SODERCAN supports 26 R&D projects in the ICT sector with €721,000 in funding

The Regional Development Agency of Cantabria (SODERCAN), part of the Regional Ministry of Industry, Employment, Innovation and Trade, has awarded grants totaling €721,424.59 to 26 R&D projects submitted by 24 companies in the information and communication technologies (ICT) sector in Cantabria under the 2025 call.

These projects are expected to mobilize more than €3.73 million in investment, according to the Regional Minister of Industry and Innovation, Eduardo Arasti, who highlighted the success of this SODERCAN call and expressed his appreciation for the investment efforts made by the participating companies, most of which are SMEs.

The beneficiary companies include Acorde Technologies, Ambar Telecomunicaciones, Artisca, Atwork Spain, Awge Technologies, Blackcat Business Solutions, Clúster Fuego, Complutum T.I.G., Cosmikal, Deduce Data Solutions, Idresa Services, Idrus Soluciones e Innovación, Ingecid, Innomerics, Lis Data Solutions, LKS, N World, Netboss Comunicaciones, Soincon, Telnor, Textil Santanderina, Trowelapp Technologies, TTI Norte and Viavox Interactive.

Digital Agenda of Cantabria

The aim of this funding programme, which forms part of Cantabria’s First Digital Agenda, is to foster innovation within the business environment by supporting individual industrial research and experimental development projects. These projects are ultimately focused on developing new ICT products or new functionalities for existing ICT products, including, where applicable, the necessary prototype.

The Regional Minister underlined the strategic importance of Cantabria’s ICT sector, a growing and expanding industry characterized by small-sized companies and a strong need for continuous development of new products and services as a key factor in maintaining competitiveness.

He also noted that the current context is marked by the expansion of the digital economy, increasing digitalization, and the adoption of digital technologies by businesses, citizens, and public administrations, in which the regional ICT sector plays a key role.

In this context, SODERCAN launches these grants annually as a support mechanism to encourage ICT companies to promote and carry out R&D projects that facilitate this transition.

Increased budget

The 2025 call initially had a budget of €500,000, which has been increased using surplus funds from other programmes in order to cover all projects meeting the eligibility requirements.

These grants are aimed at projects with a minimum eligible budget of €30,000 and a maximum of €150,000 in the telecommunications sector, with the goal of diversifying the current business fabric towards higher value-added products and increasing productivity. They also target projects across the ICT value chain, from sensing and data capture to service exploitation, including communication protocols, network architecture, management software, big data, and data analytics.

This call supports projects in areas such as:

Development of smart sensors and wireless sensor networks
Software tools for management and security
Data mining, monitoring, and connectivity software for applications and devices
Cybersecurity
Mobility
Service-oriented software applications (for citizens, businesses, and public administration)
Big data and data analytics applications

Eligible costs

Personnel costs
Equipment costs (depreciation)
Materials, supplies, and similar costs
Technical assistance and contracted research costs (capped at 30% of the budget)

The aid intensity will be up to 50% of eligible costs for industrial research projects and up to 25% for experimental development projects. This may increase to a maximum of 70% and 45%, respectively, depending on company size: