The Provincial Council of Teruel adds 30,000 euros to the rural CIT awards

The Provincial Council of Teruel has incorporated a new line into its 2024-2027 Strategic Grant Plan, endowed with 30,000 euros for the CIT Annual Awards for Innovation in the Municipalities of the Province of Teruel. The modification was approved by Presidency Decree 2026-3618, dated October 16, and published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Teruel (BOP) no. 201, dated October 20, 2026, under official reference 2026-3046.

A new line within the 2024-2027 plan

The agreement is part of the provincial institution’s 2024-2027 Strategic Grant Plan, approved by the Plenary on January 31, 2024, and published in BOP no. 25, dated February 5. The modification adds action line no. 9.4, framed within the Municipal Assistance Service section and processed through a competitive bidding procedure, with a time frame spanning from 2024 to 2027.

The financial support comes from the collaboration agreement signed with the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge for the development of the Territorial Innovation Center of Teruel. That agreement was unanimously approved by the Plenary on July 29, 2026, as recorded in BOP no. 187, dated September 30, 2026 (reference 2026-2829), and its formalization was conditional upon the prior accreditation of adequate and sufficient credit.

Twenty awards and shared funding

The planned allocation for this year is 30,000 euros charged to the Provincial Council’s budget applications, distributed as follows:

• Ten awards of 2,000 euros each for the finalists.
• Ten awards of 1,000 euros each for the semifinalists.
• Up to 10,000 euros provided by the Ministry, charged to budget item 23.14.456E.461.02, for expenses derived from the management and delivery of the awards.

The regulatory bases will determine the conditions for granting and the scenarios in which the awards may be declared void. Natural or legal persons responsible for innovative initiatives developed in the rural areas of the province of Teruel who meet the requirements of the call may apply.

Proven impact and replication capacity

The declared strategic objective is to promote territorial innovation through the recognition and dissemination of initiatives that contribute to the social, economic, and environmental development of the Teruel rural environment and help address its demographic challenges. The evaluation criteria will be:

• Territorial impact and proven results.
• Degree of innovation of the initiative.
• Viability and continuity of the project.
• Scalability and possibility of replication in other territories.
• Alignment with the strategic areas of the CIT.
• Contribution to inclusion, equality, and sustainability.

The guidelines will specify the scoring, the means of accreditation, and the tie-breaking rules. Furthermore, the file establishes three specific objectives: to recognize operational initiatives with proven results, to make local talent and entrepreneurship visible, and to encourage the transfer of experiences to other municipalities and regions.

Processing and Monitoring

The execution period is structured into four phases: approval of the guidelines and the call for applications, following the processing of the file and reports; submission of applications within the period established in the call; electronic submission of the application and supporting documentation through the provided registration channels; and accreditation and justification of previous execution, results, and alleged merits.

Monitoring will be conducted using the general indicators of the Strategic Plan and specific indicators: applications received and admitted, municipalities and regions represented, typology of awarded initiatives, people benefited, employment generated or maintained, continuity of projects, alliances between public and private agents, and the degree of budget execution. The document is signed in Teruel, on October 16, 2026, by the Secretary General, José Luis López García.

The new line transforms the CIT into a tool with its own budget to reward projects already underway, not just ideas: the requirement to prove results and impact limits the call to consolidated initiatives from the rural environment of Teruel. For small municipalities, the twenty planned awards represent a direct incentive for collaboration between territorial agents and the replication of solutions in other regions, in line with the demographic challenge that the institution identifies as a priority.

Source: Official Gazette of the Province of Teruel, no. 201, of October 20, 2026, Local Administration, Most Excellent Provincial Council of Teruel, p. 3-4 (official reference: 2026-3046).