According to the firstReport on the incentives for R&D&i and the generation of qualified employment in Spain 2022”, recently published by FI Group, together with ManpowerGroup, 88% of Spanish companies plan to make use of tax incentives for R&D&i during the next year. Specifically, 50% of the companies say they plan to do so through fiscal mechanisms, compared to 38% who indicate that they will do so through public aid.
The same report points out that 68% of companies acknowledge having received public aid or direct subsidies for innovation from between €250,000 and €1M during the last twelve months. A much higher economic amount compared to the aid received in the previous year, according to 42% of those surveyed.
Despite this, 61% of the companies say that the amount of these public aids or direct subsidies received were not enough to cover the company’s R&D&i needs, although they have meant a boost for the execution of this type of projects.
Víctor Cruz, Director of Services Strategy at FI Group, highlights that “When Spain is at the tail end of investment in R&D&i compared to our European neighbours, it is necessary to encourage this investment to increase the ratios spent on R&D vs. GDP. According to the latest data from the INE for the year 2020, spending on internal R&D increased by 1.3% in 2020 and reached 15,768 million euros, which represents 1.41% of GDP, while the European average it is at 2.10%”. The services strategy expert also added that “R&D incentivesas a tool to support and promote private investment, are one of the best existing tools to achieve this end”.
With these data, the report shows the interest on the part of companies to opt for the use of tax incentives as a tool to encourage investment in R&D&i projects. However, the perception of ease of access to this tool is relatively low; 47% say that incentives for R&D&i are not easily accessible to companies in Spain.
Among the different solutions indicated by those surveyed, the reduction of bureaucracy stands out (44%), followed by facilitating access to these aids (22%) and the increase in amounts by the administration (11%).
For its part, Javier Caparros, Head of Professional Recruitment at ManpowerGroup, notes that “The role of R&D&i is, after the pandemic, even more critical: the digital transformation multiplies the opportunities of professionals in areas where innovation dominates. For their part, companies must implement an innovative corporate culture that is measured by much more than simply their investments in technology, but by purpose, values, or the process of decision-making. So that the digital transformation is not a superimposition of technology-based tools, it must always be accompanied by an adequate cultural transformation”.
