The purpose of the funding is to support the rapid development of competitive products and services, as well as the creation of facilities and production lines for new innovative offerings. The upcoming calls will concern the INNOVATE and SEED programmes, with a combined budget of €6.2 million, and the “Creation of Facilities and Production Lines for the Manufacture of New Innovative Products/Services – STEP” programme, which has a separate budget of €10 million.

The INNOVATE and SEED programmes are designed to help develop or transform innovative ideas into products and services for international markets, strengthening the export orientation of Cypriot businesses. The INNOVATE programme is intended to support companies that are already operating in the market or have innovative products or services in the testing or pilot phase. The funding is aimed primarily at the development and optimisation of a product or service, the commencement of commercial production, marketing, and ultimately support for international distribution, as well as the mobilisation of private investment capital. The INNOVATE call will have a total budget of €3.2 million, with individual projects eligible to receive up to €1 million in funding. The SEED programme focuses on the rapid development of dynamic and innovative start-ups aiming to create internationally competitive products or services. It also seeks to mobilise private investment capital for this purpose. The total budget for the SEED call stands at €3 million, with a maximum of €500,000 available per project.

It is noted that, under the INNOVATE call, applicants will be required to submit specific documentation. This includes audited financial statements of the legal entity for either the previous financial year (N-1) or the year before that (N-2), where “N” refers to the year of proposal submission. In addition, applicants must provide a statement of salaries and contributions issued by the Social Insurance Services for the three months preceding the month of submission, covering the period for which the employer was obligated to pay social insurance. Moreover, the RIF encouraged all interested parties to begin preparing their proposals and collecting the necessary documents as soon as possible.

The foundation has previously announced that it will also soon launch the new funding programme for the creation of facilities and production lines for new innovative products and services – the STEP programme. The objective of the STEP programme is to support businesses in Cyprus in establishing facilities and production lines for the development and manufacture of innovative products and services. The programme aligns with the EU regulation on Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP), and will focus on three key sectors. These include advanced and digital technologies, clean and efficient technologies, as well as biotechnologies.

Interested parties are advised to begin the necessary steps to prepare their proposals and gather documentation, in order to ensure timely and complete submission once the call is announced. The funding calls are co-financed by the Republic of Cyprus and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), under the Cohesion Policy Programme Thalia 2021–2027.

Source: Cyprus Mail