Next Generation EU funds under the European recovery plan to tackle the economic and social consequences caused by COVID-19 are expected to arrive imminently. Companies and organisations in the biomedicine and healthcare sector are waiting for this opportunity to advance in innovation, digitalisation, ecological transition and reindustrialisation.

CataloniaBio & HealthTech and KPMG organised a webinar on 12 July about the 5 most relevant points to take into account with more than 90 executives and professionals.

Judit Anido, CEO of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, pointed out that "the healthcare sector and its highly innovative component should be key in building a more competitive country with a return to society in terms of wellbeing and knowledge". CataloniaBio & HealthTech has been working for months with the Government of Catalonia and the Spanish Government "to transmit the strengths and challenges of the sector so that it can finally become one of the main economic drivers," added Anido.

Fund management in Spain

The Spain's recovery plan foresees 110 reforms in 11 areas to strengthen the economic and social structure, including science (modernising and strengthening the research system, deploying large-scale projects that are a drivingforce and boosting innovation) and technology (increasing Catalonia's technological capital through a new industrial policy, support for SMEs, the promotion of sectors with the greatest future and a programme to renew the National Healthcare equipment).

The Government will roll out 20 investment-driver programmes with more than €66 billion between 2021 and 2023, which are integrated into the 30 plan sections and are both sectoral and multi-sectoral in nature," explained Cándido Pérez Serrano, KPMG Spain's associate in charge of Infrastructure, Government and Healthcare.

Opportunities for the healthcare sector

There are two major health-related investment driver programmes:

• Development of the National Science and Innovation System (€3.38 billion).
• Renovation and modernisation of the healthcare system (€1.07 billion).

And, although not sectoral, but of interest to innovative companies:

• SME digitalisation plan (€4.07 billion).
• New industrial policy Spain 2030 and circular economy strategy (€3,782,000)
• National artificial intelligence strategy (€500 million)

How to access funds if you are a company

In July, investments will be driven by the following instruments:

• Direct investment by the State.
• Agreements with the Autonomous Communities (CCAA) or local corporations to develop the projects.
• Subsidies to private initiative through the State or Autonomous Communities, depending on their areas of responsibility.
• Participation in consortiums, public-private funds or company capital.
• Public aid through financial instruments (credits, guarantees, etc.) and investment funds (e.g. the Next Tech fund for scaling up startups or highly innovative companies).
• Innovative public procurement for innovation policy or the digitisation of the Administration, among others.
• Participation in transnational projects or projects of common European interest.

Moreover, although the experts are uncertain, the Strategic Projects for Economic Recovery and Transformation (PERTE) will play an important role when it comes to implementing the Next Generation EU in Spain, as companies covering the entire value chain, including SMEs, will be added.

"The PERTE is a new management instrument, not exempt from difficulties in its development, and which does not yet have a detailed regulation to resolve the uncertainties of the model", said Cándido Pérez Serrano. "Recently, the automotive PERTE was approved. We must bear in mind that the detailed regulation of the PERTE will be approved by the Ministry of Finance, so, in the absence of this regulation, this PERTE could provide interesting information for others such as the future National Health System PERTE," said Pérez Serrano.

"A company's strategic project may be eligible for different types of aids from sectoral and transversal programmes. We don't know which ones yet, but there will be calls for health projects in areas of interest such as advanced therapies, precision medicine, technological adaptation of the entire National Health System and innovative purchasing," explained Olga Fidalgo, KPMG Spain's associate in charge of Life Sciences.

Project characteristics

The selection processes for projects and economic operators will follow EU regulations under the principles of transparency and free competition, and the participation of SMEs will be guaranteed.

"The recovery plan must be implemented within very tight deadlines, so mechanisms will be introduced to redirect funds to projects that are being implemented more efficiently," said Cándido Pérez Serrano.

Key dates

60% of the funds will be released by 31 December 2022 and 100% by 31 December 2023.

Projects could be implemented until 30 August 2026.

Projects started after 1 February 2020 will be eligible for European funding.

"In general, companies and entities in the healthcare sector have experience in accessing public support. For the Next Generation EU, it is important for each company to focus on its strategic projects, analyse the possible fit with the requirements of the funds, identify the most feasible ones and prepare preliminary information. Afterwards, we will see how the grants are coming in so that we can align them with the projects" explained Jordi Oliver Hernández-Nieto, KPMG Catalonia, Balearic Islands, Aragon and Andorra's associate in charge of Public Sector Consulting and Grants.

Special section on the CataloniaBio & HealthTech website

Against a background of over-information on European funds, CataloniaBio & HealthTech has reached an agreement with KPMG as a knowledge partner to offer the most strategic information to its 180 members, which can be consulted on the website https:/ /cataloniabioht.org/next-generation-eu/.

KPMG has a division that specialisesin Life Sciences and is one of the world's leading providers of advisory and support services, both in terms of preliminary documentation preparation and assistance with project submissions to the corresponding public calls for proposals.