Deadline 01/09/2022: Greece, Green Innovation, ICT and Blue Growth

Read the call text in English: Business Innovation Greece

Read the call text in Greek: Business Innovation Greece

Mandatory attachments and essential reading can be found below.

Info session regarding the 3rd Call for Proposals. Please see recording.

Outcomes

The expected outcome of the projects is increased competitiveness and value creation of Greek enterprises, within the focus areas Green Industry Innovation, Blue Growth and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), in the form of growth in turnover and net operational profit.

The Business Innovation Programme in Greece

The Programme seeks to stimulate and develop bilateral project cooperation between enterprises in Greece and entities from the Donor States.

What does the programme offer?

Financial support (non-reimbursable grants) to projects contributing to more innovation in products, services and processes in Greek enterprises.

The grant can fill a financial gap at the company, allowing it to proceed with an investment (application of existing technology, which is new to the company) or to implement development activities to bring a new technology, product or solution closer to the market.

Innovation is essential to increase the efficiency and competitiveness of an enterprise. The Programme can finance a wide range of activities that will improve the economic performance of Greek enterprises, reducing their environmental footprint and contribute to positive social effects, e.g. by creating new, or securing existing, jobs.

What can be financed?

Activities should fall into one of the following focus areas:

Green Industry Innovation

Green Industry Innovation is cross-sectoral in nature. The Programme encourages the greening of all economic sectors, development of innovative solutions related to renewable energy (e.g. on solar, wind and biomass), technologies for energy efficiency and energy storage, and water management of islands.

Other areas of interest could be greening of industries related to food production and packaging, textile/clothing, construction/building, ships-/fishing-gear and waste management.

Blue Growth

Blue Growth can support sustainable growth in the marine and maritime sector in general. The Programme could support projects related to i.e. development of solutions for marine litter and waste, development of solutions on blue energy, investment (for capacity increase only) and development of coastal and marine (ocean) tourism, investment and development in maritime supra-structures (in the port), investment and development in ship repair (for smaller non-commercial boats/ships only), innovative technologies for water supply, including desalination, new or improved equipment or solutions for maritime and marine safety, better utilization of discards from fisheries etc.

ICT

ICT solutions and tools are horizontal business opportunities with high innovation and good potential for green effects.

Digitalisation/automation/optimisation of production/process lines (in the direction of Industry 4.0) are encouraged. This Programme also offers opportunities for ICT enterprises to develop ICT solutions for industrial processes (new-to-the-company) as well as to develop more general ICT products/services/solutions applicable for many areas (new-to-the-market).

Project implementation period should be maximum 16 months.

What is the amount of funding that an enterprise can apply for?

A Greek enterprise can apply for a grant of € 200,000 up to € 1,500,000 for co-financing of a project.

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises can apply for smaller amounts, from € 50,000 to € 200,000 as co-financing.

Note that only one project application can be submitted by each enterprise.

There is no fixed grant rate. The Fund Operator will determine the grant rate case-by-case, based on the application of the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER), mainly art. 25 Experimental Development and art. 13-14 Regional Investment Aid (the Regional Map for Greece, 2022-2027, will apply).

To secure bank co-financing of the project, the grant offered by this Programme could be combined with any separate and independent product under the responsibility of the Hellenic Development Bank (HDB) available at that time (indicatively: loans, guarantees etc.).

Bilateral Project Partnerships - the Benefits for Greek enterprises?

Increased mutual knowledge about business opportunities in Greece and in the Donor States is one important bilateral goal for the Programme. Eligible bilateral project partners are any private or public entity, commercial or non-commercial, established as a legal entity in one of the Donor States.

This Programme represents a unique partnership opportunity - a gateway to new expertise and modern technology from project partners in one of the Donor States (Norway, Iceland and Liechstenstein) or from Greece. Project cooperation offers many benefits, both immediate and in the long-term.

Partners should be actively involved in, and effectively contribute to, the implementation of the project. The contribution from a partner should be necessary to achieve a successful project result.

Example of partnership in an investment project:
Sharing of best practices and contribute with expertise/competence/know-how, from similar company/activity in Donor States. This is usually a small part of the project and the Applicant/the Greek 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 of partnership in a R&D project:

A) The partner could contribute with contractual research (sell and invoice their services) to the Greek Applicant. The Greek Applicant must cover the co-financing for this additional cost.

B) The partner could develop a product/solution together with the Greek Applicant. In this case, they share the project result/IPR, and in such cases the partner must cover the co-financing of their cost from their own funds. However, it is very important that the Greek company is the project owner and the main beneficiary of the project result.

Webinar on the open call and how to apply

Innovation Norway held a webinar that presented the call, showcased cooperation projects funded by previous calls and answered questions. See the recording here and presentations here!

Travel Support is Available

Small grants are available to support Greek enterprises who want to visit a potential Project Partner in one of the Donor States (Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein). Entities from the three Donor States can also apply for funding to prepare joint project applications for this 3rd Call for Project Proposals.

Enterprises can apply for a fixed sum of € 1.200 for travel between Greece and Norway, € 1.500 for travel between Greece and Iceland and € 1.000 for travel between Greece and Liechtenstein.

What are the results from the previous two Calls for Project Proposals?

Already, 24 innovative projects of Greek companies have been supported by the “Business Innovation Greece” Programme. Nine projects have been supported through the 2nd Call and 15 projects through the 1st call. The total grant allocated to these 24 projects are € 10.3 million, which gives an average grant amount of € 430,000 per project. The distribution between the focus areas are as follows: 9 projects under the Green Industry Innovation, 6 projects under Blue Growth and 9 projects under ICT. The majority of the companies supported are SMEs. Two companies have already successfully finalised their projects. List of approved projects are available on the Programme website.