A grant programme to help SMEs take their digital transformation a step further
The Kit Consulting programme, promoted by Red.es, is getting under way. This new grant programme is aimed at SMEs with between 10 and 249 employees, and its goal is to make it easier for them to hire specialised, personalised digital consultancy services.
Kit Consulting is part of Spain’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan and has a budget of €300 million financed by the European Union through NextGenerationEU funds.
The regulatory bases for Kit Consulting were published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) on 11 May and are available on the Acelera Pyme website, www.acelerapyme.es.
Vouchers of €12,000, €18,000 and €24,000 for consultancy services
The grant takes the form of a Digital Consultancy Voucher that SMEs must use to contract one or more of the consultancy services included in the Programme. These services will allow beneficiary SMEs to develop a roadmap to advance the digitalisation of their business and continue their digital transformation.
The amount of Kit Consulting grants varies according to company size: for SMEs with between 10 and 49 employees, the grant is €12,000; for SMEs with between 50 and 99 employees, the voucher is €18,000; and for companies with between 100 and 249 employees, the voucher is €24,000.
Beneficiary SMEs must use the Kit Consulting digital consultancy voucher to contract one or more consultancy services from a catalogue of 10 service categories in key areas of digital transformation: AI consultancy, data analytics consultancy (basic and advanced), digital sales consultancy, business or production process consultancy, business strategy and performance consultancy, cybersecurity consultancy (basic, advanced and certification readiness) and “360” digital transformation consultancy.
SMEs will be able to start applying for the grant in mid-June. To access these grants, applicant small and medium-sized businesses must meet the minimum requirements set out in the programme rules.
Automated management system
Kit Consulting will implement an innovative automated management system that uses robotic process automation and Artificial Intelligence tools to minimise red tape, reduce the number of documents required and shorten award times.
As a result, SMEs will be able to apply for the grant without submitting any documentation. In addition, when verifying the consultancy services, Red.es will use, for the first time, an Artificial Intelligence platform to support the verification of the justification of the services contracted. This process will be carried out using an LLM system designed to detect plagiarism and copying and to assess the quality of the documents submitted.
Kit Consulting also includes the figure of the “voluntary representative”, allowing any duly authorised third party, whether an individual or a legal entity, to apply for the grant on behalf of the company, helping to simplify procedures for SMEs and the self-employed.
