The Fund for Innovation and Technology Development announced today the public call for co-financed grants for the commercialization of innovations, through which 9 million euros were secured for the commercialization of innovations of Macedonian companies.
The purpose of the call is to support companies that want to develop an innovative product, service or process, alone or in cooperation with another company and/or institution that carries out higher education, that is, scientific research activity. Financial support is available for domestic enterprises that have projects with a clear commercial goal and that are in the prototype stage, up to the pre-commercial stage. If the project proposal is submitted by a consortium, it is submitted by the leading applicant, and members of the consortium can be enterprises, higher education and scientific research institutions from the country and abroad.
“We have so far supported over 140 companies through the commercialization of innovations instrument, which is 19% of the total portfolio, in the amount of 21.5 million euros co-financed funds from the FITD budget. This data is a confirmation that the Fund is always on the side of innovative companies, of young people who have the desire and ambition to develop a successful business. With the funds from this instrument, companies have the opportunity to develop a new product or service, digitize processes, increase productivity and competitiveness both in the domestic and international markets,” said Festim Halili, director of the Fund for Innovation and Technologyl Development.
Halili added that through this call, new companies will be encouraged to apply for support from the Fund, given that the call is open to companies that are not current users of instruments from the Fund. In addition, Halili encouraged companies to apply to the public call for commercialization of innovations and to translate their innovative ideas into successful business stories.
The fund will provide up to 70% financing from the total budget of the project, for enterprises whose average number of employees is up to 50 and whose annual income in the last two years is less than 2 million euros, that is, up to 60% financing from the total budget of the project, for enterprises whose average number of employees is from 50 to 250 and whose annual income in the last two years is greater than 2 million euros and less than 10 million euros. The duration of projects can be up to 24 months.
In addition, with this instrument, we encourage companies to seek additional sources of financing, so if for the duration of the project and until the approval of the final report by the Fund, the beneficiary submits proof of an attractive investment that has invested an amount that is at least 50% of the amount of financial support granted by the Fund to the beneficiary, in which case the beneficiary will be released from the obligation to pay royalties.
Activities that will be approved for funding under the call are for: research and development, testing, activities related to the protection of intellectual property, design, development of pilot lines, activities related to quality assurance and marketing and sales activities.
The main criteria according to which the projects will be evaluated are: degree of innovation, quality of the project, capacity of the project team, market potential and impact of the project.
The evaluation process of project proposals will take place in two phases: a pre-selection phase which is carried out by three domestic experts per project, two experts from the areas that correspond to the evaluation criteria and one person from the area that corresponds to the project proposal . In the second phase, that is, the selection phase, it is carried out by the Committee for Approval of Investment, which also makes the final decision on project financing.
The deadline for applying to the public call for co-financed grants for the commercialization of innovations is until November 17, 2022, until 14:00. More information about the call is available at the following link: https://fitr.mk/kommerzializacija2022/