The Secretariat for Digital Policies of the Department of Business and Employment of the Generalitat de Catalunya has published a new call for grants to reduce the gender gap within the ICT field. Within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, funded by the European Union through the Next Generation program, the new grants seek to support projects aimed at reducing the female digital gap and initiatives aimed at promoting the female digital entrepreneurial ecosystem in Catalonia. Companies, self-employed individuals, consortia, foundations, universities, research and investigation centers, business schools, associations and entities can apply for the new call for grants.
The new call for grants has a total budget of 9 million euros and four lines. The first line focuses on projects aimed at the visibility and promotion of female talent in the field of ICT. The second line is aimed at initiatives or projects aimed at training, capacity building and support for female digital entrepreneurship. The third line focuses on projects for technology-based companies led by women, technology and business model validation projects, and launching new products or services on the market. The fourth line refers to initiatives or projects aimed at financing small and medium-sized enterprises that develop technological or digital female intrapreneurship programs.
In this sense, the amount of aid for applications benefiting from the first three lines will be a maximum of 150,000 euros and the amount of aid for applications benefiting from the fourth line will be a maximum of 25,000 euros. The criteria that will be taken into account to determine the amount of the subsidies will be the cost of the project in coherence with the score obtained in the report according to the evaluation criteria and the budgetary availability. Applicants must submit a report.
The Secretariat for Digital Policies of the Department of Business and Employment of the Generalitat de Catalunya has received a total of 29.3 million euros to finance different RETECH projects. The new call for grants is part of this program and aims to firmly address the issue of gender equality in the creation of emerging companies. According to ACCIÓ, in 2023, only 20.8% of Catalan emerging companies were founded by women. With the aim of increasing this figure, this new call arises.
The deadline for submitting applications will end next Monday, February 3, at 2 p.m.
For more information, please write to the email address secretaria.tic@gencat.cat.
UPDATE: On next Thursday, January 16, at 9:30 am, an information session will be held where the details of the call will be explained and doubts will be resolved. Interested parties can connect through this link. For organizational reasons, it is necessary to confirm attendance in this form.