Puertos 4.0 approves grants for 16 commercial projects totaling six million euros and will launch three new calls for proposals
The Distribution Committee of the Inter-Port Compensation Fund has approved the initial proposal for 2026, as well as the percentage contribution of the Port Authorities to this cohesion mechanism of the port system.
In addition, it has approved the program of actions of the Port Land Accessibility Financial Fund: 58 actions representing a total investment of €1,883.9 million to improve port connectivity.
03-10-2025 (Puertos del Estado). The Distribution Committee of the Inter-Port Compensation Fund, meeting yesterday, approved the provisional resolution to award grants to 16 commercial projects worth €6 million, under the Puertos 4.0 program, corresponding to the 2023 call.
A total of 67 applications were submitted to the call, of which 66 were admitted and, finally, 16 have been selected for funding, with a total amount of €6 million. The chosen projects focus on areas such as improving logistics efficiency, safety, sustainability, and process digitalization. Furthermore, the 16 selected projects are supported by 13 Port Authorities acting as facilitating agents.
The Committee also approved allocating a new budget of €18 million to Puertos 4.0, which will finance three new calls: ideas and commercial projects before the end of 2025 and pre-commercial projects in 2026.
The Puertos 4.0 Fund is the corporate open innovation model adopted by Puertos del Estado and the Port Authorities to attract, support, and facilitate the application of talent and entrepreneurship to the Spanish public and private port-logistics sector in the field of new technologies. Since its creation in 2020, 9 calls have been launched, receiving more than 900 applications, from which over 215 ideas and projects have been awarded, with a total amount exceeding €46 million, contributing to the modernization of the sector.
In addition, at this meeting of the Distribution Committee—a mechanism that enables the redistribution of resources within the state-owned port system according to needs—the definitive distribution proposal for 2025 and the initial proposal for 2026 were approved, as well as the contribution percentage of the Port Authorities: 5%, and for the Port Authorities of the Canary and Balearic archipelagos, Ceuta, Melilla, and Seville, 2.5%.
The initial distribution proposal for 2026, as established in the Consolidated Text of the State Ports and Merchant Marine Law, is allocated to aids to navigation (€9.7 million), Port Authorities with conditions of isolation, insularity, and outermost regions (€10.2 million), safety measures (€1.6 million), the Puertos 4.0 Fund (€8.7 million), and other criteria in accordance with Article 159.5 b) (€16.6 million).
The Committee also approved the updated program of actions of the Port Land Accessibility Financial Fund—aimed at improving the connectivity of Spanish ports—derived from the 2026 Business Plans, as well as the Fund’s budget for the coming year. The Fund now comprises 58 actions representing a total investment of €1,883.9 million, with a maximum contribution of €821.3 million expected to come from resources generated by public port bodies.