The Government will distribute EUR 50 million in the university research promotion programme for the period 2026-2029

The Department of Science, Universities and Innovation of the Basque Government will launch the programme to promote university research on 19 September, following its approval by the Governing Council on Tuesday. The new edition will have a budget of EUR 50 million for the period 2026-2029, which is 20% more than in the previous call for the programme, when it allocated EUR 42 million.

The Minister of Science, Universities and Innovation, Juan Ignacio Pérez Iglesias, stressed the importance of the new programme at the presentation event held this Wednesday in San Sebastián. "Supporting university research groups with accredited pathways and projects is the basis of our pyramid of science, technology and innovation. Funding is crucial to ensuring the quality and cultural, social and industrial impact of Basque research," he said.

In his view, the new programme 'greatly improves the previous one: it increases the budget, with EUR 50 million, a very important amount of money; it puts its emphasis on the quality of scientific production, and not so much on volume, it reduces bureaucracy, promotes the scientific leadership of women researchers and promotes the social dissemination of the knowledge generated'.

It stresses that the initiative is a 'clear commitment' by the Basque Government to university research and believes that the academic community 'will understand it'.

At present, the programme finances 223 research groups, and with the increase in funding in the new call, 250 beneficiary groups are expected to be able to continue with the consolidated projects and incorporate new high-quality initiatives, and more than 4,000 researchers will receive this support.

The projects will cover all areas of knowledge, promote the diversity of the Basque scientific fabric and provide stable support to the research work of the Basque universities.

The new edition introduces "significant improvements" from the previous one. It prioritizes the scientific quality and coherence of projects, as well as the consolidated trajectory of groups over the volume of accumulated merits, which gives "greater value" to the reflection of each group on its research activity.

It will also reduce the bureaucratic burden, both in the application and in the resolution, in order to speed up the procedures and facilitate the participation of the groups. It will also promote a greater gender balance so that 42% of the research groups are led by women (currently 37%). It will also attach greater importance to the social dissemination of knowledge as an evaluation criterion, recognizing its importance in building a more informed and participatory society.

An impact of EUR 400 million.

The Government expects EUR 50 million of public investment over the next four years to have an economic impact of EUR 400 million, of which EUR 100 million will come from international calls and EUR 300 million from competitive projects, all of which have been attracted by the research groups themselves.

In addition, the Department will open on Saturday, 6 September, the Ikasiker call for 190 scholarships for university students to begin basic and applied research work within the Basque Research System, with a budget of 330,000 euros.

The students awarded this course will collaborate with the research groups of the Basque University System, the Centres for Basic Research and Excellence, the Health Research Institutes, the Cooperative Research Centres and the Technological Centres of the Basque Network of Science, Technology and Innovation.