“Connected Industry 4.0 (CI4.0)” was announced in 2014 aiming at digitising and enhancing competitiveness of Spain’s industrial sector. The initiative equally seeks to provide a strategy to support companies in their digital transformation. For the year 2016, the government allocated €97.5 million in loans for innovative and research projects targeting industrial enterprises, as well as €68 million (loans and direct aid) for ICT companies and €10 million for innovative clusters.
Despite initial set-up as a public private partnership, CI4.0 is driven by the General Secretary of Industry and SME. Next to the main industrial players, also experts belonging to tech companies, research and civil society are involved in CI4.0.
This Spanish government has allocated significant resources in ensuring that a Spanish model responding to the industry specific challenges is developed. Compared to related policies in Europe, the uniqueness of CI4.0 concerns its particular focus on supporting the implementation of digital transformation projects by providing support to SMEs and micro enterprises as well as providing a personalised service to guide SMEs in this process. Meanwhile, developing a holistic model with the help of a wide range of stakeholders from different backgrounds has proven to be a key challenge in this policy initiative.
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