The Fund for Innovation and Technology Development today announced the public call for “Co-financed grants for commercialization of innovations”, through which 8 million euros were secured to support projects for the commercialization of innovations of 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, and members of the consortium can be enterprises, higher education and research institutions from the country and abroad.
Through the instrument of FITD for commercialization of innovation, 180 projects of domestic companies have been supported so far, with a total volume of investments in the amount of 45 million euros, of which FITD has co-financed 30 million euros from its own budget. This data indicates that FITD is a central institution that continuously invests in the improvement of entrepreneurial activity in the country, in supporting the innovations of domestic companies, increased productivity and competitiveness.
All companies that have innovative ideas and that are not current users of instruments from the Fund are encouraged to apply to this call. The total prize fund amounts to 8 million euros, and the Fund will provide 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 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 July 10, 2023, until 14:00. More information about the call is available at the following link: https://fitr.mk/kommerzializacija2023/