FEDIT — Spain's Federation of Technology Centres Diffusing Applied Research to SMEs

Founded in 1996, FEDIT (Federación Española de Centros Tecnológicos) federates 52 independently governed, non-profit technology centres spread across Spain's regions. In 2024 the network reported combined revenues above 917 million euros, roughly 10,800 professionals (about 8,500 of them researchers), and more than 23,700 applied-innovation projects delivered to roughly 29,000 client companies — most of them acting as the practical bridge between research capability and firms too small to run in-house R&D.
In 2024 FEDIT commissioned the Valencian Institute of Economic Research (Ivie) to quantify the network's economic contribution for the first time using input-output methodology, combining centres' operating-cost data with a fieldwork survey of 169 collaborating companies across 42 participating centres. Ivie estimated a total impact of 7.7 billion euros in GDP and 127,371 full-time-equivalent jobs, split between the direct effect of centres' own operating and investment spending (1.079 billion euros GDP, 19,289 jobs) and the larger effect attributed to increased client sales from technological collaboration (6.623 billion euros GDP, 108,082 jobs), plus 3.947 billion euros in tax and social-contribution revenue.
Because the Ivie figures rest on a cost-based input-output model and a company survey rather than a matched-comparison or randomised evaluation, they represent a modelled estimate of the network's economic footprint rather than a measured causal effect on individual client firms' productivity — a distinction worth flagging for anyone using the figures to judge marginal impact per euro of public support.

Read the full analysis: https://fedit.com/