Mexico Innovation Stimulus (PEI): 2026 SECIHTI Successors and Historical Reference

The former Programa de Estímulos a la Investigación, Desarrollo Tecnológico e Innovación (PEI) is not an open application opportunity. The official SECIHTI archive contains the PEI 2019 call, while the current official pages present different instruments for technology development and private research investment. This page is therefore a historical reference: it preserves the connection between the search term “PEI” and the instruments that applicants actually encountered in the 2026 cycle, without presenting a closed window as available funding.

The archived PEI document is a useful record of what the old program was. It was aimed at Mexican for-profit legal entities classified as MIPYMES, with a current or pre-registration in RENIECYT, applying alone or with higher-education or public research partners. Its 2019 project year ran from 1 January 2019 through 31 December 2019, and the application system for that call closed on 21 September 2018 at 18:00 Mexico City time. Those details belong to the historical PEI record. They should not be copied into a current application plan, because the official 2026 pages describe the successor instruments below rather than a new PEI call.

Status and the relevant 2026 instruments

The 2026 SECIHTI technology-development call opened on 26 March 2026 and closed on 4 May 2026 at 18:00 Mexico City time. The official call page still provides the documents and identifies the 2026 period, but no later application date is published there for a new round. The deadline in this page’s front matter is consequently the real closing date of the documented 2026 cycle, and historicalReference = true keeps it useful as an archive entry.

The second route, the Estímulo Fiscal a la Investigación y Desarrollo de Tecnología (EFIDT), opened its online system on 28 February 2026. The official rules set the annual submission window from 00:00 on 28 February through 18:00 on 30 April, Mexico central time; the SECIHTI EFIDT page identifies those dates for the 2026 exercise. That window is also closed. No 2027 opening date is published on the official pages reviewed for this update, so readers should not treat either instrument as currently open.

What the 2026 technology-development call offered

The main replacement for a company looking for an innovation grant was the 2026 call titled “Proyectos de Desarrollo Tecnológico, Innovación y Fortalecimiento de Infraestructura para la Atención de Problemáticas Nacionales Prioritarias.” It was organised into Chapters A, B, and C. The official material does not describe it as a continuation of the PEI; it sets its own population, technology-maturity, priority-area, and budget rules.

Chapter A, “Maduración de Tecnologías y Mejoramiento de la Inventiva en Niveles de Maduración Tecnológica Intermedios,” covered TRL 4–6 work. Its target population included higher-education institutions, public research centres, public and social institutions, technological institutes, and micro and small science- and technology-based companies. A company proposal had to concern a technology with a complete TRL 3 and partial TRL 4. The proposal also had to show a credible path to completing at least one higher TRL, preferably reaching TRL 6.

The company contribution is important. A microenterprise could receive up to 70% of eligible project cost, with a minimum 30% concurrent contribution, and could request up to MXN 3,500,000. A small enterprise could receive up to 50%, had to provide at least 50% in concurrence, and could request up to MXN 2,500,000. IES, CPIs, public and social institutions, and technological institutes could receive up to 100% and request up to MXN 5,000,000. The official terms say the concurrent contribution must be liquid and must be made before the program contribution. A budget based only on staff time or existing equipment would therefore be unsafe.

Chapter A accepted projects aligned with priority lines including energy and transport, food and sustainable economy, health, disruptive and frontier technologies, and the environment. Examples in the terms include electromobility, energy storage, hydrogen, sustainable agriculture, medical devices, artificial intelligence for social or economic development, semiconductors, cybersecurity, water treatment, and climate monitoring. Alignment alone was not enough: the proposal had to connect its technology, activities, evidence, budget, and expected products to a priority problem.

The call required a substantial technical record. Applicants had to provide the extended project proposal, a TRL diagnostic with evidence, a declaration concerning debts, duplication, and irregularities, and the scientific, academic, professional, or technical record of the working group. Micro and small companies also had to document their capacity and recent experience, submit a company-size declaration, and provide a positive SAT opinion. The application materials asked for the technical and administrative responsible people, legal representative, background and justification, objectives, expected benefits, financial breakdown, schedule, initial and expected final TRL, potential users, a technology-maturation plan, and a route toward transfer.

Chapter B addressed more advanced technologies responding to defined technological challenges. It was not a general-purpose replacement for every PEI project. An applicant needed to read the separate Chapter B terms and challenge annex, then demonstrate that the proposed work matched one of those challenges and the chapter’s maturity requirements. A company that did not fit Chapter A’s intermediate-TRL focus should not assume that Chapter B accepted a commercially convenient project without that alignment.

Chapter C supported intellectual-property protection and technology management. It was open to a person with business activity who is an inventor or entrepreneur with a scientific or technology base, and to public, social, or private institutions such as micro and small companies, provided the applicant was constituted under Mexican law and current on tax obligations. The technology had to be at TRL 4 or above and aligned with a national-priority area. Evidence could include prototype material, state-of-the-art or technology-monitoring work, market or benchmarking studies, development logs, and laboratory results.

Chapter C’s objective 1 supported national patent, utility-model, and other protection activities up to MXN 150,000, or international patent and utility-model management up to MXN 250,000. Its complementary training objective had ceilings of MXN 45,000 for the national modality and MXN 75,000 for the international modality, and those training amounts could not exceed 30% of the total support requested. The terms also limit eligible copyright activity to software and database registration when it directly protects the proposed technology. That is a narrower offer than a broad product-development grant.

EFIDT: the tax-credit route for established R&D activity

EFIDT is not a cash grant. SECIHTI describes it as a tax credit against ISR for taxpayers carrying out research and technology-development expenditure and investment. The credit is 30% of eligible incremental IDT spending compared with the average of the three preceding fiscal years, or up to MXN 50,000,000. The credit can be used over 10 years until exhausted. The incremental calculation is the central constraint: a company that simply repeats its normal R&D budget does not create the same basis as a company increasing eligible IDT investment.

The official eligibility page says contributors of all sizes may apply if they have at least three years of IDT activity. The project must not already be supported by another SECIHTI program. The applicant must be current with SAT tax payments and registered in RIZOMA under the “Persona Moral” or “Persona Física con Actividad Empresarial” module. The page excludes certain special fiscal regimes, including optional groups of companies, maquila operations, and FIBRAs. The rules also require a project description, prior-year IDT spending information, an e.firma-signed submission, and a commitment to produce eligible outputs such as a prototype, technological development, patent, copyright, or other listed result.

For the 2026 window, the official EFIDT page lists 31 January 2026 for impact-and-benefits reports from earlier authorised projects, 9 February 2026 for financial reports, and 28 February 2026 for opening the online system. Those reporting dates are obligations for existing beneficiaries, not extra application opportunities for a new applicant. The regular submission close was 30 April 2026 at 18:00 under the official rules. Anyone planning for a future exercise should separate the three-year spending baseline, the proposed incremental work, and any public support so that the same costs are not counted twice.

How to prepare for a future announcement

There is no current-cycle application to submit through this page. The following sequence is preparation for a future official announcement, not a promise that another round will open on the same schedule.

1. Start with the official call page. Confirm that SECIHTI has published a new call, its terms of reference, its annexes, and a current opening and closing time. Do not rely on a consultant page that still calls the opportunity a CONACYT PEI grant.

2. Keep RIZOMA current. The 2026 technology-development terms required an updated RIZOMA registration. EFIDT separately required the relevant legal-entity or business-activity module. Resolve legal-representative, tax, and institutional-record issues before a window opens.

3. Choose the correct instrument. Use Chapter A for an intermediate-TRL development proposal that meets its national-priority lines and company-size rules. Read Chapter B’s challenge-specific material for advanced technologies. Use Chapter C when the immediate need is patent, utility-model, copyright-software, or technology-management support. Consider EFIDT only when the business has the required IDT history and a defensible incremental-spending calculation.

4. Build the evidence file. For grant chapters, keep the TRL diagnostic, test results, prototype records, development logs, ownership documents, tax opinion, team biographies, user or sector letters, and transfer plan together. The official terms assess whether the evidence supports the maturity claimed; a label such as “pilot ready” is not a substitute for that evidence.

5. Model the cash requirement. A microenterprise’s Chapter A plan needed a 30% liquid concurrence and a small enterprise’s plan needed 50%. Separate eligible costs from excluded overhead and make sure the business can fund its share before any public contribution. For EFIDT, prepare the three preceding fiscal years of eligible IDT spending and remove publicly financed costs from the calculation where the rules require it.

6. Submit only through the named system. The technology-development documents define RIZOMA as the registration platform and SALSA Proyectos as the platform for proposal registration, evaluation, formalisation, and follow-up. EFIDT uses its own online system and requires the completed, digitally signed submission to generate an acknowledgement. A saved draft is not an application.

7. Recheck the date and status immediately before filing. The 2026 call page listed 4 May 2026 at 18:00 for technology-development proposals, and the EFIDT rules listed 30 April at 18:00 for the tax-credit window. Those dates are now past. If SECIHTI publishes a new cycle, use its new dates and terms rather than copying the 2026 dates from this archive page.

The practical conclusion is simple: searching for “Mexico PEI” leads to a historical program record, not an open 2026 grant. The official 2026 SECIHTI call and EFIDT window provided real routes for technology development and private R&D investment, but both application periods have closed. Keep this entry for comparison and preparation, and verify any future opening directly on SECIHTI before spending money on an application.