EEA & Norway Grants in Greece – First call launched under Business Innovation Greece in March 2019
SMEs and large enterprises on the Greek market have a new funding opportunity via the ‘Business Innovation Greece’ programme under the EEA & Norway grants aiming to support companies for development, innovation and commercialisation activities. The programme has a strong focus on innovation for improving the economic and environmental performance of enterprises in Greece, contributing to positive social impact. The programme will be operated by Innovation Norway and will support the bilateral relations between the Donor states and Greece. The first call for proposals was launched on 27 March 2019.
The programme ‘Business Innovation Greece’ has 2 schemes within the 3 focus areas, described in more details below:
- Small Grants Scheme for SMEs – EUR 3.6 million, distributed as follows:
– Green Industry Innovation – EUR 1.5 million
– Blue Growth – EUR 1.5 million
– ICT – EUR 600k - Individual Project Scheme – EUR 15.4 million, distributed as follows:
– Green Industry Innovation – EUR 6.5 million
– Blue Growth – EUR 6.5 million
– ICT – EUR 2.4 million
The programme aims to increase the value creation and sustainable growth in the Greek business sector, with the following 3 focus areas:
- Green Industry Innovation – “reduce and re-use”
- Development and commercialisation of new and improved green products and service
- Environmentally friendly production process
- Green organisational innovation
- Development of innovative solutions related to renewable energy
- Technology for energy efficiency/ energy storage
- Water management of islands
- Innovation and greening of business (food industry, construction, waste management)
- Blue Growth – Diversification of businesses
- Development of new solutions within the marine and maritime sectors
- Modernizing of fishing boats and ferries
- Investment and development of coastal and marine (ocean) tourism
- Innovative technologies for the water supply
- Solutions for reducing marine litter
- Development of businesses based on bio economy
- Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
- Innovative solutions for business development with ICT
- Innovative ICT solutions for industrial processes
- More general ICT products/services/solutions
Projects that include bilateral partners bringing added value are strongly encouraged and typically can contribute with know-how, expertise, R&D competence, technology transfer, lean production, etc.
Greek enterprises can apply for minimum Euro 200,000 and maximum Euro 1,500,000 per project. Small and Medium-sized enterprises could apply for smaller grants, in the range of minimum Euro 50,000 and maximum Euro 200,000 per project. Each organisation can submit only one application under each open call.
SMEs are the main target of the current programme in Greece and will get approx. 50% grant out of the total approved project costs, while a large enterprise will get less. The funding intensity will vary depending the size of the enterprise, the type of project and the location in Greece where the project will be implemented.
In the coming weeks, more information will be published regarding the funding conditions and eligibility requirements. Innovation Norway is currently organizing national and regional information sessions in Greece and Norway. The first call for proposals was launched on 27 March 2019.
The deadline of the call for proposals is 1 October 2019, 13:00 Greece time (GMT +2).
More details about the overall funding allocation on the Greek market are available here as well as additional information for this call for business development, innovation and SMEs and the funding available here.
For more information on the Call guidelines, please read here as well as more information provided by Innovation Norway is available here.
