The State Reseach Agency (AIE) highlights the success of the Torres-Quevedo grants

The State Research Agency (Agencia Estatal de Investigación, AEI) is a public body under the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, responsible for promoting scientific and technical research across all fields of knowledge through the efficient allocation of public resources. This past March, the AEI published a report analyzing the long-term effectiveness of the Torres-Quevedo Grants—one of the agency’s most significant initiatives in the private sector, of which todobarro is a recipient.

The Torres-Quevedo Grant program provides funding to the private sector over three-year periods so that companies can offer permanent contracts to PhD holders, particularly in industrial research projects, experimental development, or feasibility studies. The report specifically examines the long-term impact of the grants awarded in 2014.

In our case, the program has helped us launch the BIOECOREST project for the restoration of marine forests—an ambitious initiative led by Dr. Raquel Sánchez de Pedro, one of the leading emerging voices in marine algae ecology. The BIOECOREST project is a pioneering effort to explore how clay-based technologies can contribute to the recovery of coastal and riverine marine ecosystems. We are developing the project in partnership with the University of Málaga, and it is also a collaborative effort with researchers from the Universities of Seville and Trieste (Italy), thanks to funding from the Torres-Quevedo Grants (PTQ2023-013189), financed by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033.

A Program That Is Proving Its Effectiveness

The AEI report confirms something that should come as no surprise: innovation and investment in talent work. We live in an environment—especially in the private sector—that can often be very conservative in terms of techniques and methods. As a society, we generally struggle to change the way we do things, even though many of our work and production models have proven obsolete—particularly in recent years in the face of the climate crisis.

According to the data in the State Research Agency’s report on the Grants:

• 90% of the beneficiary entities developed new products, processes, or services.
• More than half of the products developed thanks to the grant reached the market, as did 36% of the processes and 69% of the new services.
• 51% of the entities involved in the call studied in the report “improved their competitiveness, increased scientific knowledge in their field, and even implemented new methodologies, expanding their product portfolios and the number of people dedicated to Research, Development and Innovation.”

The positive results of this report are encouraging for us, as innovation is one of the cornerstones of our work. This may seem counterintuitive, as we work in a discipline and with a material that has been part of human societies since their earliest days. However, even in the most established processes, there is room for research, development, and optimization—whether in terms of sustainability, product development, or material applications. Integrating into teams those individuals who possess a level of knowledge and expertise beyond our own should be standard practice in any sector that seeks to adapt to the 21st century.