2025 Call for HIGH-IMPACT BUSINESS INVESTMENT GRANTS

From IMPULSO, we are pleased to remind you that the 2025 Call for High-Impact business investment GRANTS from the Agency for Business Competitiveness -Acciò- remains open in its 2025 edition.

These calls have a total budget allocation of €8.5 million.

Below, we summarize the main characteristics of these grants:

BENEFICIARIES

Companies that meet the following requirements:

• Companies with an operational establishment in Catalonia or in the process of establishing one, except for companies with projects in retail trade, call centers or contact centers, the real estate sector, livestock slaughter, meat preservation, production of meat products, and primary production of agricultural products.
• In the case of Action 2.4 projects, only SMEs according to the definition in Annex 1 of Commission Regulation (EU) 651/2014 of June 17, 2014, may be beneficiaries.
• Comply with the Late Payment Law. (Law 3/2004, of December 29). For grants exceeding €30,000, companies must prove compliance with legal payment deadlines to suppliers.
• Comply with labor, equality, and risk prevention regulations.

PROJECT TYPES

• Line 1: Job creation.
  • Action 1.1: Job creation projects in service centers within the field of information and communication technologies, understood, within the framework of this grant program, as software development centers, data analysis centers (Data analytics), or video game development centers. Projects must be carried out in municipalities that are not part of the counties of El Barcelonès, El Baix Llobregat, El Vallès Oriental, and El Vallès Occidental. The minimum job creation shall be 25.
  • Action 1.2: Job creation projects in decision-making centers with a supra-regional scope, understood, in this case, as centers that must necessarily be linked to a business decision-making center established in Catalonia that has decision-making capacity over the functions and strategy of a business group at a supra-regional level. The minimum job creation shall be 10.
  • Action 1.3: Job creation projects in industrial projects, understood as projects with activities for the production of goods through the assembly or transformation of raw materials or service activities for the industry. The minimum job creation must be 10.
  • Action 1.4: Strategic projects for the Catalan economy intensive in job creation. The minimum job creation shall be 50.
  • Action 1.5: Job creation projects in R&D&I centers, understood as centers or units or differentiated areas of a company, mainly dedicated to research, development, and/or innovation activities. The minimum job creation shall be 5.
  • Action 2.1: Investment projects in fixed assets that incorporate a new activity for the company in Catalonia or an expansion of production capacity. The minimum accepted expenditure on fixed, tangible, and intangible assets shall be 2,000,000 euros.
  • Action 2.2: Investment projects in fixed assets in R&D centers, understood as centers or units or differentiated areas of a company, mainly dedicated to research, development, and/or innovation activities. The minimum accepted expenditure on fixed, tangible, and intangible assets shall be 200,000 euros.
  • Action 2.3: Strategic projects for the Catalan economy involving the establishment of new companies in Catalonia or the opening of new sites for companies already present. The minimum accepted expenditure on productive fixed assets must be 5,000,000 euros and the net creation of at least 10 jobs is required. Logistics center projects or distribution center projects will not be eligible.
  • Action 2.4: Strategic projects for the Catalan economy carried out by small and medium-sized enterprises involving the establishment of new companies in Catalonia, the opening of new sites for companies already present, or an expansion and/or diversification of the activity of existing sites. The minimum accepted expenditure on productive fixed assets must be 3,000,000 euros and the net creation of at least 5 direct jobs is required

PROJECT DEADLINES AND REQUIREMENTS

• Competitive Tendering.
• Execution period: projects from January 1, 2025, up to a maximum of 3 years from the start. In the case of actions 1.4, 2.3, and 2.4, projects must start from the date of the grant application and must be completed within a maximum period of three years from that date. In the case of job creation projects, the project start date is the date of the first hiring.
• Maintain investment and created employment for at least 3 years (5 years for action 2.3).

ELIGIBLE COSTS

• For actions 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.5, the labor cost of the first 6 months of the new staff hired is considered eligible. The labor cost includes the gross salary and mandatory Social Security contributions paid by the company.
• For action 1.4, the following are considered eligible:
  • The labor cost includes the gross salary and mandatory Social Security contributions paid by the company.
  • The labor cost of the first 6 months of the new staff hired who cannot be considered disadvantaged workers.
  • The labor cost of the first 12 months in the case of hiring workers considered disadvantaged.
• For actions 1, 2.2, 2.3, and 2.4, the following expenses are considered eligible:
  • In the case of actions 2.3 and 2.4, expenses in real estate assets, civil works, facilities associated with civil works, and land acquisition are also eligible.
  • Intangible assets: Investment in technology transfer through the acquisition of patent rights, licenses, know-how, or non-patented technical knowledge and the acquisition of software linked to the production process.
  • Tangible assets: machinery, equipment, and laboratory instruments and newly acquired facilities directly linked to the production process and investments that incorporate processes with high technological content into existing equipment.
• In all cases, the cost of the justification report for the subsidized action, carried out by an auditor, is considered eligible.
• When the amount of the eligible expenditure exceeds the amounts established for minor contracts in Law 9/2017, of November 8, on Public Sector Contracts, the beneficiary must request at least three offers from different suppliers. These shall be provided in the justification.

GRANT TYPE AND INTENSITY

Depending on the type of project, the grant intensity and the maximum grant amount are those established below:

GUARANTEES AND ADVANCE PAYMENTS

• Advance payment of 60% of the granted amount, upon its granting, without the need to provide guarantees.
• The payment of the remaining 40% is made after justification and verification (actions 2.3 and 2.4 require a technical report from ACCIÓ).

SUBMISSION DEADLINE

Period open from September 9, 2025 (09:00 AM) to October 9, 2025, at 2:00 PM.

25/09/2025