CDTI SERA — Partenariados Pilar 2 (Horizon Europe)

CDTI SERA-2 (Partenariados Pilar 2)

Funds partnership-based participation in Horizon Europe industry missions for frontier sectors.

⚠ This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.

CDTI SERA (Selección de Entidades de la Red Asociada) is a direct-allocation grant mechanism through which CDTI E.P.E. provides national co-funding to Spanish companies that have received approval letters from Horizon Europe Pillar 2 Partnership secretariats. SERA 2026-2 is the second call of 2026, scheduled for July 2026 per the CDTI official calendar, following the close of SERA 2026-1. The programme currently covers three Horizon Europe Partnerships: Water4All (water security and sustainability), Agroecology (sustainable agriculture systems), and FutureFoodS (future food systems). Applicants must hold a formal carta de aprobación from the relevant Partnership secretariat before the CDTI application stage.

Grant intensity under SERA scales by company size: up to 70% for small enterprises, 60% for medium enterprises, and 40% for large enterprises, subject to available funds. Eligible costs include personnel, materials, contracted research, consultancy (capped at EUR 8,000), dissemination (capped at EUR 15,000), and indirect costs at up to 25% of eligible direct costs. The total SERA 2026-1 budget was EUR 425,000; the budget for 2026-2 has not yet been published. Project durations follow the timelines established at the Horizon Europe Partnership level.

Both for-profit companies and nonprofits may apply; universities and research organisations are not eligible as CDTI grant recipients under SERA. The mechanism is non-competitive on the CDTI side—Spanish companies approved by the relevant international Partnership secretariat receive CDTI co-funding as a national matching contribution to their EU-level award. The practical implication is that CDTI selection effort is concentrated at the Horizon Europe Partnership application stage. Spanish agri-food, water-technology, and food-systems companies that have succeeded in or are targeting Horizon Europe Pillar 2 Partnership consortia should account for SERA as the automatic national co-funding route once Partnership approval is secured.