Last update date 2 December 2022
The subsidies provided by Ministry of Industry and Trade are used to support the costs of introducing innovation into companies, and target in particular personnel and operating costs, contract research, patents, as well as machinery and equipment. The purpose of the programme is to support product innovation or significant innovation of the (production) process in companies. During the course of the project, the innovation has to be put into practice. The programme does not support research and development.
The programme can support the implementation of one or more of the following types of innovation:
- product innovation (the product to be innovated must be new (or significantly improved) at least for the enterprise and must be marketable
- process innovation, i.e. the process of producing or providing a service
- organisational innovation, for example the acquisition of a new IS for the company
The mandatory result is an innovation put into practice. Projects where the innovation aims to combat Covid-19 or is in line with the Industry 4.0 concept are bonused.
Main conditions
- the amount of economic benefits for the first year after the end of the project is binding and subject to an appropriate sanction in case of non-fulfilment
- the result is put into practice at the end of the project
The programme is currently in its fourth call and has already helped dozens of SMEs.
This programme does not directly target clusters but has the potential to facilitate the growth and collaboration among organisations that are cluster members.