FITD with a new public call for "Co-financed grants for commercialization of innovations"
The Fund for Innovation and Technology Development today announced the public call for “Co-financed grants for the commercialization of innovations”, through which 8 million euros have been provided to support projects for the commercialization of innovation among Macedonian companies.
The call is intended for 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, in that case the project proposal is submitted by the leading applicant, while members of the consortium can be enterprises, higher education and research institutions from the country and abroad.
The total prize fund of the call is 8 million euros, and the Fund provides financial support in the amount of 20 million denars, i.e. financing up to 70% or up to 60% of the total budget of the project, depending on the number of employees and the annual income achieved in the last two years. 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 project proposals 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 for the public call “Co-financed grants for the commercialization of innovations” is until June 4th, 2024, until 2:00 p.m. More information about the call is available at the following link:https://shorturl.at/bmEO6