27/01/2022: Croatia, Green Industry Innovation and Blue Growth
Read the call text in English*: 2nd Calls for Proposals, Business Development and Innovation (updated 17.01.2022.)
Read the call text in Croatian:2nd Calls for Proposals, Business Development and Innovation (updated 17.01.2021.)
*The Call text is updated due to the new Regional Aid Map for Croatia for 2022-2027 with 4 NUTS2 regions. The new rates for Regional aid are applied from January 1 2022.
See the mandatory attachments and essential reading below.
Deadline
Thursday, 27 January 2022, 14:00 (Croatian time).
Project activities must be completed by 30 April 2024 at the latest.
Available funding
A total budget of Euro 12,941,767
Individual Project Scheme: Euro 10,909,287
Small Grants Scheme for SMEs: Euro 2,032,480
Areas of support
These calls will support projects within the two focus areas:
- Green Industry Innovation
- Blue Growth
Green Industry Innovation
Green Industry Innovation can support the greening of the manufacturing and production industries. Support can be given to investments in more green technologies to increase the production capacity, diversify products or services, or contribute to a fundamental change in the production process (automation/digitalisation/robotisation) to make it more environmentally friendly and efficient.
Blue Growth
Blue Growth can support sustainable growth in the marine and maritime sector in general. Sea, ocean, rivers, lakes and islands represent resources for innovation and economic growth. Example of projects could be: development of products/solutions for blue energy, development of solutions related to marine litter and waste, development or investments in maritime supra-structures, development or investments in blue biotechnology etc.
Who can apply?
SMEs and large enterprises, with less than 25% public ownership, registered as legal enterprises in Croatia.
Project partnership opportunity
Projects that include Norwegian partners are encouraged.Eligible partners are any private or public entity, commercial or non-commercial, established as a legal entities in Norway or Croatia.
The programme offers travel grants to strengthen cooperation and business partnerships: Travel Grants - Croatia (innovasjonnorge.no)
Partners should be actively involved in, and effectively contributing to, the implementation of the project. The contribution from a partner should be necessary to achieve a successful project result and it must be requested by the Applicant. However, the contribution needs to be tailormade for the project, and not something that can be bought “off the shelf” from several suppliers/consultants.
Please note that the project partnership model is not as you might be used to from EU programmes like Horizon 2020. In the Business Development and Innovation Croatia Programme the main focus is to develop the Applicant enterprise from Croatia. They need to be the main beneficiary of the project results (see FAQ for more information).
Example in an investment project
Sharing of best practises and contribute with expertise/competence/know-how, from similar company/activity in Norway. This is usually a small part of the project, and the Applicant/the Croatian company must be willing to co-finance this additional cost, which they most probably will, if they see it as an added value to the project.
Example in an R&D project
- A) The partner could contribute with contractual research (sell and invoice their services) to the Croatian Applicant. The Croatian Applicant must cover the co-financing for this additional cost.
- B) The partner could develop a product/solution together with the Croatian Applicant. In this case, they share the project result/IPR, and in such case the partner have to cover the co-financing of their cost from their own funds. However, it is very important that the Croatian company still is the project owner and the main beneficiary of the project result.
Grant rate and state aid
This Programme does not have a fixed grant rate. The financial contribution will be determined on a case-bycase basis, taking all relevant factors into account. Innovation Norway will use the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) as the legal basis for calculating eligible costs and grant rates.
As a general rule, a small or medium-size enterprise in Croatia could get approximately 45-50 per cent grant out of the total approved project budget for an investment project. The grant amount could be in the range of Euro 50,000 to Euro 1,5 mill., depending on company size and project type. Large companies can also apply but they will get a lower grant rate.
Business Development and Innovation Croatia
The Programme is supported by Norway through the Norway Grants, and the Fund Operator is Innovation Norway.
Follow the EEA and Norway Grants by Innovation Norway on Facebook or on LinkedIn and Norway Grants for Business Programme in Croatia.