The 2021 call for ‘Innova Invest Program’ has been published
The 2021 call for ‘Innova Invest Program’ has been published on Thursday 25th. This support is managed by ICEX España Exportación e Inversiones through INVEST IN SPAIN, focused on subsidizing investment projects in Spain of foreign companies with a high R&D component seeking to enhance competitiveness and productivity of the Spanish economy.
In addition, these supports promote the integration of the beneficiary institutions in the national productive and research fabric.
The maximum period for developing these projects will be 24 months. And the support may be extended to 70% in small industrial research companies projects with an upper limit of 800,000 euros per individual beneficiary. Projects must have, among others, foreign participation of at least 50% of its capital stock.
The budget allocated to the present 2021 call comes to 5,000,000 euros and will be financed from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
The call for proposals is open for two months for the submission of applications.
SPEGC offers consultancy to companies interested in the present call.
The information can be accessed through the following link.
Repeople Conference kicks off in Gran Canaria
'Repeople Conference 2021', Europe's largest conference on remote and distributed work, took place in Gran Canaria on November 23rd. The event, hosted in Gran Canaria for the last 5 years and now co-hosted with other Canary Islands, serves as a professional industry gathering and a great mean to promote the Canaries’ appeal to a demanding global workforce that wants to actively participate in the location decision-making process.
Through workshops, working sessions and conferences for teams, individuals and corporate professionals, the 200 attendees from more than 25 countries will be able to get a head start on this growing and increasingly in-demand global employment trend. It is an event that truly brings together professionals from all over the world who share a common goal: Making remote work accessible to all and benefitting from the great opportunities for those destinations that are gradually positioning themselves as remote work hotspots. Gran Canaria, as such, is a leading and unique hub for distributed teams, digital talent and talented professional and is increasingly at the top priority list for global relocation managers.
Two out of the 16 scheduled sessions relied on the participation of ‘Best in Gran Canaria’/SPEGC. Our team was able to present the many advantages of setting up base on the island. As a matter of fact, the first panel ‘Tax Structures for Remote Workers’ covered topics such as the 24% flat rate for inbound expatriates that relocate to Spain and the potential of the Canary Islands Special Zone regime to best tackle the global permanent establishment issue. A combination of both elements, plus ongoing reforms, will mean a better framework for remote work relocating to the Canary Islands. In the second panel, ‘Tech Jobs are everywhere now: Where will innovation happen?’ saw a discussion between public entities of Gran Canaria (SPEGC & PROEXCA) and two of the venture capital builders of the island. SPEGC introduced its policies towards local upskilling and its training commitment with strategic sectors on the rise.
The ‘Best in Gran Canaria’ initiative promotes Gran Canaria as a destination for business and investment and provides soft-landing support for any investor including companies that test, scale-up and deliver technological solutions from Gran Canaria.
Best in Gran Canaria launches a new document aimed at its international clients in the maritime sector: 'The Gran Canaria Maritime Scorecard’
The launch of this two-pager is designed to provide companies and organizations involved in investment attraction with a thoughtful document that draws together information on the maritime sector in a schematic form, focusing on the advantages of locating port or maritime operations in Gran Canaria. This is a novel element in the promotion of the island: a single document containing data on impact and opportunities linked to the port community in Gran Canaria and to the largest port in the mid-Atlantic: the Port of Las Palmas.
The Scorecard, published exclusively in English for now, aims to provide practical information for companies that are considering operating from Gran Canaria. It is a dynamic, flexible, user-friendly document, divided into five main sections:
- Advantages of operating from Gran Canaria. A list of the main attributes of Gran Canaria and the Port of Las Palmas (geostrategic position, centrality in regional communications, extensive national and international connectivity, first-class infrastructure, a highly qualified local talent pool and the best tax system in the EU for commercial and innovative activities).
- The Port of Las Palmas: Gran Canaria’s port. Using icons, this section describes the physical and climatic features of the port and the services it offers, with special emphasis on transhipment and processing of goods, global logistics, ship repair, offshore services, cruiser tourism, bunkering, and rescue and emergency capabilities.
- Low taxes: a variety of instruments for each project. Gran Canaria has its own economic and fiscal regime, compatible with European regulations, making it possible to benefit from lower taxes on business profits and business investment incentives.
- A growing hub for digital activities and R&D: the ideal place to develop, test, scale and finance disruptive projects. This section contains the various tax credits for industrial R&D projects, as well as soft finance from the Gran Canaria Island governing body (Cabildo de Gran Canaria).
- The island’s tech and maritime resources. Gran Canaria’s capabilities and range of organizations associated with research and innovation are presented here. These resources extend beyond the Port of Las Palmas and establish Gran Canaria’s Blue Economy macroprofile.
Finally, the document introduces the new Best in Gran Canaria digital resources, including the ‘Moving to Gran Canaria: The complete relocation guide’, Best in Gran Canaria brochure, Tax Guide and R&D leaflet, among other documents, which can be found in QR format.
This Maritime Scorecard, available to all agents in Gran Canaria involved in attracting companies and businesses, aims to outline a global, open, safe island devoted to marine/maritime business. We invite you to use this document and share it on social media with all of Gran Canaria’s potential clients.
Gran Canaria is the home of the Port of Las Palmas and an opportunity for growth in the Blue Economy.
Gran Canaria is growing as a base for distributed teams: the success of the workation model among Swedish companies
The ‘Workation’ concept combines the virtues of a leading holiday destination with the possibility of remotely working from the island, and it has been a real game-changer for the island’s offer, raising thus the engagement of housing/accommodation providers, add-on services and the island’s customers. The major beneficiary has been Gran Canaria as a safe, flexible, dynamic destination where life and work can be integrated in a unique way.
The efforts of hotel and non-hotel establishments, with the leadership of employers’ associations and the Gran Canaria Tourism Board, have made it possible to adapt spaces in a record time and successfully implement proposals aimed not only at encouraging more extended visits to the island, but at attracting complete work teams.
For years the island of Gran Canaria has consistently been among the top 20 international destinations for digital nomads (most recently, in October 2021, it was ranked thirteenth in the world, and it also led the national rankings, according to nomadlist.com). The combination of natural conditions, climate, cost and quality of life and a vibrant community of nomads and remote workers had been uplifted by local service providers as a work destination for distributed teams, who move to the island for periods of between two weeks and three months. Though it is not a completely new development, since Gran Canaria has always been a destination for professional retreats, the factor that makes a difference for companies is the possibility of basing their teams here for even longer periods, and several enquiries along these lines have been received by the ‘Best in Gran Canaria’ initiative and the island’s Economic Development Agency (SPEGC). For companies, distributing teams and basing them in Gran Canaria represents a way of improving productivity and rewarding their staff; for workers it is an obvious attraction and an improvement in their living standards.
In the past week, six Swedish companies in sectors primarily related to digital production and commercial distribution have been in Gran Canaria trying out the Workation concept on the spot. The companies have been enjoying some days of intense work on the island, as well as a series of meetings with various stakeholders in the local ecosystem.
‘Best in Gran Canaria’ took part with the delegation of Swedish companies in the closing day for an in-depth discussion and overview of the business and investment opportunities connected with the island and the facilities available for companies and their teams to find themselves in the best possible business environment. ‘Best in Gran Canaria’ resolved significant concerns about tax incentives, procedures for getting established on the island (‘Moving to Gran Canaria – Relocation guide’ and or signature softlanding support) and other support/consultancy services for companies.
‘Best in Gran Canaria’ participates at the world’s leading tech & start-up event: Web Summit
2021 is the third year in a row that Gran Canaria participates in Web Summit, led by the ‘Best in Gran Canaria’/’Sociedad de Promoción Económica de Gran Canaria’ (SPEGC) team.
Objectives remain duly unchanged: promoting acceleration and financing opportunities for innovative projects in the seed phase, as well as attracting projects based on tax advantages and local talent for those start-ups that are looking into their up-scaling or growth phase in the Spanish/LATAM/Southern European markets. Likewise, our team seeks to explore possible use cases that find in Gran Canaria the ideal location for testing and development of innovative solutions: there is a wide range of prototyping opportunities, related to but also beyond the tourism industry (data, VR/AR, gamification) and beyond the exploitation of data and artificial intelligence in marine-maritime activities, which are some of the core verticals in the island’s growth plans.
Web Summit takes place from the 1st to the 4th of November in the capital of Portugal, and allegedly remains as the largest international conference in the field of innovation and start-ups. After being held in a virtual format last year, it returns to a venue format with large areas of exhibition, roundtables, conferences and keynotes by remarkable tech-experts.
A representative group from the Canary Islands is actively participating at the Canary Islands’ stand, where local start-ups will gather to pitch their solutions to investors and potential partners. ‘Best in Gran Canaria’ has joined the delegation with the clear-cut aim to raise awareness and engagement with the island’s innovation ecosystem and present the financing streams and public support for companies and professionals that choose Gran Canaria as their test, development, sales and growth base.