the groupings of legal entities, there must be at least two institutions for which research is one of their main activities.

At least one of the legal entities in the grouping must have its registered office or a branch located within the municipality of Barcelona or its metropolitan area.

The research projects must meet the following requirements:

• Have a maximum duration of 24 months
• The scope of implementation of the subsidised projects must be the city of Barcelona

The start date must be communicated to the Barcelona City Council by submitting it as additional documentation through the procedure established in the Virtual Procedures Office of the Barcelona City Council, quoting the reference number of the grant application process.

In any case, the project must begin before 31 December 2025 and must be completed before 31 December 2027.

In this call, it will not be possible to submit projects, continuations of projects, or ongoing lines of research that have already received funding under the following calls: 

• 2023 Call for Grants for Research and Innovation Projects by the Barcelona City Council, in collaboration with the ”la Caixa” Foundation.
• 2024 Call for Grants for Young and Emerging Research Projects by the Barcelona City Council.

Likewise, individuals who have acted as Principal Investigator (PI) in any of the projects funded under the aforementioned calls may not be listed as PI in this call.

The application to participate in the 2025 call for proposals consists of an application form that must be completed via the Virtual Procedures Office of the Barcelona City Council, using the procedure enabled for this purpose.

In this form, in addition to filling in all the mandatory fields, the following documentation must be attached:

Basic Document 1: Agreement between the legal entities forming the grouping and declaration of responsibility (Annex 1). This document specifies the terms of the agreement between the grouped legal entities promoting the project within the framework of the grants for research and innovation projects.

Basic Document 2: Scientific and technical report of the project (Annex 2). With a maximum length of 15 pages (each side of a sheet will be considered one page); using Times New Roman font, size 11 points, and single line spacing. It must include only the following sections:

• Title of the project.
• Name of the member entities of the grouping and their research-profile representatives.
• Project abstract, with a maximum of 300 words, written in Catalan or Spanish.
• Numerical evaluation code.
• Project objectives (general and specific) and the research questions.
• Proposed methodology.
• Members of the research group.
• Expected research results and the tasks to be carried out.
• Work plan and project timeline.
• Justification of the applicants' collaboration.
• Integration of the project into the social reality of the city and the social impact of the research.
• Actions related to open science, citizen science, and outreach.
• Knowledge transfer to the public or economic sector of the city and/or technological application of the project.

In drafting this report, environmental and social implications, gender perspective, and the use of inclusive language must be taken into account.

Basic Document 3: Economic viability plan of the project (Annex 3). The plan must indicate the general project budget and the partial budget that each entity assumes, and must include all expected expenses and income. The adequacy of the requested resources to the scale of the project must also be included.

Basic Document 4: Curriculum vitae of the principal investigator (PI) of the project (Annex 4), with a maximum length of four pages.

With the application, the following documentation must be provided:

• Documentation proving the legal status of the entities in the grouping, as well as their registration in the corresponding register.
• Tax Identification Number (NIF) of the legal entities in the grouping.
• National identity document of the legal representatives of the legal entities.

In general, the documentation must be provided in Catalan or Spanish. English is also accepted for the drafting of the scientific-technical report (Basic Document 2), the economic viability plan (Basic Document 3), and the curriculum vitae (Basic Document 4) (except for the abstract described in Basic Document 2, which must be in Catalan or Spanish). In any case, when one language is chosen, the three mentioned documents (Basic Documents 2, 3, and 4) must all be written in the same language.

Failure to submit any of the Basic Documents 1, 2, 3, and 4 within the application submission period will result in inadmissibility.

The various basic documents will be made available to applicants once the call is opened, on the Barcelona City Council's electronic headquarters, and must be attached to the application form: https://seuelectronica.ajuntament.barcelona.cat/oficinavirtual/ca.

They are not required to submit this documentation if it is already held by the City Council, provided that this is stated in the declaration form established for this purpose, in accordance with Article 28.3 of Law 39/2015. In the event that the instructing body is unable to obtain this documentation, it may request it later from the applying entity.

During the project evaluation process, the Barcelona City Council may request any additional information it deems necessary regarding the project.

The instructing body for the procedure of granting the 2025 research and innovation project grants is the Economic Promotion Department, which will evaluate the projects through external experts, both national and international, in the fields established in this call, in accordance with the evaluation criteria. These will be distributed as follows: 40% for scientific-technical quality, 30% for implementation capacity, and 30% for economic and social impact.

To be eligible for funding, projects must obtain a minimum of 7 points out of 10 in total.

These evaluations are submitted to the Evaluation Committee, which issues the proposed grant awards. The composition of the Evaluation Committee can be found in point 14 of the call.

Once the Evaluation Committee has scored the admitted applications, the instructing body will prepare the provisional resolution proposal for the grants based on that score, which will be published in the Official Bulletin of the Province of Barcelona (BOPV) and on the Barcelona City Council's website.
 

If awarded the grant, the following documentation must be submitted within ten working days from the notification of the provisional resolution:

• Transparency declaration: Each of the legal entities forming the applicant group must submit a declaration of responsibility for transparency, according to the model provided on the call’s application platform, in compliance with Article 15.2 of Law 19/2014, of 29 December, on transparency, access to public information, and good governance, for grants exceeding 10,000 euros.
• Declaration of compliance with payment delay regulations, if applicable, in accordance with Article 13.3.bis of Law 38/2003 on general grants, for natural and legal persons, other than public law entities, for-profit entities subject to Law 3/2004, of 29 December, which establishes measures to combat payment delays in commercial transactions.

Additionally, the bank account designation procedure must be completed via the procedures portal on the Barcelona City Council website. The link to designate the account is as follows: https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/compte-bancari-creditors.

The various basic documents will be made available to applicants once the call is opened, on the Barcelona City Council's electronic headquarters, and must be attached to the application form: https://seuelectronica.ajuntament.barcelona.cat/oficinavirtual/ca.

In order for knowledge transfer to materialise, projects can access entrepreneurship services and support for start-ups and emerging companies from Barcelona Activa.

The project results must be disseminated through a divulgation article or another format designed to be published and made openly accessible via the municipal website. This document must be submitted within three months after the conclusion of the project and must be provided in addition to the final scientific-technical report.

Subsidised projects must be disseminated through the usual channels of the scientific field. The Barcelona City Council may also propose that beneficiaries participate in conferences, meetings, or citizen outreach and knowledge transfer activities to society, either organised jointly or initiated by the City Council at events such as the City and Science Biennial. Attendance at these events is mandatory for at least one member of the project and is part of the social return from obtaining the municipal grant.

It must be stated in any promotional and publicity material carried out within the framework of the project development, as well as in any dissemination activity where the project is mentioned, the following phrase: "The project has been funded by the Barcelona City Council and the ”la Caixa” Foundation." In the graphic material derived from the project, the corporate image guidelines of the Barcelona City Council and the ”la Caixa” Foundation must be followed.

Approved subsidies will be published in the BOPB and on the Barcelona City Council website Open in a new window, Virtual Office Open in a new window and Subsidies Open in a new window.

In order to check your application, you will need the registration number and the procedure reference number.