SPRI Artificial Intelligence 2026 grants: deadlines, requirements, and who can apply

August 26, 2026 By Miguel Alvarez

The SPRI Group’s Artificial Intelligence 2026 programme closes on November 2. It covers 60% of the investment, with a maximum of €100,000 per company, and applications are processed in order of receipt, so the actual timeline depends on the remaining budget. Below, we review what it funds, who fits the beneficiary profile, and what it is advisable to have ready before submitting the application file.

What is SPRI’s Artificial Intelligence 2026 programme?

The SPRI Group opened this call in March 2026 so that industrial companies can adopt artificial intelligence and put their data strategy in order. The rules were approved by Resolution of February 26, 2026, and the call was published in BOPV issue 55, dated March 23. It replaces the previous Applied Artificial Intelligence and Data Strategy line and responds to the priorities set out in the Basque Country’s Industry Plan.

The budget is up to €14 million. The aid is provided as a non-repayable grant, with no repayment or interest, and is paid in a single instalment after the project has been carried out and justified. Each company may submit one or more projects in the same year, always within that maximum aid limit.

The programme’s approach is interesting because it does not only fund technology. It recognises that most industrial companies do not need to start with a machine learning model, but rather by understanding what data they have, what condition it is in, and which use cases are worth pursuing. That part is also covered.

Until when can the SPRI AI grant be applied for?

The application window opened on March 24, 2026 and closes on November 2, 2026 at 11:59 PM. This is the formal deadline, although it is not the only date worth watching.

The call is decided on a rolling basis, i.e., in order of arrival of complete application files. When the budget is exhausted, the window effectively closes even if there are still weeks left on the calendar. And note this detail: the key word is “complete”, because an application file missing documentation does not keep its place in line until it is corrected. With this in mind, waiting until late October is a bet that the funds will still be available. Anyone with a project in mind should finalise the scope and technical report as soon as possible.

At LISDATA, we operate in this area frequently. We work daily with SPRI grants, both on our own projects through our R&D&I area and on those we develop for our clients, so we know the level of detail an application file requires and where it typically gets stuck. Here is more:

How much can you receive?

The aid intensity is 60% of the eligible base, capped at €100,000 per company. Within that limit, there are two conditions worth keeping in mind from the project design stage:

Consulting and engineering allow up to €100,000 in eligible expenditure and must represent at least 20% of the project’s eligible budget.
Hardware and software licences may not exceed €80,000 in eligible expenditure.

In round numbers, a project with an eligible base of around €167,000 reaches the maximum grant amount. Below that figure, the grant is calculated on what is actually executed and justified.

Who can apply for SPRI artificial intelligence grants?

Eligible applicants include industrial companies and related service companies linked to the product or the industrial process, regardless of size. Requirements include having an operating centre in the Basque Country, being registered for IAE in the Basque Country, and being up to date with tax and Social Security obligations. Excluded are entities that are part of the public sector and—this point should be reviewed carefully—companies affiliated with the Basque Network of Science, Technology and Innovation or similar R&D networks.

There is a nuance here that is often overlooked: what the call requires is having an operating centre in the Basque Country, being registered for IAE in the Basque Country, and that both the project and the investment are carried out at that centre, with a direct impact on its activity. A company headquartered in Madrid, Barcelona, or outside Spain that operates a plant in Álava, Bizkaia, or Gipuzkoa can apply for the grant, provided the project is executed there.

Which projects are eligible?

The programme organises the actions into five phases, which function as an adoption pathway. A company can enter at the phase that matches its starting point, and can also combine several within the same application file.

AI and data strategy: Maturity assessment, identification and prioritisation of use cases, and roadmap.
AI and data governance: Governance policies, data quality, roles and regulatory compliance, with the AI Act, the Data Act and ISO 42001 as reference frameworks.
Infrastructure and data: Sensorisation, IoT, capture and digitisation of plant data, databases, analytics platforms and business intelligence.
AI solutions: Prediction, optimisation, predictive maintenance, AI agents, computer vision, natural language processing, generative AI, automation and digital twins.
AI training and leadership: Internal training plans and work with teams so that the solution is actually used once delivered.

That last phase is often the most overlooked, and the one that most determines whether an AI project ends up in production or in a pilot that no one ever picks up again.

Which costs can be included and which cannot?

The programme groups eligible expenditure into three categories, each with its own cap.

Consulting and engineering: External professional services directly linked to the project, up to €100,000 in eligible expenditure. This is also the item with a minimum, as it must represent at least 20% of the eligible budget.
Hardware and software licences: Servers, sensorisation, capture devices and on-premises or hybrid environments, together with licences linked to AI and data activities. Up to €80,000 across both items.
Cloud services: Licences and services in SaaS mode linked to the project, with a maximum duration of 12 months.

And these are the items that are not included.

VAT and other recoverable taxes.
Work carried out with internal resources: In-house team hours do not count, even if they represent the largest share of the project.
Travel and per diems.
Standard office software licences and general-purpose IT equipment, such as laptops or monitors, that are not part of the project’s data infrastructure.

This breakdown has a practical consequence that is worth anticipating. Since internal work is not eligible and consulting and engineering must cover at least 20% of the budget, the project needs an external partner from the initial approach, not only for execution.

How do you apply, and what happens next?

The application is submitted online via the platform enabled by SPRI. The process has four stages.

Prepare the project: Before touching the form, you must verify that the company meets the sector, size and tax-status criteria, assess the available data and processes with room for improvement, define the use case, decide whether to implement a commercial solution or develop a bespoke one, choose the technology provider, and estimate the expected impact in cost savings, time and quality.
Provide the documentation: Responsible declaration, list of de minimis aid received, list of aid requested or granted for the same project, power of attorney for the legal representative, the company’s tax ID, and the technical and financial offer. There is a requirement that surprises those who do not expect it: if the project exceeds €15,000, offers from three different suppliers are required.
Detail the technical and financial offer: This is the document that underpins the application file. It must include the starting technological situation, the identified problem and objectives, the planned consulting and engineering tasks, hardware and software investments with justification, the solution analysis and technologies to be used, the budget breakdown with estimated hours per task, and the implementation schedule.
Execute and settle: SPRI has a maximum of six months to issue a decision. Once approved, the project has 12 months for execution from its start date, extendable up to 24 months in justified cases. The settlement is accompanied by a technical report of a maximum of 25 pages prepared by the supplier company at the end, including the objectives achieved, deviations from what was submitted, the task close-out with time allocations, evidence of the hardware and software, and a breakdown of what was invoiced. Payment is made in a single instalment after the expenditure is validated.

The documentation submitted with the application must still be valid at the time of settlement, so any structural change in the company must be reviewed. Supplier payments must also comply with Law 3/2004, with a maximum term of 30 days from service delivery unless otherwise agreed, and in any case not exceeding 60 calendar days.

Who can deliver your AI project?

At LISDATA, we have been working since 2013 in data engineering, advanced analytics and artificial intelligence for industrial companies, with a presence in Vitoria, Madrid, Barcelona, Santander and Hamburg. We work across all phases of the pathway, from the maturity assessment and roadmap through to production rollout and team training.

With strong expertise in consulting and delivery of AI projects, data governance and business intelligence, we are a Microsoft partner, part of the Anthropic Claude Partner Network, and hold data governance certification from DAMA International.

If you have an operating centre in the Basque Country and an idea you would like to put forward, there is still time to submit it before November 2. We can help.