Recurrent: State Research Agency/M. of Science, Innovation and Universities.

Recurred resolution: R CTBG 1415/2024

In exercise of the right of access to public information, an application for access to information was submitted to the State Research Agency/MINISTRY OF SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND UNIVERSITIES on three grants granted in the 2014 call for the State Program of Research, Development and Innovation Oriented to the Challenges of Society, within the framework of the State Plan of Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2013-2016.

The Administration, although it communicated in a timely manner the extension of the deadline to resolve, did not subsequently carry out the communication to the applicant informing him of the suspension of the deadline for resolution as a result of the processing of claims granted to the affected third parties for which he considered that the legally established deadline had elapsed and understood that the application had been rejected by silence.

The State Investigation Agency issues a decision granting the information regarding the duration and amount of the aid, but agrees to deny access to the submitted annual monitoring reports and reports of justification and economic on the basis of the provisions of the limits provided in Article 14.1.h) and j) LTAIBG—in order to avoid prejudice to the economic and commercial interests of the entities benefiting from the aid and to protect professional secrecy and intellectual and industrial property, respectively—. It also invokes the applicability of the provisions of Article 15 LTAIBG, and points out the inequality in the treatment that the disclosure of this information for these projects would entail with respect to those of the rest of the call.

The Council considers that the need to restrict access to some of the information in order to ensure the protection of economic and commercial interests, as well as the know-how of the subsidised companies, has been sufficiently justified. However, it partially estimates the claim, recognizing the right of the claimant to access the conclusions of the scientific and technical individual assessment report of the Technical Commission and the reasoned assessment report referred to in article 22 of the call, since the cause of inadmissibility invoked does not apply to this information.