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, acting as the practical bridge between research capability and firms too small to run in-house R&D.

To diffuse applied R&D and innovation support to Spanish SMEs through a federated network of technology centres, and to quantify the network's overall economic contribution.

In 2024 the network reported combined revenues above 917 million euros, roughly 10,800 professionals (about 8,500 researchers), and more than 23,700 applied-innovation projects delivered to roughly 29,000 client companies. FEDIT commissioned the Valencian Institute of Economic Research (Ivie) to quantify the network's economic contribution 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 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.