Support Programme for Innovative Business Groupings 

The Programme for Innovative Business Groupings (Agrupaciones Empresariales Innovadoras - AEI), run by Ministry of Industry, Tourism, and Trade (Ministerio de Industria, Turismo y Comercio – MITYC), was created by the Directorate General of SME Policy (Dirección General de Política de la PYME), and first set up in 2007. This programme is now taking part in the European strategy for promoting competitiveness through the creation and development of innovative clusters.

It has, therefore, adopted the community guidelines established for this field.

For the purposes of this Programme and its beneficiaries, an Innovative Business Grouping is defined to be a “combination of companies, training centres, research units, and other agents, both public and private, in one geographic location or in one specific industrial sector, that cooperate to obtain the advantages or benefits derived from carrying out joint innovative projects and to reach the critical mass necessary to ensure their competitiveness and international visibility”. [more information]