Good practice:

TECNIOspring - ACCIÓ's international talent attraction programme.

TECNIOspring is the ACCIÓ's (Business Competitiveness Agency of the Government of Catalonia) international talent attraction programme providing 100% financial support to individual mobility proposals presented by experienced researchers in liaison with any R&D entity around the world. Fellows are offered 2-year employment contracts to develop an applied research project with focus on technology transfer.
The main goals of this programme are to attract highly talented researchers and provide them with international experience, as well as to reinforce companies’ capacities and foster their international collaborations.
The programme aims at involving industry in several ways. First, tech-based companies are eligible as host organisations. Second, fellows hosted by research centres will be seconded to a company already interested in the outcomes of the applied research project.
The main beneficiaries of this programme are Catalan R&D entities and international experienced researchers, which agree on an applied research project to be developed and submit the proposal together
Financial support:
- Salary costs (with full social security coverage): 58.500 € per year.
- Research costs: 18.240€.
- Mobility costs: 1.920€.

This programme has been running since 2013 and it has a total budget of 29 M€ for the period 2013-2024.
The programme has been funded by the Government of Catalonia through ACCIÓ and the European Commission FP7 and H2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions.

This programme has been very well received and has reached high technology transfer impact results: employment creation rate over 72%, 20 patents applications, 45 R&D projects, 19 prototypes and 2 spin-offs. As a result of this, its 3rd edition will start in July 2019.
Since 2013 until now, 136 researchers have been funded (3 of which in the field of advanced manufacturing) and 207 R&D contracts with experienced researchers are expected to be granted for the period 2013-2024.

This type of collaborative research and innovation projects through researchers' mobility can be replicated in other regions to promote the internationalization and co-competitiveness of European companies in the field of advanced manufacturing and other sectors, depending on the strengths of each region.