Compiled with the help of artificial intelligence, based on Spanish-language information. Source below the article.
Canary Islands to receive €2.5 million for AI development
The Canary Islands is set to receive €2.5 million from the Red IA and Red IA Salud grant schemes, promoted by the Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service, to boost the development and application of artificial intelligence (AI) across the archipelago’s business sector and healthcare system.
The Minister for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service, Óscar López, announced the resolution of both funding lines on Monday during his speech at the 40th Digital Economy and Telecommunications Meeting of Ametic, currently underway in Santander.
€180 million investment across Spain
Across Spain as a whole, the two schemes represent an investment of €180 million and will fund 372 artificial intelligence projects. Of this total, €2.5 million corresponds to projects developed in the Canary Islands.
The Red IA scheme, endowed with €130 million from the Feder funds, is aimed at driving technological development and innovation in artificial intelligence, as well as its integration into production processes. In total, 300 business projects from all autonomous communities will receive funding.
The selected projects cover areas including intelligent assistants, digital twins, advanced robotics, computer vision, cybersecurity and predictive systems. According to López, 70% of the beneficiary initiatives correspond to small and medium-sized enterprises, with grants ranging from €400,000 to €5 million.
AI in healthcare
This funding line is complemented by Red IA Salud, which has a further €50 million to finance 72 projects related to artificial intelligence in the healthcare sector. The initiatives will cover different stages of the care process, from prediction and diagnosis through to treatment and patient monitoring, in addition to projects related to clinical, biomedical and pharmacological research, and emergency response.
The arrival of these funds represents a new opportunity for Canary Islands businesses and institutions to accelerate the adoption of AI technologies, at a time when administrations are seeking to extend these tools beyond the major technology hubs.
Democratising access to AI
During his speech, López defended precisely the need to democratise access to AI and make it easier for companies to incorporate this technology into their processes. “Just as nobody sets up a business without wifi today, tomorrow nobody will be able to compete without AI,” he stated.
The minister argued that productivity does not increase solely through the emergence of a new technology, but rather when it proves useful and becomes widespread among businesses and citizens. In this regard, he defended the need to increase computing capacity to develop a competitive Spanish artificial intelligence.
For the Canary Islands, the challenge lies in leveraging this investment to strengthen its business fabric, foster innovation and transfer AI advances to strategic sectors, including healthcare.
National AI strategy
López placed these grants within the Government’s strategy to consolidate Spain as one of Europe’s leading references in artificial intelligence. As he highlighted, the National AI Strategy, launched in 2020 and reinforced in 2024, has accumulated funding in excess of €1.5 billion.
The minister also advocated during the Ametic meeting for a “humanistic AI”, oriented towards modernising public services, improving business competitiveness, guaranteeing security and protecting citizens’ rights.
In this framework, the €2.5 million allocated to the Canary Islands joins the set of public investments with which the Government aims to accelerate digital transformation and extend the use of artificial intelligence across the whole of the national territory.
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