Deadline of 13 April 2023 is coming for the Innovative SMEs European project. As part of the European Innovative SMEs initiative, the Eurostars tender aims to finance small and medium-sized enterprises that wish to collaborate in research and development projects to create innovative products, processes or services for business.

The initiative is aimed at: small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Innovative PMI and Startups eventually in partnership, with research organizations and/or with large companies.

The italian Government allocates a total of 14 million euros to the co-financing of the Italian companies selected in the joint transnational tenders. Of these resources, those earmarked for the 2023 tender "Eurostars 3 CoD 4" amount to 7 million , for a maximum grant of 500 thousand euros per single project. A share of 40% of the allocation will be reserved for companies located in the Italian South Area.

Businesses and interested parties who intend to join the initiative must participate in both the European tender and the national tender. The deadlines for participation in the 2023 European tender expire on 13 April 2023. The methods and deadlines for submitting applications to the national tender were defined by the Directorial Decree of 3 March 2023 and applications must be submitted by 2.00 pm on 13 April 2023.

How to partecipate to Eurostars Innovative SMEs

The application must be sent, complete with all the required documentation, electronically to the PEC address dgiai.div6@pec.mise.gov.it by 2 pm on 13 April 2023.

MIMIT (Italian Ministero delle Imprese e del Made in Italy) carries out the preliminary investigation and evaluates the project within 70 days, based on a specific grid (technical characteristics, costs, financial impact, environmental and social impact), calculating the subsidies due on the basis of the total cost deemed eligible and communicating the positive outcome to be used for subsequent fulfilments.

The European initiative Innovative SMEs - implemented in the form of a Cofunded Partnership and managed by the EUREKA Secretariat - aims to help innovative SMEs to increase their research and innovation capacity and their productivity and to enable them to integrate into global value and into new markets, following three strategic objectives:

• Innovation
• Internationalization
• Connecting the European Research Area (ERA - European Research Area).