Concessions for research and development projects in the South
The intervention, carried out as part of the National Research, Innovation and Competitiveness Program 2021-27, supports research and development projects to be carried out in the territories of the less developed regions. The projects must be consistent with the thematic areas of the National Smart Specialization Strategy or aimed at identifying evolutionary technological and application trajectories thereof.
Beneficiary
Companies of any size with at least two approved financial statements at the time of submitting the application for benefits, which carry out industrial, agro-industrial, artisanal, industrial services and research center activities, can benefit from the benefits. Research organizations can be co-proposers of a joint project with the aforementioned entities.
Eligible interventions
Projects concerning industrial research and experimental development activities aimed at the creation of new products, processes or services or at the significant improvement of existing products, processes or services, through the development of key enabling technologies (KETs) within the thematic areas and development trajectories defined by the National Smart Specialization Strategy or within other thematic areas and development trajectories not included in the aforementioned Strategy, in order to contribute to fueling the process of entrepreneurial discovery and the consequent evolutionary adaptation thereof.
The projects must be carried out in the territories of the less developed regions, include eligible expenses and costs of no less than 1 million euros and no more than 5 million euros and have a duration of no less than 18 months and no more than 36 months. The start of project activities must take place
after the date of submission of the benefit application and in any case within 3 months of its granting.
Research and development projects must be carried out collaboratively, alternatively according to one of the following methods:
to. project carried out jointly, which includes:
- a maximum of three proposing entities, including the lead company;
- at least one micro, small or medium enterprise among the subjects
proponents; - that each of the proposing entities bears at least 10 percent of the eligible costs;
- the use of the network contract instrument or other contractual forms of collaboration.
b. project carried out by a micro, small or medium enterprise or by a small medium capitalization enterprise, which involves the participation of one or more subjects external to the enterprise, independent of it, who contribute to the project activities through research services, research and development consultancy and/or contractual research, the value of which is at least equal to 10 percent of the total eligible costs of the project.
Facilitation
The benefits are granted, within the limits of the maximum aid intensities and individual notification thresholds established, respectively, by Article 25 and Article 4 of the GBER Regulation, in the following competing forms:
- in the form of subsidized financing, for a nominal percentage equal to 50 percent of the eligible costs and expenses;
- in the form of a direct contribution to expenditure, for a nominal percentage of eligible costs and expenses broken down as follows:
- 35 percent for small businesses;
- 30 percent for medium-sized companies;
- 25 percent for large companies.
For research organisations, the benefits are granted exclusively in the form of a direct contribution to expenditure, for a nominal percentage equal to 60 percent of the costs and expenses eligible for industrial research activities and equal to 40 percent of the costs and expenses eligible for experimental development.
Delivery
The benefits are provided by the managing body in no more than five installments, plus the last one as a balance, in relation to the progress of the project. The first request for disbursement based on progress must be submitted within 18 (eighteen) months from the date of the concession decree and may also concern, regardless of the six-monthly frequency, the time period from the start of the project up to the date of the concession decree.
concession itself.
The subsidized loan can also be provided as an advance in a single solution, in favor of businesses of all sizes, exclusively upon presentation of a bank guarantee or insurance policy.
Presentation
From 10.00 am on 7 February 2024
Photo by Adeolu Eletu on Unsplash
