The first call to request aid from the Government Digital Kit will open next Tuesday, March 15, although only for a part of its potential beneficiaries. As reported by Red.es, this phase andIt is intended for companies with between 10 and 49 employees. At the moment there is no news about the opening of the period to request subsidies from the other two target groups of this measure: the self-employed and micro-SMEs with up to three workers, on the one hand, and SMEs with between three and 10 employees, on the other.
To apply for this subsidy, SMEs with between 10 and 49 employees will have to first go to the Acelera Pyme website, where they must complete the self-diagnosis test that evaluates the “digital maturity” of the company, as we already explained in Xataka. Once this procedure has been completed, those interested must enter the Red.es electronic headquarters and start the application process, in which they must specify which options to improve the digitization of their company they request.
Once the aid has been granted, endowed with a maximum sum of 12,000 euros, the beneficiaries will have to go to the catalog of digitizing agents attached to the program on the Acelera Pyme website, select the supplier or suppliers with whom they want to work and contact contact them to sign an “agreement to provide digitization solutions”.
Once the deadline to apply for subsidies opens on March 15, interested companies They will have a total of 6 months to submit their applications.that is, until September 15.
How does the program work
As we already explained in Xataka, the money from these grants will not be delivered directly to the interested companies and freelancers, but through a “digital voucher” with which the beneficiaries can acquire the goods and services that they need to implement the digitization of their businesses from official suppliers designated by the Administration and baptized as “digitizing agents”.
For the Government to grant this aid, both SMEs and the self-employed have to meet a number of requirements usual in this type of calls, such as being considered a micro, small or medium-sized company or being up to date with tax obligations, and also a specific one for the subsidy in question: doing the aforementioned self-diagnosis test of “digital maturity” .
The subsidy has a total limit of 12,000 euros for companies with between 10 and 49 workers and limits for each type of service. For example, the maximum eligible amount for the development of a website is 2,000 euros, for the management of social networks, 2,500, and up to 6,000 euros for process management, among others.
The digitizing agents
Regarding the contracting of digitization products and services, the beneficiaries of the aid will not be able to acquire them from any supplier, but from the so-called “digitization agents”, companies and freelancers adhering to the program that provide digital services selected by the Administration.
The Administration has required companies that have applied to be “digitizing agents” to invoice at least 100,000 euros in the previous two years, or 50,000 euros in the last year, developing projects similar to the services they intend to offer. The self-employed have also been able to become official providers of this aid, and in their case they have had to invoice 70,000 euros in the last two years, or 35,000 euros in the last year. In both cases, the accredited turnover must have corresponded to the Spanish market.
The program has a total budget of 3,067 million euros for the 2021-2023 period and is part of the 2021-2025 SME Digitization Plan.
Image | Lisbon Council
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism