CTA held its Board of Trustees meeting today, both in person and online, as part of the NISE (New Industry in Southern Europe) congress, organized by the Regional Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining at Fibes (Seville). CTA’s highest governing body reviewed the Foundation’s activity in 2025, a year in which it awarded €8 million in incentives to 39 business R&D an innovation projects, which will mobilize more than €19.49 million in innovation investment.
The CTA Board of Trustees made a very positive assessment of the 2021–2025 Strategic Plan, with all objectives achieved, and is looking ahead with optimism to the launch of the new 2026–2029 plan in January. The new Strategic Plan aims to strengthen CTA’s role as a public–private partnership for accelerating innovation processes, broaden the range of companies affiliated with the Foundation, and expand into eastern Andalusia with a new office in Granada. In addition, CTA will focus on growing its international activity (projects funded by the European Commission and multilateral market institutions) and on supporting companies to optimize their success in the innovation processes they undertake through the provision of advanced R&D&I services.
Holding the CTA Board meeting within the framework of NISE 2025 reflects its strong commitment to the Andalusian industrial sector, which CTA seeks to support in its drive for innovation. CTA will also host an Innovation Forum tomorrow as part of the official NISE 2025 agenda, where it will present the “Innovation Target” Observatory developed in collaboration with APD, engage in a dialogue with Cotec on the role of innovation as a driver of industrial growth, and showcase success stories from innovative industries that are CTA members, such as Fertinagro Biotech, Hitachi, Laboratorios Farmacéuticos Rovi, and Persán.
International activity and services
CTA maintained a growing level of international activity in 2025 as a benchmark partner in collaborative innovation projects. CTA has already taken part in more than 65 European projects and has worked with over 500 organizations from 45 countries. In 2025, new European projects involving CTA were launched, such as IRMHUB, BIOSTARS and Bioconfarm.
In addition, in 2025 CTA continued to provide new advanced innovation support services, ranging from advice on R&D and Innovation strategy and internationalization to Public Procurement of Innovation (PPI) processes, as well as funding searches, support for technology-based startups, technology transfer, and the preparation of studies and reports, among others.
Funding overview for 2025
A total of 39 business R&D&I projects were approved by CTA throughout 2025, to which it awarded a total of €8 million in incentives, mobilizing more than €19.49 million in private innovation investment in Andalusia.
The projects funded by CTA in 2025 will help transfer scientific knowledge into new solutions that will reach the market, as they subcontract 45 different research groups from Andalusian universities, hospitals and other public research centers for more than €2.32 million.
The sectors with the highest volume of approved projects in 2025 were ICT, accounting for 25.6% of the total, followed by Aerospace and Production Processes with 17.95%, and Biotechnology, also with 17.95%. The new projects approved by CTA in 2025 carry out R&D and innovation in a wide range of fields, with a predominance of applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Sustainability and Digitalized Industry. Key innovation lines include, for example, the development of new technologies for Industry 5.0; the identification of alterations in olive oil using omics tools and AI; digital tools for agrivoltaic systems; an electrodialytic desalination system for wastewater; new construction materials based on the circular economy; an agricultural monitoring system using aerospace technology; the recovery of critical metals; a digital twin of critical infrastructures; and regenerative therapies, among others.
