- The call has a budget of €40 million and seeks to establish business consortia to develop dual-use technologies linked to security, defence and aerospace
- Lorenzana explains that a feature distinguishing this call from previous ones is that it gives priority to manufacturing in Galicia. This means ensuring that “each investment leaves behind permanent production capacity, not just a headline”, she says
- It is a Pre-Commercial Public Procurement tender which, she stresses, “was not conceived in an office”, but rather emerged from prior strategic dialogue with 78 companies in the sector in order to identify challenges and needs more effectively
Santiago de Compostela, 15 September 2026
The Regional Minister for Economy and Industry, María Jesús Lorenzana, announced today that the partnership agreements, whose call remains open until 30 September, will be awarded with priority given to manufacturing in Galicia.
She made the announcement during a presentation event for this €40 million Pre-Commercial Public Procurement programme, through which the Xunta aims to select new strategic and technological partners to develop dual-use technologies, for civilian applications and for the security and defence sector, within the Strategic Initiative on Security, Defence and Aerospace (IESDA).
Lorenzana explained that a feature distinguishing this call from previous ones is that it makes manufacturing in Galicia a priority. This means, she said, “that knowledge remains in the region; that Galician companies join supply chains; that our technology and knowledge centres work hand in hand with those companies; that Galician talent finds opportunities here; and that every investment leaves behind permanent production capacity, not just a headline”.
“We want every euro of public funding mobilised to generate a real productive return for Galicia,” she added. “It must consolidate businesses, open up opportunities for SMEs, create skilled jobs and retain talent. We are not content with attracting technology; we want to attract industry.”
She noted that Galicia has an exceptionally diverse business base, including shipbuilding, automotive, metalworking, ICT, logistics, electronics and advanced manufacturing. These are sectors with already proven capabilities that can now join the new security, defence and aerospace value chains.
Moreover, this tender “was not conceived in an office”, she said, but followed a prior strategic dialogue with 78 companies in the sector. “We listened to them before designing the instrument, identified the industry’s real technological challenges together with them, and developed a call designed around those needs, rather than the other way round,” she stressed.
This measure is the first major component of the Ecosystem Programme within the Strategic Initiative on Security, Defence and Aerospace. With a budget of €183 million, the programme aims to mobilise €900 million in public and private investment, create more than 500 direct highly skilled jobs, and consolidate new value chains around these three sectors. It complements support already in place for investment in dual-use industry, the call to certify Galician companies as suppliers to the defence sector, and the programme to train the professionals the sector will require.
