Andalusia will allocate €2.2 million to promote the activity of business accelerators and the creation of startups

The Department of University, Research and Innovation will allocate a total of €2.2 million in 2025 in grants aimed at strengthening the incubation and acceleration of innovative tech SMEs, supporting newly created business initiatives, and promoting open innovation collaboration between startups and the broader business sector. The regional government has already drafted the regulatory bases for the call and has initiated the public consultation process to allow citizens and relevant stakeholders to provide input on the document.

Interested parties will be able to consult the draft regulation starting June 25, for a period of seven days, at the following address: https://www.juntadeandalucia.es/servicios/participacion/todos-documentos/detalle/593662.html. The Department will evaluate the feedback received and incorporate the most relevant suggestions before formally approving the regulation that will govern the upcoming call for incentives.

This type of grant has been launched by the Department in response to the urgent need to implement measures that support entrepreneurship and improve access to finance, considering that the latter remains one of the main barriers to fostering an entrepreneurial culture in the region. According to the latest report from Garantía on SME and self-employed financing in Andalusia for the year 2024, 64.3% of businesses faced difficulties in accessing funding. This makes such public support crucial, particularly as access to bank loans has tightened.

According to the draft regulation, three lines of funding will be activated:

The first, with a budget of €1.04 million, will support specialized startup incubation and/or acceleration centers, enabling them to increase the number of startups they support and help these companies grow in the market with customers and revenues.
The second, with a budget of €860,000, will support newly created business initiatives by funding training, skills development, and second-chance reskilling of entrepreneurs participating in incubation and acceleration programs at specialized centers.
These first two programs will operate under a non-competitive selection process.
The third block of funding, amounting to €300,000, aims to co-finance open innovation challenges for startups proposed by companies seeking innovative solutions. The objective is to fund collaborative projects that address specific business challenges, thus encouraging entrepreneurship.
This program will be run under a competitive selection process.

These grants will be funded through the Andalucía ERDF 2021–2027 program and are part of the broader financial effort made by the Regional Government of Andalusia to support entrepreneurship. In total, nearly €5 million has been earmarked for this purpose in 2025. In addition to the €2.2 million, another €2.5 million will be allocated to support innovation-driven entrepreneurship in SMEs, managed through TRADE, a body under the Ministry of Economy, Finance and European Funds.

Furthermore, through the "InnovAndalucía" initiative, the Ministry of University will make available €11.4 million in grants for business innovation projects.

Beyond financial support, the Department has also completed the deployment of provincial entrepreneurship commissions and university CADE centers, and has developed the first Catalogue of Entrepreneurial Initiative Accelerators in Andalusia, created with the support of Andalucía Emprende. This catalogue aims to identify all the actors involved in the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem, aligning with the government's strategic priorities.

Additionally, the department led by José Carlos Gómez Villamandos is finalizing the decree that will regulate the Andalusian Entrepreneurship System, designed to create a structured environment in which science and technology parks, entrepreneurial communities, investors, large corporations, government bodies, universities, and key economic and social stakeholders can collaborate in a coordinated way to strengthen support services for entrepreneurial activity.
The regulation is expected to be approved in the coming months.

Alongside the Andalusian Entrepreneurship System, the Ministry is also working on the Andalusian Entrepreneurship Portal, a digital platform acting as a one-stop shop to provide entrepreneurs with the information and support tools they need to launch business initiatives. This will be complemented by the Map of Services and Procedures for Entrepreneurship, currently under development, which aims to provide structured information on the tools and administrative procedures required to start a business.