On September the financing program „Investment grants for SMEs” up will be launched. Please find below the conditions for obtaining the grants for investments dedicated to SMEs, in amount of up to 200,000 Euros.
Investment grants for SMEs
According to the “Emergency Ordinance on some measures for providing financial support from non-reimbursable external funds, related to the Competitiveness Operational Program 2014-2020, in the context of the crisis caused by COVID-19, as well as other measures in the field of European funds” published in the Official Gazette, Part I, Nr. 705 / 6.08.2020, the conditions for granting these grants are as follows:
- The grant value awarded per project and beneficiary: between 50,000 euros and 200,000 euros.
- The beneficiaries’ own co-financing shall be:
- minimum 15% of the amount of the grant requested by the beneficiaries from the less developed regions (but for the maximum score on this criterion the co-financing must be over 35%)
- minimum 30% of the value of the grant requested by the beneficiaries from the Bucharest-Ilfov region (but for the maximum score on this criterion the co-financing must be over 45%)
- Categories of expenditure for which grants may be used:
- expenses with the realization/ acquisition of constructions
- purchase of equipment, including IT&C equipment, software technologies, machinery, installations, technologies, independent equipment, office furniture and specific furniture
- the acquisition of land within the limit of 10% of the eligible value of the project
- expenses with consulting and design, project management, technical assistance, site management, expenses for systematization and land use planning, environmental expenses, expenses for connection to utilities, accessibility expenses, promotion expenses, participation in fairs, events , conferences, study expenses, intellectual property rights expenses, intangible assets related to patents, product brands, software required to carry out the activity, as well as any other categories of expenses that are related to the investment project that is the subject of the contract financing
The aforementioned categories of expenses are eligible for the establishment, extension, modernization/ rehabilitation of new and/ or existing production units/ services.
Grants can be used to implement investments in the current field of activity or in a different field of activity.
- The eligibility conditions for the beneficiaries:
- have had current/ operational activity carried out for at least one year before submitting the funding application;
- have registered operational profit from the current activity in one of the last 2 financial years before submitting the financing application (Attention! For maximum score it is necessary to have registered operational profit in the last year);
- undertake to ensure the sustainability of the project, respectively to ensure the development of the operational/ current activity for a period of at least 3 years after the end of the project implementation period;
- achieves at least 50% of the planned revenues value within the business plan annexed to the financing application in the first 2 years of sustainability, and the difference until the end of the sustainability period, respectively the third year;
- have their own project co-financing amount in a percentage of at least 15% of the investment value for the project requested for financing for the less developed regions, and for the Bucharest – Ilfov region, of at least 30% of the project value;
- undertake to provide evidence of the reasonableness of costs for the investments for which State aid is requested.
The investment projects will be selected for financing in the descending order of the scores and within the budget approved according to the state aid scheme at the level of each development region of Romania. At equal scores, the tie is made according to the percentage of co-financing, the turnover value and the order of the application registration.
Please find attached:
- The documents and information necessary from your part to determine whether the company that will benefit from the grant and the project meet the eligibility conditions
- The scoring grid based on which the project will be scored.