APTENISA 2024 will foster 75 new business ideas and 30 startups

The Association of Science and Technology Parks of Spain (APTE) and the National Innovation Company (ENISA) have signed a new agreement to develop the third edition of the APTENISA programme for business ideation and acceleration that will lead to the detection of 75 new business ideas and the acceleration of 30 startups.

The APTENISA programme focuses on facilitating the creation of new technology-based companies and reducing the obstacles they face during their growth, thus supporting the development of a size that makes them more competitive, in clear harmony with the objectives of the Spanish Government's Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, with the Law for the Creation and Growth of Companies, the Law for the Promotion of the Emerging Companies Ecosystem and the Spain Up Nation Strategy.

APTENISA will support entrepreneurship during 2024 from the initial idea to the acceleration phase, validation of the business model and incorporation, through a common methodology based on the Candy Innovation Model and Lean Launch Pad methodologies, to be developed by the 7 science and technology parks that will participate in this new edition located in 5 autonomous communities:

• MÁLAGA TECHPARK (Málaga)
• MADRID SCIENCE PARK (Madrid)
• LA SALLE TECHNOVA BARCELONA (Barcelona)
• PARCBIT (Palma de Mallorca)
• SCIENTIFIC PARK OF ALICANTE (Alicante)
• CARTUJA SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL PARK (Sevilla)
• SCIENTIFIC PARK OF THE UNIVERSITY MIGUEL HERNANDEZ OF ELCHE (Alicante)

APTENISA also takes into account the territorial, connectivity and gender gaps, and is committed to promoting initiatives that encourage digitisation and the implementation of technologies in different sectors, as well as female entrepreneurship.

This collaboration between ENISA and APTE began in 2022 with the launch of the APTENISA pilot programme, which has been consolidated over the last few editions and has led to more than 200 new business ideas and accelerated 59 start-ups.

The National Innovation Company values this collaboration very positively, as Borja Cabezón, CEO of this public company, pointed out: "The APTENISA programme, which is now in its third edition, is proving to be a good tool for the emergence of new business ideas and the promotion of start-ups. The work that APTE and the Technology Parks of Spain are carrying out, together with ENISA, makes these necessary alliances possible to promote and strengthen entrepreneurship in our country and, in particular, in the field of technology".

Felipe Romera, president of APTE, added: "I would like to express my satisfaction with a programme that is allowing our association to structure the national entrepreneurship ecosystem around Spanish science and technology parks and support the development of new start-ups, which are essential to improve the level of innovation and competitiveness of our country".

With the opening of the call from 20 May, the business idea proposals received will participate in the APTENISA START incubation phase, which will run from 17 June to 12 July.

All the information on the programme can be consulted on the website: https://www.apte.org/aptenisa