The Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures, under the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, has open the second call for aid of the UNICO 5G Sector program. The aid offered in this second call will be aimed at the development of projects related to 5G technology that are intended to promote driving sectors of the Spanish economy.
Among these sectors are tourism, agriculture, security and the connected vehicle. The call, to which a budget of 60 million euros will be allocated, is designed for experimental projects that are not in their initial phases, but for those that already have a medium level of maturity to create prototypes and for their testing and validation .
Companies and organizations that want to apply for aid may submit their application for it from next February 13. The deadline for the submission of petitions will end on March 3. During the evaluation phase of the projects presented, not only innovation in 5G and its application will be taken into account. Also that they create jobs in Spain and reduce the gender gap in the telecommunications sector. In addition, it will be taken into account to what extent they favor the ecological transition.
Although it is intended for projects that apply 5G to the most prominent sectors of the Spanish economy, there are two that will have a certain priority over the rest due to their weight in the economy. Therefore, priority will be given to projects related to the automotive sector. That is, those that are in line with the PERTE of the electric and connected vehicle.
In addition, those related to the agri-food PERTE will also be prioritized, due to its importance in the economy, but also to its international projection. Regarding the type of networks on which the 5G applications and services that the projects want to develop are deployed, it will not matter if it is done in private, public or mixed networks.
The objective pursued by the government with this financing program for research and development projects is facilitate the application of advanced 5G technology in an agile way in the economic sectors of Spain that count with a higher level of development and importance in the country. It also seeks to give a boost to the productive fabric dedicated to the design and development of 5G applications and services, and establish the image of Spain as one of the most prominent countries in terms of digitization in the European Union.
