SOCIEDAD PARA EL FOMENTO DE LA INNOVACION TECNOLOGICA S.L. - INNOVATEC

Their core work

INNOVATEC is a Spanish innovation consultancy specializing in knowledge transfer, dissemination, and brokerage between research and policy. They design and manage frameworks that connect EU-funded research outputs to regional policy, health systems, and international cooperation agendas. Their core competence is bridging the gap between scientific results and real-world uptake — particularly in health research programming and EU-Africa/EU-CELAC policy dialogue. All six of their H2020 projects are Coordination and Support Actions (CSA), confirming their role as orchestrators and connectors rather than technology developers.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their early H2020 period (2014–2018), INNOVATEC focused on regional innovation policy, smart specialisation (RIS3), blue growth knowledge transfer, and responsible research in higher education — a broad portfolio of knowledge brokerage topics. From 2019 onward, they sharpened their focus decisively toward international health cooperation, particularly personalised medicine across EU-CELAC and EU-Africa corridors. This shift from generalist innovation support to specialized global health policy coordination represents a clear strategic repositioning.

INNOVATEC is moving toward becoming a specialist in intercontinental health research coordination, particularly EU-Africa personalised medicine partnerships — expect them to seek more global health governance and policy alignment projects.

How they like to work

INNOVATEC operates as both a coordinator and an active partner, having led 2 of their 6 projects including their largest (EU-Africa PerMed, EUR 640K). With 68 unique consortium partners across 29 countries, they maintain an exceptionally wide network for a small SME — indicating they serve as connectors and network weavers rather than repeat-partner loyalists. Their strength in consortia is bringing coordination capacity, dissemination infrastructure, and policy network access rather than deep technical expertise.

Remarkably broad network for an SME: 68 unique partners across 29 countries, spanning Europe, Africa, and Latin America. Their geographic reach reflects their role in intercontinental policy dialogue rather than purely European collaboration.

What sets them apart

INNOVATEC stands out as a small Spanish SME that punches well above its weight in international research policy coordination, particularly across EU-Africa and EU-CELAC corridors. Unlike technical consultancies, their value lies in orchestrating knowledge flows and policy alignment between disparate research systems across continents. For consortium builders, they bring ready-made networks in global health governance and a proven track record of managing CSA-type coordination work — a niche few SMEs occupy.

Highlights from their portfolio

• EU-Africa PerMed
  Their largest project (EUR 640K, coordinator role) building personalised medicine links between Europe and Africa — represents their strategic direction and biggest responsibility.
• EULAC-PerMed
  Widened EU-CELAC cooperation in personalised medicine, demonstrating INNOVATEC's rare capacity to work across both Latin American and African corridors.
• COLUMBUS
  Showed versatility — a marine/blue growth knowledge transfer project, distinct from their later health focus, revealing their core transferable skill in knowledge brokerage.