New FITD public call - 5 million euros to support technological development of domestic companies

A new public call of the Fund for Innovation and Technological Development intended for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, with which five million euros are available to support the technological development of domestic companies and private health institutions, through the public call for “Co-financed grants for technological development and accelerated economic growth”.

With this call, FITR is helping domestic companies to create conditions for overcoming the consequences of the economic crisis, to achieve accelerated growth, to increase competitiveness in international markets and resistance to pandemic and climate crises, through the introduction of new, innovative, advanced, “green” and digital technologies for their transformation.

The fund provides financial support for micro enterprises up to 70 percent of the total budget of the project, but not more than 2.5 million denars, for small enterprises up to 70 percent, but not more than 5 million denars, and for medium enterprises up to 60 percent, but not more than 10 million denars. The applicant provides its own co-financing of 30% for micro and small enterprises, that is, up to 40% for medium-sized enterprises from the total budget of the project.

Part of the activities that are eligible for support through this instrument are: procurement and introduction of new, innovative, advanced, green and digital technologies for the transformation of production and business processes, development and introduction of new more ecological processes and standards for production and work, improvement the productivity and efficiency of production and/or business processes. Gross salaries for employees, costs for technical support, research, development, digitization, procurement and rental of equipment, software, ICT tools or raw materials, as well as costs related to the implementation of the company’s technological development plan will be considered as eligible costs.

Eligible applicants are those who meet the criteria defined in the Regulations of the instrument, i.e.: a trading company or a private healthcare facility, the applicant is not affiliated with another company or PHI whose annual revenues exceed 10 million euros and the average number of employees does not exceed 250 from the previous fiscal years, that there are no overdue and outstanding obligations with a delay of more than 90 days to financial institutions, and that it meets the conditions of the Law on Control of State Aid and that it has not received financial aid from another state institution for the same project.

When evaluating projects, the criterion of impact on economic development (45 points) brings the highest number of points, then technological progress and degree of digitization (35 points) and the quality of the project and the capacity of the project team will be evaluated with 10 points each from the total score . Companies that have female managers and/or owners, projects from less developed regions and companies that have included in the project team at least one assistant professor, university associate or full professor and/or doctoral student who will be involved in the project will have priority in evaluating the projects. The goal is to encourage female entrepreneurship as well as balanced regional development.

The public call for “Co-financed grants for technological development for accelerated economic growth” is open until February 29, 2024, until 2:00 p.m., and companies can apply exclusively electronically. More information about the call is available at: www.fitr.mk or at: zabrzanrast2024@fitr.mk