Science and Innovation

In accordance with what is established in the fourth base of the Regulatory Bases, it is mandatory to fill out and submit the application through the Barcelona City Council's online portal Open in a new window.

The purpose of this call is to grant subsidies for carrying out scientific research projects and knowledge transfer through competitive bidding.

Its objective is to support emerging scientific research, as well as:

• Consolidate the emerging scientific and research community of the city, generating opportunities and facilitating scientific career paths in Barcelona.
• Contribute to generating ideas, innovative responses, and scientific evidence that can have an impact on the city.
• Foster open access and dissemination of research results to the public, in order to facilitate knowledge transfer at all levels, with a desire for public visibility and social return.

The term "science" or "scientific" is understood to refer to all branches of knowledge, whether from natural, theoretical, and experimental sciences, to arts and humanities, as well as social sciences or engineering. From this perspective, projects should be based on tackling challenges that can be encompassed within one of these three thematic areas, and address one of the twelve specific challenges:

1. Health and well-being in the city
   1. Health and quality of life
   2. Social well-being and improvement of public services
   3. Urban planning, housing, and public spaces
   4. Sustainable mobility of people and goods
2. Climate action
   1. Climate emergency and the city
   2. Urban, terrestrial, and marine ecosystems
   3. Urban food and agriculture
   4. Water and sustainable urban energy
3. City and society
   1. Green and blue economy in the city
   2. New spaces and models of responsible production and consumption
   3. Digital and smart cities
   4. Democracy, community, participation, and human rights

In this call, only legal entities falling within one of the following categories can apply:

• Public research bodies defined in article 47 of Law 14/2011, of June 1, on science, technology, and innovation.
• Public universities, their university institutes, and private universities with demonstrated capacity and activity in R&D&I, in accordance with the provisions of Organic Law 2/2023, of March 22, on the university system, which are registered in the Register of Universities, Centers, and Titles, created by Royal Decree 1509/2008, of September 12, which regulates the Register of Universities, Centers, and Titles.
• Public and private non-profit health centers and institutions linked to or under contract with the National Health System that carry out R&D&I activities.
• Biomedical or health research institutes accredited by ministerial order.
• State-level technological centers and technological innovation support centers registered in the center's registry created by Royal Decree 2093/2008, of December 19, which regulates technological centers and support centers for technological innovation at the state level, and creates the registry of these centers.
• Other public R&D&I centers, with legal personality, whose corporate purpose is mainly R&D&I.
• Non-profit private R&D&I centers with legal personality, whose corporate purpose is mainly R&D&I.

• Having a registered office or delegation in the municipality of Barcelona, or in its metropolitan region Open in a new window.
• The project's PI must be an emerging scientific person. That is, they must have defended and passed their first doctoral thesis after January 1, 2017, inclusive. This measure aims to promote the scientific careers of emerging individuals, i.e., those who have started their dedication to science only a few years ago. In the event that the individual has taken any maternity/paternity leave or leave to care for first-degree relatives since January 1, 2015, the time spent on these duties may be taken into account in the application, potentially delaying the deadline for obtaining the doctoral thesis by the full time of the leave, starting from January 1, 2015.
• The legal entity must indicate its scientific profile project reference, who assumes the role of PI.
• The person assuming the role of PI in the project cannot be listed as PI in any other application in this call.
• In all projects, the participation of one or two mentors is required, who must be scientific personnel and who endorse the project and commit to monitoring it throughout the development period. These mentors; if two, must respect gender parity or be two women; and must have a permanent connection to a research group, research center, or university, among other requirements.
• As a general rule, changes in the PI role linked to the project are not accepted while the project is being developed (neither in the project appraisal process nor in the implementation). Only for exceptional reasons, the interested party may request a change of PI, and it will only be effective if authorised by the instructing body or the body competent to award the grant.

The deadline for submitting the application form and the corresponding documentation is 35 calendar days from the day following the publication in the Official Gazette of the Province of Barcelona of this call. This is, from 24th April to 28th May.

Applications must be submitted electronically through the Barcelona City Council's electronic headquarters Open in a new window.

The Barcelona City Council will subsidize up to 80% of the project's cost, up to a maximum of €80,000. The remaining amount up to 100% of the project's value must be obtained from other sources of funding, which in no case can be from the Barcelona City Council. If selected, projects will be funded in full, respecting the aforementioned limits, and subject to the availability of adequate and sufficient credit.

The subsidies are intended to cover expenses related to the execution of the subsidized project. Eligible expenses are those that clearly correspond to the nature of the subsidized activity and are incurred during the project's execution period.

Eligible direct expenses include:

• Personnel expenses. This includes the labor cost of personnel explicitly involved in the project (including salary and Social Security contributions).
• Project-related expenses, such as supplies, or those derived from dissemination, advertising, preparation of educational and training materials, organization of expert meetings, congresses, conferences, workshops, and other dissemination activities associated with the better execution of the project. Also included are:
  • Costs associated with disseminating the results, including linguistic revision of texts and, if applicable, translation; also publication costs in scientific journals, and those derived from open access publication.
  • Travel, accommodation, and subsistence expenses of experts travelling to Barcelona to participate in activities.
• Purchase of technical material or consumable production necessary for project development (office supplies, chemical reagents, laboratory material, etc.).
• Insurance expenses related to project implementation and work carried out by external companies.
• Audit expenses are project subsidizable expenses up to a maximum of €3,000.

Eligible indirect expenses (cannot exceed 18% of the total planned expenditure in the budget):

Overhead costs associated with project development, including administrative, support, and/or management personnel costs; office supplies used by technical and administrative staff during project execution; or continuous supplies such as electricity, water, gas, etc.

Additionally, in this call, subcontracting of subsidized activities by beneficiaries up to a maximum of 50% of the subsidy amount is allowed.

The following are not eligible for subsidies:

• Expenditure on the purchase of inventoriable movable property: scientific, technical equipment, and software.
• Costs of working meals and subsistence, except if unequivocally linked to the holding of a conference, seminar, conference, or workshop.
• Protocolary care costs.
• Fees to national or international scientific societies.

The application to participate in the 2024 call consists of the following documentation to be submitted:

• Basic Document 1: Application form (Annex 1).
• Basic Document 2: Scientific-technical project report (Annex 2). With a maximum length of 15 pages (each side of a sheet is considered a page). Times Roman font, size 11 points, single spacing should be used. In drafting this report, it is necessary to consider environmental and social implications and the use of inclusive language. Basic Document 2 must only include the following sections:
  • Project title.
  • Name of the person assuming the role of PI and the research team, if applicable.
  • Project mentors.
  • Project abstract, maximum 300 words, written in Catalan or Spanish.
  • Project objectives (general and specific) and research questions.
  • Expected methodology.
  • Members of the research group.
  • Expected research results and tasks to be carried out.
  • Work plan and project implementation schedule. Integration of the project into the city's social reality and social impact of research.
  • Open science, citizen science, and dissemination activities.
  • Knowledge transfer in the city's public or economic sector and/or technological application of the project.
• Basic Document 3: Economic feasibility plan of the project (Annex 3). The plan should indicate the general budget of the project for its completion and include all planned expenses and income, as well as the adequacy of the requested resources to the project's reality.
• Basic Document 4: Curriculum vitae of the project's PI (Annex 4), with a maximum length of four pages.
• Basic Document 5: Endorsement letter from the project's mentor(s) (Annex 5). This document must include the mentors' CVs (with a maximum length of four pages per CV).

If the applicant has not previously submitted it to the Barcelona City Council or if it needs to be updated, the following documentation must be submitted with the application:

• NIF of the applicant.
• Documentation proving legal personality, as well as its registration in the corresponding registry.
• Document proving the applicant's representation with the person signing the application and NIF.

The instructing body will examine the technical documentation submitted as an application and verify that it meets the technical participation requirements.

The scientific-technical assessment may be carried out, in whole or in part, through external experts, national and international, in the thematic areas established in this call, who will assess the projects according to the evaluation criteria and scoring protocol. The scoring system for each criterion is from 0 to 10 and is grouped into three blocks, each of which has a different weight in the final evaluation: scientific-technical quality (40%), implementation capacity (40%), and social impact of projects (20%).

To be subsidized, projects must obtain a minimum of 7 out of 10 points in total.

In case of a tie in the final score, the tiebreaker criteria will follow the following order:

1. The project incorporates a woman in the PI role.
2. The project incorporates master's, postgraduate students, or predoctoral personnel as members of the project development team (pursuing a doctorate).

This evaluation will be sent to the Evaluation Commission, which will make the proposal for projects to be subsidized.

The Evaluation Commission is composed of the following members:

• The deputy mayor for Economy, Finance, Economic Promotion, and Tourism of the Barcelona City Council or the person they delegate, who will preside over the commission.
• The Economic Promotion manager of the Barcelona City Council or the person they delegate.
• The head of the Department of Science and Universities of the Barcelona City Council, or the person they delegate.
• Two members of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Barcelona City Council, appointed by the deputy mayor for Economy, Finance, Economic Promotion, and Tourism.

For the proper conduct of the session, a technical person from the Department of Science and Universities, who will act as the technical secretary of the Evaluation Commission, will also be part of the commission, with a voice but without a vote.

In case of obtaining the subsidy, it is necessary to submit the following documentation within 10 business days from the notification of the provisional resolution:

• PI's doctoral title, showing the date of obtaining it.
• Consent document for the use of personal data (Annex 6).
• Proof of having completed the bank account designation procedure from the Barcelona City Council's website's processing portal. The designation must be made through this link.
• Transparency statement (Annex 7).

• The project results must be disseminated through a dissemination article or in another format designed to be published and accessible openly through the municipal website.
• With the aim of materializing knowledge transfer to society, beneficiaries must also submit to the Barcelona City Council summaries of research results and their implications in the form of knowledge transfer sheets.
• Both documents described in points 16.1 and 16.2 must be submitted within 3 months after the project's completion and as a complement to the final scientific-technical report.
• Subsidized projects must be disseminated through the usual scientific channels. The Barcelona City Council may also propose to the beneficiaries to participate in citizen dissemination and knowledge transfer activities organized mutually or at the initiative of the Barcelona City Council in events it organizes, such as the City and Science Biennial. Attendance at these events is mandatory for at least one project member and is part of the social return on obtaining municipal subsidy.
• The following phrase must be included in any dissemination and advertising material carried out as part of the project development, as well as in participation in any dissemination activity mentioning the project: "The project has been funded by the Barcelona City Council." The graphic material derived from the project must follow the Barcelona City Council's corporate image guidelines.
• Research data resulting from the research will be made public preferably using open science channels.

The publication of approved subsidies will be made in the Official Gazette of the Province of Barcelona (BOPB) and on the Barcelona City Council's Subsidies portal Open in a new window, the Barcelona City Council website Open in a new window, and Virtual Office Open in a new window.

To check your application, the registration number and transaction reference number will be required.