FITD: 240 thousand euros available through the new public call "Innovation Vouchers for the Western Balkans"
The Fund for Innovation and Technology Development today announced the public call for “Innovation Vouchers for the Western Balkans”, with which a total of 240 thousand euros will be awarded to encourage cooperation between the academic community and domestic, small and medium-sized companies, in the direction of supporting scientific research projects that will contribute to increasing the innovation and competitiveness of businesses.
The pilot program “Innovation Vouchers for the Western Balkans” is implemented by the Fund for Innovation and Technology Development as part of the European project “Policy Answer” (Answers for public policies – creation, implementation and support of policies for research and development in the Western Balkans), in which the Fund received the main role in piloting support measures for research, development and innovation in all economies from the Western Balkans. The project is financed by the Horizon Europe program of the European Commission.
The main eligibility criterion for the pre-cooperation is that the applicant and the service provider must be from two different economies in the Western Balkans. The following can apply to the public call: legal business entities registered as a micro, small or medium-sized company in any of the economies of the Western Balkan countries, incorporated under the relevant current Law on Commercial Companies of the Western Balkan countries and registered with any registration agency of businesses in the countries of the Western Balkans and located in the countries of the Western Balkans.
Innovation vouchers can be used to cover 80% of the total costs of higher education institutions, in the amount of 8,000 euros without value added tax (VAT). The remaining part of 20 percent is the participation of the company, user of the services of the faculties. The awarded Innovation Vouchers must be used by the recipient within a period of up to nine months from the date of signing the contract.
The funds from the vouchers can be used for the transfer of scientific, technological or innovative knowledge that is new to the company or for solving a technical/technological problem that the company will identify, i.e. for: developing new or improving existing products, processes or services, proof of concept, feasibility study, production of laboratory prototypes, production of demonstration prototypes, various types of tests, technology validation, validation of new or improved products, processes or services, development and introduction of special software for a product or process, such as and IPR and technology transfer.
The application deadline for the call for “Innovation Vouchers” is June 26, 2024 at the latest, by 4:00 p.m. The application is exclusively electronic, through the FITR website: https://shorturl.at/qwD17