After the recent pre-publication of the action, the Ministerial Decision on its announcement is now expected. In a relevant invitation, the start and end date of the electronic submission of funding applications will be defined, among other things.
In particular, as regards the characteristics of the action, it is addressed to businesses (emphasis will be placed on small and medium-sized ones) and research organizations. Funding applications to be submitted should relate to research and innovation projects and be part of one of the following interventions:
- Research and Development by Businesses.
- Business Partnerships with Research Organizations.
- Utilization of Research Results.
- Seal of Excellence for businesses.
To implement their proposals, potential beneficiaries can plan their research project, taking advantage of a wide range of supported costs from the classic research and development activities: industrial research and experimental development.
In the meantime, basic research and feasibility studies were finally decided not to be eligible activities under the action.
» Participation conditions
Businesses that will submit an application for participation must have at least one closed full (annual) management year. Additionally, at the time of submission, they must operate legally (with headquarters or a branch) in the Greek region where the aid is located, according to the funding application and have a VAT number.
It is noted that offshore companies do not have the right to submit a financing application. Likewise, problematic companies, as well as those for which a decision to recover aid from the EU is pending, are excluded from the action.
Exceptionally, foreign companies (TIN/VAT Number holders) with headquarters in a member state of the European Union, which at the time of submission do not have a branch in Greece, undertake that with the inclusion of the deed, and in any case before the issuance of any document, they will have a branch (not the establishment of a new, subsidiary company) in the region of the place of implementation.
The research organizations, for their part, should be legally operating in Greece on the date of issue of the invitation to the action. In the context of the action, each research organization participates as a single entity, i.e. at the VAT level and, in particular, at the level of the Special Research Funds Account (ELKE), for those institutions that have an ELKE.
In the event that different faculty departments of the same HEI (universities) or different institutes of the same research center or different sectors of the same HEI or different laboratories of the same HEI or institute participate in a project, the corresponding research institution-partner will be declared in the funding application HEI or research center with a single budget calculated at the level of the research organization (ELKE VAT number).
» Eligible expenses
The action covers costs for staff fees, as well as costs for depreciation of instruments and equipment (to the extent and for how long they are used for the project), depreciation for buildings and grounds (to the extent and for how long they are used for the project), research costs under contract, know-how and patents purchased or licensed from outside sources on an arm’s length basis, as well as additional overhead and other operational costs that are a direct result of the project.
It is worth pointing out that each independent business (at VAT level) can participate as a potential beneficiary in up to five funding applications cumulatively in interventions I, II and III, throughout the duration of the action. On the other hand, there is no limit to the number of proposals in which a research organization participates.
» Selectable domains
The research project funding applications that will be submitted will concern the following eight areas of the National Smart Specialization Strategy: 1. Materials, Constructions & Industry. 2. Tourism, Culture & Creative Industries. 3. Agri-Food Chain. 4. Environment & Circular Economy. 5. Life Sciences, Health, Medicines. 6. Transportation & Supply Chain. 7. Sustainable Energy. 8. Digital Technologies.
” Submission
The submission of funding applications will be done electronically in the Greek language, through the Integrated Information System of State Aids (OPSKE, app.opske.gr/).
The possibility to register users in OPSKE is already activated and is done through AADE using TAXISnet codes. During the process of submitting funding applications, all supporting documents, including the cooperation agreement for the collaborative projects, are submitted together with the proposal.
The announcement of the action will be posted on the following websites:
- of the Action “Research – Innovate” erevno-kainotomo.gr/espa2127
- of the EYD Program “COMPETITIVENESS” 21-27.antagonistikotita.gr/
- of ESPA espa.gr
- of GEK gsri.gov.gr
- of EYDE EK eyde-etak.gr
The intensity of support for a beneficiary’s research and development work is determined by the characterization of the research and development category (industrial research, experimental development) of each work unit of its project and the size of the enterprise (very small, small, medium or large).
In the case of collaborative projects, the aid intensity is determined separately for each beneficiary.
In detail, the aid intensities are shown below per category of intervention, per characterization of work unit and depending on the size of the business:
» The amount of aid for the first two interventions is structured as follows:
| Eligible activity | Big companies | Medium enterprises | Small businesses | |
| Research and development work | Industrial research | 50% | 60% | 70% |
| Conditional Industrial Research* | 65% | 75% | 80% | |
| Experimental development | 25% | 35% | 45% | |
| Conditional Experimental Development* | 40% | 50% | 60% |
» Intervention I: Research and Development by Enterprises
The supported project must fall into one or more of the categories of industrial research and/or experimental development.
* The increased aid intensity for industrial research and experimental development applies if one of the following conditions is met:
- The project envisages real cooperation between enterprises of which at least one is a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) and of which no individual bears more than 70% of the eligible costs.
- The results of the project are widely disseminated through conferences, publications, open access repositories or through free or open source software.
» Intervention II: Business Partnerships with Research Organizations
The supported collaborative project must fall into one or more of the categories of industrial research and/or experimental development.
The increased aid intensity for industrial research and experimental development applies if one of the following conditions is met:
- The project envisages real cooperation between an enterprise and one or more research and knowledge dissemination organizations, which bear at least 10% of the eligible costs and have the right to publish the results of their research.
- The results of the project are widely disseminated through conferences, publications, open access repositories or through free or open source software.
» Intervention III: Utilization of Research Results
The supported project must fall into one or more of the categories of industrial research and/or experimental development.
In this intervention, the amount of aid is structured as follows:
| Eligible activity | Medium enterprises | Small businesses | |
| Research and development work | Experimental development | 35% | 45% |
| Conditional Experimental Development* | 50% | 60% |
* The increased intensity of aid for experimental development applies if the following condition is met: the results of the project are widely disseminated through conferences, publications, open access repositories or through free or open source software.
» Intervention IV: Seal of Excellence for businesses
The aid intensity for the aided enterprise (total for the research and development project) is set at 70%.
In any case, the total public funding provided for each research and development project shall not exceed the percentage of funding determined for that research and development project under the rules of the Horizon Europe programmes.
The duration of the implementation of the submitted project proposals in the first interventions must not exceed 36 months, with the possibility of extension for a period equal to one third of the initial duration. Intervention IV proposals will have a duration equal to that approved by the “Horizon Europe” Programme.
The funding of the research body, which meets the necessary conditions (Article 2.1.1, point 20 of the European Commission Communication “Framework on State aid for research and development and innovation”), is not subject to State aid rules and funding can be considered as non-state aid and receive 100% aid.
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