CCDR Centre launches 5 million competition for business support

O Regional Programme of the Centre (Central 2030) opened a competition with an allocation of EUR 5 million (ME), to support business projects for industrial research and experimental development, said the Centre’s CCDR today.

According to the chairman of the Centre’s Regional Coordination and Development Committee (CCDR), this funding seeks to extend funding opportunities to enterprises, in particular technology-based enterprises linked to knowledge-producing centres such as universities and polytechnic universities.

“ It contributes to support its growth, creation and value and the attraction and fixing of qualified human resources in the region,” José Ribau Esteves said.

In a press release sent to the Lusa agency, CCDR explained that this competition, with applications up to 30 December, aims to support micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and small and medium-sized enterprises (small mid cap) to evolve into more innovative, sustainable and knowledge and technology-intensive production models.

“ Both individual operations of companies and co-promotion projects carried out with entities of the research and innovation system are eligible, stimulating closer collaboration with the regional scientific and technological system”, said.

According to the Centre’s CCDR, this warning aims to “impel the creation of new products, processes or services or the introduction of significant improvements in existing ones, in full alignment with the priorities of the Regional Strategies for Intelligent Specialization (RIS3)”.

“ The base rates of cofinancing can reach up to 50% for industrial research and 25% for experimental development, including several increases associated with the size of the company, effective collaboration or location of the project, with a maximum support intensity fixed at 80% (or 85% for the entities of the scientific system) ", concluded.