The Norway Grants Programme on Business Development and Innovation in Croatia launches its third and final call for proposals.
The call is directed at projects within green industry innovation and blue growth in Croatia, alongside cooperation with Norwegian partners. The call provides approximately six million euros.
The call will finance business growth and scale-up activities in Croatian companies, in addition to increasing cooperation with Norway.
See the mandatory attachments and essential reading below.
Thursday, 31 January 2023, 14:00 (Norwegian / Croatian time)
Project activities must be completed by 30 April 2024 at the latest.
Available Funding
A total budget of 6.045.512 Euro
Individual Project Scheme: 5.045.512 Euro
Small Grants Scheme for SMEs: 1.000.000 Euro
These calls will support projects within the two focus areas:
Green Industry Innovation can support the greening of manufacturing and production industries. It can support investments in greener technologies to increase production capacity, diversify products or services, or contribute to a fundamental change in the production process of the Croatian company (automation/ digitalisation/ robotisation) to make the process greener and more efficient.
Blue Growth can support sustainable growth in the marine and maritime sectors. Seas, oceans, rivers, lakes, and islands represent innovation and economic growth resources. Examples of projects include the development of products/solutions for blue energy, development of solutions related to marine litter and waste, development or investments in maritime supra-structures, development, or investments in blue biotechnology and more.
Eligible applicants: SMEs and large enterprises with less than 25% public ownership registered as legal enterprises in Croatia.
Eligible partners: Any private or public entity, commercial or non-commercial, established as a legal entity in Norway or Croatia.
On 14 December 2022, Innovation Norway organised a webinar and matchmaking to present the new Open Call for Proposals on Croatia.
See the recording here:
Projects that include Norwegian partners are encouraged.
Eligible partners are any private or public entity, commercial or non-commercial, established as legal entities in Norway or Croatia.
The program offers travel grants to strengthen cooperation and business partnerships: Travel Grants - Croatia (innovasjonnorge.no)
Partners should be actively involved in and effectively contributing to the implementation of the project. The contribution from a partner should be necessary to achieve a successful project result, and the applicant must request it. The contribution also needs to be tailor-made for the project and not something that can be bought “off the shelf” from several suppliers or consultants.
Please note that the project partnership model differs from what you might be used to from EU programs like Horizon 2020. The main focus of the Business Development and Innovation Program in Croatia is to develop the applicant enterprise from Croatia. The applicants must be the primary beneficiaries of the project results (see FAQ for more information).
See what one of our successful Project Promotor, Croatian Innovator, who has established cooperation with Norwegian Partner in developing a new solution for the international market has to say about the Cooperation:
Sharing best practices and contributing with expertise/competence/know-how from similar companies/activity in Norway. This is usually a tiny part of the project.
The applicant (the Croatian 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.
This program does not have a fixed grant rate. The financial contribution will be determined on a ‘case-by-case’ basis, considering all relevant factors. Innovation Norway will use the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) as the legal basis for calculating eligible costs and grant rates.
Generally, a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) in Croatia could get approximately 45-70 per cent of the total approved project budget for an investment project in grants, i.e., a grant rate of 45-70%. Depending on company size and project type, the grant amount could range from 50,000 to 1,5 million euros. Large companies can also apply but will get a lower grant rate.
Norway supports the programme through the Norway Grants, and the Fund Operator is Innovation Norway.
Follow the EEA and Norway Grants by Innovation Norway on Facebook or LinkedIn and Norway Grants for Business Programme in Croatia.
