ASOCIACION ESPANOLA DE PROVEEDORESDE AUTOMOCION

Their core work

SERNAUTO is Spain's national trade association for automotive component and system suppliers, representing the industrial supply chain that feeds manufacturers like SEAT, VW, and Stellantis plants across the Iberian Peninsula. In EU research projects, they function as an industry gateway: validating that research agendas match real manufacturing needs, mobilising their member network for pilots and surveys, and translating technical results into formats that SME suppliers can actually adopt. Their two H2020 involvements reveal a dual role — lending automotive industry legitimacy to a connected-transport safety project, then actively driving training content development for energy audits targeted at their own member companies. They do not conduct original research; their value is access to the production floor and the ability to make results land in industrial practice.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their first H2020 project (SCOUT, 2016–2018), SERNAUTO's involvement was oriented toward connected and automated transport — a technology adoption challenge for automotive suppliers facing the shift to V2X and autonomous systems. By their second project (E2DRIVER, 2019–2022), the focus had rotated sharply toward energy efficiency and innovative workforce training, reflecting the automotive sector's growing pressure to decarbonise production and upskill its workforce. The trajectory suggests they are following where regulatory and market pressure is pushing their member companies: from adapting to new vehicle technology to managing energy costs and sustainability compliance.

SERNAUTO is orienting toward sustainability and green-skills capacity building for the automotive supply chain — a direction likely to intensify as EU emissions and energy regulations tighten on industrial suppliers.

How they like to work

SERNAUTO has never led an H2020 project, always joining as a participant — a pattern consistent with an industry association that contributes sectoral reach rather than technical or project-management capacity. Despite only two projects, they engaged with 24 unique partners across 8 countries, which points to participation in sizeable, multi-partner CSA consortia rather than tight specialist collaborations. Consortia builders should expect SERNAUTO to contribute industry validation, member-network access, and dissemination to the Spanish automotive supply community, not technical workpackage leadership.

SERNAUTO's two projects generated 24 unique consortium partners spanning 8 countries — an unusually broad network for just two participations, reflecting the large multi-stakeholder consortia typical of CSA actions. Their geographic footprint is European, with a natural anchor in Spain and likely ties to major automotive manufacturing nations such as Germany, France, and Italy.

What sets them apart

SERNAUTO is one of the very few EU research participants that can directly open doors to Spain's automotive supplier base — a sector of roughly 800–900 companies employing hundreds of thousands of people. For any consortium needing real-world industrial validation, pilot site access, or dissemination into the Spanish automotive supply chain, there is no comparable substitute. Their credibility comes from being the sector's own voice, not from research outputs, which means results they endorse carry practical weight with the companies that actually need to implement them.

Highlights from their portfolio

• E2DRIVER
  Highest-funded project (€93,912) and the most thematically rich, combining energy audit training with cutting-edge pedagogical methods — virtual reality, flip teaching, adaptive learning — tailored specifically to automotive sector professionals.
• SCOUT
  Positioned SERNAUTO at the frontier of connected and automated transport during a pivotal period for automotive regulation, giving them early visibility into V2X and autonomous systems adoption challenges for suppliers.