Procurement, sandboxes and public support

Article 14. Encouraging innovative public procurement for startups

1. The Government shall include in the State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation provided for in Law 14/2011 of 1 June on Science, Technology and Innovation the plans of each ministry and public body linked to or dependent on the General State Administration for innovation procurement, both for the public procurement of technology or innovative processes and for pre-commercial public procurement, referred to in article 8 of Law 9/2017 of 8 November on Public Sector Contracts, transposing into Spanish law Directives 2014/23/EU and 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014, and the appropriations allocated to finance them.

The Council of Ministers shall be informed annually of the implementation of the innovative public procurement plans and of the evaluation of their results.

2. Public administrations shall take into account the characteristics of startups when specifying the requirements of economic and technical solvency for companies participating in innovative public procurement and pre-commercial public procurement procedures, whether or not governed by Law 9/2017 of 8 November, so as not to create obstacles to their participation in the tender.

They shall also make partial payments wherever performance of the contract can be divided into several phases.

3. In the specifications of administrative clauses, consideration shall be given to including capacity and solvency requirements, and award criteria, that facilitate access on equal terms for startups located in sparsely populated areas. The incorporation of specific social and environmental requirements and characteristics that benefit rural areas shall be promoted, encouraging local purchasing, the use of local and organic products, and likewise sustainable forest management, renewable energy and energy saving, provided that the principles of competition, equality and non-discrimination in public procurement are respected.

4. The specifications of administrative clauses may provide that ownership of the intellectual property rights arising from the development of the subject matter of the contract shall be shared in equal parts between the contracting Administration and the startup awarded the contract.

Article 15. Test licences for startups

1. Companies qualifying as startups that operate in regulated sectors may apply to the regulatory administrative authority for their field of activity for a temporary test licence for the development of their activities. The licence shall have a maximum duration of one year.

2. The startup must warn the user or consumer in writing of this temporary test situation, inform them of its duration and obtain their express consent before beginning the test.

Article 16. Controlled test environments

1. The public authorities shall promote, by regulation, the creation of controlled environments, for limited periods of time, to evaluate the usefulness, viability and impact of technological innovations applied to regulated activities, to the offer or supply of new goods or services, to new forms of supplying or providing them, or to alternative formulas for their supervision and control by the competent authorities.

In addition, they shall contribute to promoting, in a special way, controlled test environments also in rural areas which by their characteristics constitute a favourable and dynamic environment for the use of technological innovations and novel goods and services, in line with the definition of a smart rural territory, thereby enhancing the use of digital technologies as an indispensable tool for development, placed at the service of territories and their inhabitants.

2. The impact assessment that will justify the creation of controlled test environments shall refer to the effect on any of the overriding reasons of general interest referred to in article 3.11 of Law 17/2009 of 23 November on free access to service activities and their exercise.

3. The tests shall be governed by the rules on controlled test spaces issued in each sector and by the protocols agreed between the supervisory authorities and the project promoters, without being subject to the specific legislation of the market concerned.

4. The creation and development of controlled test environments shall conform to the following principles:

a) Publicity and transparency, so as to guarantee that anyone whose rights or legitimate interests may be affected is able to make submissions.

b) Equality and non-discrimination between operators, for free competition and access to the controlled test environments.

c) Necessity, proportionality and minimum distortion of effective competition in the market, ensuring that the adaptation of frameworks and the establishment of exceptions are limited to the minimum necessary to evaluate the impact of the technological innovations applied.

d) Control over the repercussions on the stability and integrity of the market concerned or on third parties not participating in the tests.

e) The principle of limiting the duration of the authorisations or exceptions established within the controlled test environment to the minimum time necessary to evaluate the impact of the technological innovations applied.

f) Protection of consumers, users and third parties who may be affected by the potential risks of the innovation being tested.

g) Cooperation and coordination between the competent authorities where the innovation affects various subject matters or different fields and territorial levels.

5. The public authorities shall take the results of the tests into account in order, where appropriate, to grant or extend the authorisations needed by the project promoters to operate, and to promote improvements or adaptations to the applicable regulations and control regime.

6. The public authorities shall report to the National Startups Forum on the controlled test environments created, the results and conclusions of the tests, and their proposals for improving or adapting the regulations.

7. Controlled test environments allowing technological innovation projects in the financial system to be put into practice shall be governed by the provisions of Law 7/2020 of 13 November on the digital transformation of the financial system.

Article 17. Public-private collaboration

The public administrations shall promote the development of educational programmes in entrepreneurship and digital skills, including those arising from public-private collaboration, particularly in rural or sparsely populated areas, in order to encourage the creation of startups in those locations. In territories where university projects rooted in rural life have been implemented, the time frames for the duration of these programmes shall be unified or strengthened, depending on the attraction of these employment programmes to rural areas.

These educational programmes in entrepreneurship and digital skills may be integrated into the related actions provided for in instruments such as the National Digital Skills Plan, with the budget, objectives and instruments associated with them.

In addition, the public administrations shall promote actions aimed at encouraging startups to establish themselves in rural areas, and the establishment of innovation ecosystems in rural areas that provide the conditions necessary for the development of technology- and science-based companies able to harvest the fruits of research.

Article 18. Universities, entities and knowledge-based companies

Universities shall promote training aimed at favouring employability and entrepreneurship, individually or collectively. Universities may create or take part in knowledge-based entities and companies on the terms established in the specific regulations.

Technology-based spin-off companies originating in Spanish universities shall be regarded as innovative startups where they meet the requirements established in the second sub-paragraph of paragraph 2 of article 3.

Article 19. State system of aid for innovation-based entrepreneurship

1. The state system of aid for innovation-based entrepreneurship consists of the set of programmes managed by the State that are intended to encourage the creation of startups in Spain, to promote their international expansion, to stimulate domestic and foreign investment in such companies, collaboration between companies and increased participation of women and territories in this phenomenon.

2. The state system of aid for innovation-based entrepreneurship shall be oriented towards carrying out the guiding missions of the European Union’s multiannual programmes for the promotion of research and innovation, and other major challenges relevant to Spain identified by the Government on a multiannual basis.

Article 20. Priority actions

1. The General State Administration, in cooperation with the regional and local administrations, shall promote the establishment of co-investment funds to attract private capital to the financing of startups in their various phases of creation, growth and internationalisation.

2. The General State Administration, in cooperation, where appropriate, with the regional and local administrations, shall encourage the creation of contact and collaboration networks, platforms and meeting points between startups, and between them and mature companies, as well as with the other agents of the Spanish startup ecosystem. It may also finance collaborative projects between small and medium-sized enterprises and startups.

3. The General State Administration, in cooperation with the regional and local administrations, shall ensure that the gender gap is reduced in the actions it carries out to attract private capital to the financing of startups. It shall also promote the participation of women in platforms and meeting points between startups, and between them and mature companies, implementing positive action measures if necessary.

Article 21. Planning, implementation and evaluation of support mechanisms for innovation-based entrepreneurship

1. The Government shall approve a multiannual programme of aid for innovation-based entrepreneurship, defining the guiding aims it will pursue and the relative weight of the actions indicated in articles 19 and 20 within the aid as a whole, together with the means of ensuring that those aims are served and the planned distribution of actions, and the procedure for evaluating its results.

The multiannual aid programme shall incorporate the gender perspective and shall likewise establish the appropriate coordination mechanisms to guarantee the complementarity of the various lines of aid, their continuous evaluation with a view to their greater effectiveness and efficiency, and the transparency of all state sources of funding related to innovation-based entrepreneurship.

The programme shall be integrated into the State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation, and shall be regarded as a strategic subsidies plan in accordance with Law 38/2003 of 17 November, the General Subsidies Act.

2. The General State Administration shall prepare and publish a report on the implementation of the programme of aid for innovation-based entrepreneurship in the previous year.

In addition, every four years it shall publish a report on the overall implementation of the programme, the effect of the aid granted on the companies that benefited from it and on the entrepreneurial ecosystem in general, and on its impact on the major challenges inspiring the state system of aid for innovation-based entrepreneurship.

Article 22. Reduction of guarantees

Where the granting of subsidies or payments on account is conditional on the provision of guarantees, the beneficiary startup may request that the guarantee be reduced in exchange for reducing the amount of the aid or of the advance payment in the same proportion.

The granting Administration shall assess that request on the basis of at least the following criteria:

a) Being up to date with tax and Social Security obligations during the last five financial years.

b) Not having been subject to a reimbursement procedure for any subsidy previously granted.

Article 23. Information on calls for subsidies

The Entrepreneur Service Points and the National Entrepreneurship Office shall publish a list of public subsidies aimed specifically at startups and called by the Community institutions and by the Spanish public administrations. This list shall be kept permanently up to date.

The Entrepreneur Service Points and the National Entrepreneurship Office shall also publish, during the month of January each year, an indicative calendar of regularly called subsidies.

Article 24. Knowledge and dissemination of the Spanish startup ecosystem

1. The General State Administration shall publish information on the urban centres attracting startups and their financing agents, accelerators and incubators, through a web portal with information in at least Spanish, the official and statutorily recognised languages of the Autonomous Communities, and English, provided that they have notified their activity to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation in order to collaborate in the functions of promoting the Spanish startup ecosystem.

The National Entrepreneurship Office shall incorporate this information into its catalogue of services and shall act as the main access point for information related to entrepreneurship in Spain.

2. The web portal referred to in the preceding paragraph shall provide information in at least Spanish, the official and statutorily recognised languages of the Autonomous Communities (for those languages as regards the informative content) and English on the conditions of entry and residence in Spain for entrepreneurs, investors and highly qualified professionals, in accordance with Law 14/2013 of 27 September, including the necessary documents, the applicable fees and a detailed explanation of the procedure, together with an interface for applying for the grant of the relevant visas and authorisations. That interface shall incorporate a payment gateway for paying the corresponding fees.

Article 25. National Startups Forum

1. The National Startups Forum is created as an interministerial collegiate consultative body for collaboration between the public administrations, universities, public research bodies and technology centres, the most representative business associations at state and regional level, associations or corporations of intermediary professionals, startups and other companies that collaborate with them.

2. Its functions shall be to analyse, identify good practices and debate public policies to promote entrepreneurship in research and development and in innovation. It shall also propose improvements aimed at their growth and their integration into the Community and world markets.

The National Startups Forum shall promote diversity, inclusion and democratic principles among startups. To that end, it may establish awards for startups that stand out for their activity in this respect.

3. The composition and operating rules of the Forum shall be developed by royal decree, within the framework of Law 40/2015 of 1 October on the Legal Regime of the Public Sector.

4. The functions of the Forum include issuing a mandatory, non-binding report for the continuous evaluation of the application of this Act on the terms of the following article.

Article 26. Continuous evaluation of the application of the Act

1. The Government, through the Government Delegated Committee for Economic Affairs, shall monitor the application of this Act, for which purpose it shall approve, after consulting the National Startups Forum, indicators of compliance with the objectives of the Act, which shall be broken down by sex and by Autonomous Community wherever possible.

2. The Government shall submit annually to the Cortes Generales a report on the results of the Act and its proposals for improvement.

First additional provision. Interface updates and technological neutrality

1. The public administrations shall promote the adaptation of their computer applications so that citizens can interact with them through mobile devices and by using any browser.

They shall ensure that user interfaces are kept up to date in line with the development of software and its take-up in the market.

2. The General Council of Notaries and the Spanish Association of Registrars shall promote the adaptation of the computer applications that citizens must use to interact electronically with notaries and registrars, so that they are compatible with any browser, accept all the electronic signatures and seals included in the “trusted list of certification service providers”, and can be used from mobile devices.

They shall ensure that user interfaces are kept up to date in line with the development of software and its take-up in the market.

3. The General State Administration and its institutional public sector, together with the General Council of Notaries and the Spanish Association of Registrars, must establish a timetable for meeting the objectives indicated in paragraph 1, which may not exceed four years from the entry into force of this Act.

Both the timetable and progress in its implementation shall be published on the general electronic access point or another single internet portal of the General State Administration, and on the websites of the General Council of Notaries and the Spanish Association of Registrars respectively.

Second additional provision. Evaluation of the coherence of the State’s aid programmes for startups

1. As a first step in adapting the state system of aid for innovation-based entrepreneurship to the principles of transparency, coherence and continuous evaluation, the Government shall commission the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility to draw up an inventory of all the lines of aid existing in the State and its institutional public sector aimed at startups or at their creation.

The Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility shall likewise carry out an evaluation of the economy, effectiveness and efficiency of the lines of aid and shall make recommendations to ensure their maximum coherence and effectiveness.

2. The Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility shall have nine months to deliver the inventory and the evaluation report on the public system of support for startups through subsidies and aid.

Third additional provision. Coordination of action on startups within the General State Administration

Within the Government Delegated Committee for Economic Affairs, a working group shall be created to exchange information on policies affecting startups, prepare the meetings of the National Startups Forum, study proposals to increase innovative public procurement and coordinate the promotion initiatives of the various departments in application of the provisions of chapter I of title VI, without prejudice to the provisions of Law 50/1997 of 27 November on the Government as regards the power of the President of the Government to create, abolish or modify the Government Delegated Committees, their composition and functioning.

Fourth additional provision. Student startups

1. The student startup is recognised as a teaching tool.

2. The requirements and limits of the status of the student startup shall be determined by regulation; specific information and assistance measures may also be adopted to facilitate compliance with its tax and accounting obligations.

3. The student startup shall be incorporated, through the Business Creation Information Centre and Network system, by the organisation promoting the corresponding programme of study, which shall allow it to carry out economic and monetary transactions, issue invoices and open bank accounts.

Entrepreneur Service Points wishing to take part as promoting organisations must apply to ENISA to participate in the programme. For this purpose ENISA shall have the support of the School of Industrial Organisation, Fundación EOI, F.S.P.

4. The student startup shall have a duration limited to one school year, extendable to a maximum of two school years.

5. The student startup shall be covered by civil liability insurance or another equivalent guarantee taken out by the promoting organisation.

Fifth additional provision. Deadline for launching the internet portal on the Spanish startup ecosystem

The Government shall make the necessary arrangements so that, within a maximum period of one year, the internet portal for knowledge and dissemination of the Spanish startup ecosystem referred to in article 24 is in operation.

Sixth additional provision. Single window

With the aim of facilitating the procedures for processing the visas and residence permits regulated in section II of chapter IV of title V of Law 14/2013 of 27 September on support for entrepreneurs and their internationalisation, the bodies competent for processing them shall undertake to favour models based on a single window.

Seventh additional provision. Creation of the Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence

One. In accordance with article 91 of Law 40/2015 of 1 October on the Legal Regime of the Public Sector, the creation of the Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence is authorised, as a public body with public legal personality, its own assets, full capacity to act, and the administrative, inspection and sanctioning powers attributed to it in application of national and European rules on the safe and reliable use of artificial intelligence systems.

Two. The Agency’s action shall serve the following purposes:

a) Awareness-raising, dissemination and promotion of training, and of the responsible, sustainable and reliable development and use of artificial intelligence.

b) The definition of mechanisms for advising and assisting society and other actors involved in the development and use of artificial intelligence.

c) Collaboration and coordination with other national and supranational authorities supervising artificial intelligence.

d) Encouraging real-world test environments for artificial intelligence systems, to strengthen user protection.

e) Supervision of the launch, use or marketing of systems that include artificial intelligence and, especially, those that may pose significant risks to health, safety and fundamental rights.

Three. The Agency shall be attached to the Secretariat of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation. It shall be governed by its organic statute and by the provisions of Law 40/2015 of 1 October on the Legal Regime of the Public Sector.

Four. Legal assistance, consisting of advice and representation and defence in court of the Agency, shall be provided by the State Attorneys forming part of the State Legal Service.

Sole transitional provision. Deadline for determining the innovative character of the entrepreneurship and the scalability of the business model

The deadline for determining the innovative character of the entrepreneurship and the scalability of the business model shall be 3 months from the date on which the company has submitted all the information relating to the application for accreditation, including any supplementary information that may have been requested following the analysis carried out by ENISA. This deadline shall apply from six months after the entry into force of this Act.

Where this sits

The final provisions of this Act, which amend the personal income tax, non-resident income tax and corporate income tax statutes and the Entrepreneurs Act — including the remote-work visa and the changes to the impatriate regime — are translated on three further pages, beginning with personal tax, the impatriate regime and Social Security.

Nothing here is advice on your own position, and this reading is not the official text. Spain publishes no official English version of this Act; where the wording matters to a decision, read it against the Spanish original linked above.