Publication of a Unified State Aid Action:

"RESEARCH - CREATE - INNOVATE"

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The announcement of the 2nd cycle of submissions for the action "Research-Create-Innovate" is expected.

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Beneficiaries are all companies regardless of size, as well as research organizations that will partner with them to carry out an innovation research project, while the aid rates are as follows:

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• 100% for research organizations,

• 85% for businesses.

The eligibility of the companies is not determined by the Activity Codes they have, but the relevance of the project to the thematic areas and priority sub-areas, as they are analyzed in the attached Annex III.

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OBJECTIVES OF THE ACTION:

• Economic growth based on knowledge and sustainable specialization

• Integration of new knowledge and innovation in existing but also in new products, services, production systems and value chains

• Linking academic research to market needs and the economy.

ELIGIBLE ACTIVITIES

For all interventions the eligible costs for funding should be included in the following eligible activities described in the General Exemption Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 651/2014):

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• research and development activities (Article 25 of EU 651/2014) which should fall entirely into one or more of the following categories: industrial research, experimental development, feasibility studies

• innovation activities (Article 28 of EU 651/2014), e.g. acquisition / validation / protection of patents, secondment of staff from research and dissemination organizations - only for SMEs

• participation in trade fairs (Article 19 of EU 651/2014), e.g. participation in trade fairs, consulting services - only for SMEs

Proposals submitted for funding under this Action should promote research, technological development and innovation and be part of one of the following three (3) interventions:

1. Research and Development by Small and Medium Enterprises with the aim of intervening to support research, promote innovation and strengthen networking in small and medium enterprises. The intervention is addressed to Small and Medium Enterprises of any legal form , regardless of the date of their establishment. Potential beneficiaries are either a Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) or Small and Medium Enterprise Groups (SMEs), independent of each other.

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2. Business Partnerships with Research Organizations with the aim of intervening the cooperation between companies, regardless of their legal form, size and operating time, and research organizations. In the context of the intervention:

• in partnerships of two or three or four partners - one of them must necessarily be a business.

• in partnerships of more than four partners - the two must necessarily be companies.

3. Utilization of Research Results in order to promote research to the next level of technological readiness, based on results produced in previous research projects. Potential beneficiaries are individual companies regardless of legal form, size and date of incorporation.

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The budget of this Action amounts to the total amount of 280,000,000 € (Public Expenditure) and will be implemented through three (3) cycles. The budget (Public Expenditure) of the interventions of the first cycle amounts to 126,000,000 € .

ELIGIBLE AREAS OF ACTIVITY

The submitted research project proposals concern all the strategic priority areas of the Operational Program "Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship, Innovation" (EPANEK). The indicative distribution of Public Expenditure by thematic sector is as follows: