Good practice:

Centr@tec Program (2nd Edition)

The aim is to support an action plan based on the adoption of New Technologies for self-employers and SMEs through a continuous and complete process to be more competitive. Centr@tec includes actions in different areas: Industry 4.0, Digitalization, Innovation in Processes and Design of Products/Services, Internationalization of R&D and Innovation, and Support for Technology – Based Entrepreneurs.
The program is structured in:
1. Internationalization of R&D&I: bilateral meetings, agreements for collaborations and participation in international R&D&I programs.
2. Demonstrations, meetings, expert workshops and training in new technologies (2/4/8 hours)
3. Diagnostics and Implementation Plans: personalized analysis of the company, action plan and evaluation of the necessary costs and financial options, mainly through *Regional Financial Calls (*which means the possibility of receiving grants for different improvements in their digitalization process and/or Industry 4.0 projects).
4. Innovative Projects Bank: analysis of innovative projects, business plan and evaluation of financing opportunities mainly through Regional Financial Calls.
The program is designed to accompany the SMEs throughout the process, from the beginning to the end with the aforementioned Regional Calls that supports Industry 4.0 projects.
Main Stakeholders: Tech. Centres, clusters, associations, experts, leading companies and other innovation agents. Main Beneficiaries: SMEs and self-employers.

The budget was increased from 1,3M€ in the 1st Edition, to 2M€ in the 2nd Edition. The 3rd Edition will have a budget of 5M€.
This is expected to increase the number of participants.
The funding and the staff in charge come from the Regional Government of Castilla y León.

The success of the 1st edition is reflected by the outputs (Digitalization and Industry 4.0 areas): 69 training actions, 75 diagnostics / action plans and 2.231 participants with an assessment of 3,4/4).
In the 2nd edition the following actions have been developed in Digitalization and Industry 4.0 : 125 training actions, 140 diagnostics / action plans and 5.132 participants with an assessment of 8,4/10)

We still find a lack of impact on our P. Instrument. This is an important issue to be improved in the next edition. We are ambitious and we expect to increase the number of companies asking for Regional Financial Calls for digitalization and adoption of Industry 4.0, as the final step of the process

The work network created with the regional Tech. Centres allows us to get closer to SMEs. This network is a very important tool to know the real needs of the companies in order to plan the training actions, the diagnostics and the SMEs guiding in the best way to improve their capacities and technologies to be more competitive, also throughout the collaboration with the regional working groups involved in the topics related with the program (Industry 4.0 working group).
One of our main goals is to create an Industry 4.0 ecosystem that involves SMEs.
By being structured in four different types of actions, Centr@tec allows companies to participate in the program in many ways and gives them (especially SMEs) the opportunity to be involved in a circuit of support and training that helps them to develop their potential of innovation and competitiveness. This practice was shared in the RDAs national Forum (June 2018 Santander, Spain) and aroused great interest for many Regional Agencies.