Clara Rojas MADRID

MADRID

Updated Saturday, April 6, 2024-02:22

In Spain, the business scenario of small and medium-scale innovation has the communities of Catalonia and Madrid as its main actors, according to the registry of innovative SMEs of the Ministry of Science and Innovation. However, if a temporal evolution is taken into account, the number of companies recognized with this seal

grows in the Canary Islands

, which has incorporated

50 new companies

with this definition since 2019, which would imply a

variation of 294%

, compared to the evolution of Spain 43.91%.

One of the reasons could be the

tax incentives that the Government of the islands offers to

R&D

activities

and represent a

45% deduction in expenses

compared to 25% on the Peninsula, among other discounts reported on the official portal. autonomous. This community has several special characteristics in tax matters as it is part of the

Canary Islands Special Zone (ZEC),

the

low tax area

authorized by the European Commission.

Variation of innovative companiesIsabel González

The

Innovative SME seal

has been around for a

decade

. The

Ministry of Science and Innovation

grants these accreditations to SMEs that meet

requirements

such as that their

activity shows an innovative nature

through their own patents or reports that support it, or that they have official certifications that recognize their capacity for innovation, among other requirements.

According to the official portal of the Ministry, this seal grants the possibility of benefiting from express aid to innovative SMEs, making the Social Security contribution bonuses for research personnel compatible with tax deductions for R&D&I, and accessing advantage to public procurement processes through the so-called Innovative Public Procurement.

In Spain, from 2019 to 2024, 991 companies

have been recognized with the innovative SME seal

, which in evolutionary terms translates into a growth of 43.91% in five years.

Variation in the number of innovative companiesIsabel González

NAVARRA, LEADER IN THE 2024 INDEX

In 2024, a total of 3,248 companies were

officially registered as innovative SMEs

. This means that, according to the analyzes published by the Infoempresa.com portal, "based on more than 1.1 million companies with economic activity", the business innovation ratio in Spain is

2.93 companies per 1,000 companies. active

.

Based on this ratio,

Navarra

leads in proportion of innovative companies (4.55 companies per 1,000). On the other hand, the community that has added the most innovations in the last year has been

the Balearic Islands

, which incorporates a total of

15 recognitions

for innovation.

In reference to the year 2023, the trends continue at the total level of Spanish innovative companies:

Catalonia

(25.73%) maintains the

weight of innovation in the total number

of companies in Spain, followed by

Madrid

(22.90%) and

the Community Valencian

(12.53%).