The Agency, within the scope of its competences, is part of various programs, consortia and joint programming initiatives, at European and international level, being represented in their governing bodies.

The objective of these initiatives is to promote international collaboration in the field of scientific research and, in the case of European initiatives, their fundamental objective is to strengthen the European Research Area (ERA, for its acronym in English).

Thanks to its adherence to these initiatives, the Agency annually finances a significant number of Spanish groups that are part of collaborative projects between various countries and in various scientific-technical areas. Some of these initiatives are part of the ERA-NET COFUND scheme and are co-financed by the European Union through the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Framework Program.

The launch of the new Horizon Europe Framework Program (2021-2027) is delayed for several months and is scheduled for June 2021. Horizon Europe will bring with it new forms of participation (so-called partnerships or associations) in which the Agency is actively working together with the Ministry of Science and Innovation, to help achieve the internationalization objectives of the Spanish Science, Technology and Innovation System (SECTI), reflected in the Spanish Strategies for Science, Technology and Innovation and in the successive State Plans that develop them.

The AEI is part of the governing bodies of a large number of European programs co-financed by the European Commission that follow the ERANET COFUND, Art. 185, Art. 187 schemes (coordination networks, which constitute the instrument to launch transnational calls for projects), basically participating as a funding body.

The main mission of the AEI representatives in these consortiums is to define the themes of the transnational calls in accordance with the priorities and needs of the SECTI, as well as to promote, as far as possible, the alignment of requirements and national and international procedures.

The AEI has participated in more than 50 joint calls within the framework of Horizon 2020, in the fields of health, bioeconomy, materials, information sciences, environmental sciences, energy and social sciences and humanities, among others, financing more of 500 research projects.

Since 2018, the AEI finances Spanish groups with the instrument R+D+I Projects "International Joint Programming" which, since 2020, consists of a direct concession resolution, in accordance with with the third final provision of Royal Decree-law 23/2020, of June 23.

The application application is opened once or twice a year in order to track the results of international calls.

Until 2017 the call was known as International Joint Programming Actions.

The Agency's participation in joint programs of various schemes directly or indirectly generates a return to the SECTI as a whole of around 5 million euros per year.

Within the framework of previous initiatives and other initiatives already completed, in recent years, the State Research Agency has financed more than xxx collaborative projects with many European and non-European countries.

In the following link you can find a dashboard that allows you to explore the type of projects, the areas, the beneficiaries and the countries with which it collaborates.

Link to dashboard

1. GPC-ERAC: High Level Group of the European Research Area (ERA, for its acronym in English) for the definition of Joint Programming. Created by the European Council and the European Commission. The AEI participates in this group together with the CDTI.
2. Joint Programming Group: Created in 2016 on the recommendation of the Spanish roadmap towards the European Research Area (ERA, for its acronym in English). The AEI is coordinated by the Group made up of representatives of the AEI itself, CDTI, ISCIII, INIA, FECYT and with the participation of the Ministry of Science and Innovation..
3. JPI WATER: Joint programming initiative related to water research. The AEI participates in the governing council and in the executive council. The AEI also coordinates one of the European projects co-financed by the EU, WaterWorks 2014.
4. JPI OCEANS: Joint programming initiative related to ocean research. The AEI participates as an associated country.
5. JPI CLIMA: Joint programming initiative related to climate observation. The AEI participates as an associated country.
6. JPI CULTURAL HERITAGE: Joint programming initiative related to research on European cultural heritage. The AEI participates as an associated country.
7. JPI HDHL: Joint programming initiative related to diet and healthy living. AEI participates in its governing bodies together with ISCIII.
8. JPI MYBL: Joint programming initiative related to research on aging. The AEI participates in the governing council together with the ISCIII.
9. JPI AMR: Joint programming initiative related to research on antimicrobial resistance. AEI participates in its governing bodies together with ISCIII.
10. JPND: Joint programming initiative related to research on Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases. The CDTI participates in its governing bodies together with the ISCIII. The AEI maintains an tracking position.
11. JPI URBAN: Joint programming initiative related to research in the global management of cities, including social and sustainability aspects. The AEI participates as an observer.
12. JTI ECSEL-JU: Research Joint Venture on Nano Electronics and Embedded Systems. The AEI participates in the groups of funding agencies and the definition of strategic areas together with the Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence (SEDIA-MAETD).
    In Horizon Europe, the ECSEL baton will be taken over by the new joint venture Key Digital Technologies (KDT JU), under art. 187 of the TFEU. The AEI has participated since 2020 in defining the KDT program together with SEDIA. The AEI will finance the participation of academic entities, while the SEDIA will finance the participation of the private sector.

In 2018, the AEI and the Carlos III Health Institute signed a tripartite collaboration agreement with the National Science Foundation of the United States (NSF), within the CRCNS Computational Neuroscience program. This is a very competitive program in which only four countries participate, in addition to Spain and the US: Japan, France, Germany and Israel.

• CRCNS Program. Collaboration agreement with the United States on computational neuroscience, signed by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Energy (DOE) of the United States and by the State Agency of Research and the Carlos III Health Institute, on the part of Spain.

• CYTED. Science and Technology Program for Development, created by the governments of the Ibero-American countries to promote cooperation in science, technology and innovation issues for the harmonious development of Ibero-America.

• EU-CELAC Interest Group. Composed of 28 funding agencies from Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe that wish to collaborate in bi-regional science, technology and innovation (STI), and the implementation of the EU-CELAC Common Research Space through joint actions.

• European Interest Group (EIG ) Concert Japan. It is an international joint initiative to support and improve cooperation in science, technology and innovation (STI) between European countries and Japan.