The Business Innovation Programme in Greece will launch its 3rd Call for Proposals in February 2022 with a deadline for applications three months after.
See the pre-announcement of the call and partnership opportunities here!
The Business Innovation Programme in Greece aims to increase the competitiveness, value creation and sustainable growth of Greek private enterprises. The 3rd Call for Proposals will make available approx 8,300,000 euro to projects in the areas of:
Greek enterprises can apply for a grant to finance part of a project to bring more innovation in products, services and processes. Note that this is neither a research programme, nor an energy programme. It is a business development programme that will finance business growth and scale-up of activities in more mature enterprises.
See this pre-anncouncement of the 3rd Call for Proposals as a PDF.
The available budget will be approx. 8,300,000 euro in total.
This Programme does not have a fixed grant rate. The financial contribution will be determined on a case-by-case basis, taking all relevant factors into account. Innovation Norway will use the General Block Exemption Regulation as the legal basis for calculating eligible costs and grant rates.
As a general rule, a small or medium-sized enterprise in Greece could get approximately 50 per cent grant out of the total approved project budget for an investment project. The grant amount could be in the range of 50,000 to 1,500,000 euro, depending on company size and project type. Large
companies can also apply but they will normally get a lower grant rate.
Two calls have been organised so far. In the 1st Call, 35 applications were received and 16 of them were approved. These projects are well under implementation. A list of the approved projects is available on the programme website. See the a video presenting the selected projects!
In the 2nd Call, 37 applications were received. Innovation Norway expects to approve up to 12 of them. A list of the approved projects will be published on the programme website as soon as it is ready.
The three focus areas of the third call are: Green Industry Innovation, Blue Growth and ICT. We encourage projects related to:
The programme offers travel grants to strengthen cooperation and business partnerships between between Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and Greece: Rolling deadline: Travel Grants - Greece
This Programme represents a unique partnership opportunity – a gateway to new expertise and modern technology from project partners in one of the Donor States (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) or from Greece. Project cooperation offers many benefits, both immediate and in the long term.
Please note that the project partnership model is not as you might be used to from EU programmes like Horizon Europe. The main focus is to develop the applicant enterprise from Greece. They need to be the main beneficiary of the project results.
Companies, clusters, NGOs, institutions etc. from the Donor States and/or from Greece could be project partners, for the individual Greek company.
Partners should be actively involved in, and effectively contribute to, the implementation of the project.
The contribution from a partner should be necessary to achieve a successful project result and it should be required by the Greek Applicant. However, the contribution needs to be tailormade for the project, and not something that can be bought “off the shelf” from several suppliers/consultants.
Example in an investment project:
Sharing of best practices and contribute with expertise/competence/know-how, from similar company/activity in Donor States. This is usually a small part of the project and the applicant/the Greek company must be willing to co-finance this additional cost, which they most probably will, if they see it as an added value to the project.
Example in an R&D project:
A) The partner could contribute with contractual research (sell and invoice their services) to the Greek Applicant. The Greek Applicant must cover the co-financing for this additional cost.
B) The partner could develop a product/solution together with the Greek Applicant. In this case, they share the project result/IPR, and in such cases the partner must cover the co-financing of their cost from their own funds. However, it is very important that the Greek company is the project owner and the main beneficiary of the project result.
The project is supported by Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein through the EEA Grants and operated by Innovation Norway. See more opportunities under the Business Innovation Programme in Greece.
Contact e-mail: GR.innovation@innovationnorway.no.
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