Ingenio 2010

The European Union made a commitment to give new impetus to the Lisbon Strategy, which defines a series of measures to promote growth and employment. It now aims to devote 3% of GDP to European spending on research and development by the year 2010.

This is a statewide project for the Spanish Government, which, in view of the wide gap that currently separates Spain from its European neighbours in this area, sees the initiative as a key policy objective.

With this in mind and with a view to maintaining current endeavours in the R&D&I field, the Government has devised INGENIO 2010. This programme seeks to involve the State, the private sector, universities and other public research organisations in a concerted bid to attain a level in keeping with Spain’s economic and political position in Europe.

Given the challenges the future holds, R&D&I spending is a key factor in maintaining and boosting growth, productivity and social well-being.

CONSOLIDER Projects

Definition: CONSOLIDER projects offer long-term (5-6 year), large-scale (€1-2 mill.) funding to outstanding research groups and networks of proven excellence in any of the knowledge areas of the Spanish R&D&I Programme.

Objectives: The aims of this initiative are to increase the average size of research groups, raise the levels of funding available to the best lines of research, eliminate excessive fragmentation in research and promote the participation of public research centres in the European Framework Programme.

Budget: It has a budget of €150 mill. over four years, €35 mill. of which are for 2006 and €80.5 mill. for 2007.

What’s new?: The programme funds large-scale, long-term projects for outstanding public research consortiums, groups and centres, and awards funding for lines of research as opposed to the more traditional model of aid for specific projects.

Contact address: infoCONSOLIDER@mec.es