“With this call, we aim to encourage businesses outside the capital region to take on R&D projects that can be daunting in terms of both complexity and implementation costs. Entrepreneurs who are starting up or who have not tried R&D activities before can benefit from this instrument. We encourage them to develop new products with high added value, enable researchers to participate in companies’ R&D activities, promote intellectual property, and encourage the production and market readiness of pilot products," said Gintarė Kuncaitytė, Deputy Director of the Investment Management Department at the Innovation Agency.
Start-up innovators are companies that have been in business for less than a year but have an operating income of at least €3,000. Among them are also companies with no previous experience in R&D, but which have been operating for more than a year and have an operating income of at least €3,000.
The new call is the equivalent of the expired calls Eksperimentas and Intelektas. The latter calls ran over the 2014-2020 period and funded a total of 503 projects with more than €310.2 million in funding. Currently 259 projects have been completed and 218 are still ongoing. The newly launched InoStartas call will be slightly different.
“The InoStartas call no longer allows for the construction of buildings and the purchase of equipment needed to carry out R&D activities. Instead, companies can take advantage of the possibility to finance the depreciation or rental of existing equipment or newly acquired equipment purchased with the company's own funds. In addition, an additional activity has been introduced which was not available in previous calls, namely, the preparation of the developed product for the market. Although this activity is no longer classified as R&D, it is no less important and necessary before a new product can be produced. Market preparation includes additional product testing, standardisation, preparation of instructions or other important measures,” explained Inga Lukošiūnaitė, Head of the Science and Innovation Projects Unit.
Applicants must submit an R&D business plan together with the project implementation plan and implement the project activities within 18 months.
“It is important to note that the eligible costs include advice on the R&D project activities, so lack of knowledge should not prevent the implementation of research projects. Other eligible costs include the purchase of R&D services from external sources, depreciation costs of assets required for the use of the R&D activities, salaries of project staff, travel costs, patenting costs or other similar costs. The spectrum is really broad, so we invite you to consult and find out more about these opportunities of the new R&D call,” said Ms Lukošiūnaitė.
The InoStartas call is one more measure in the planned €1 billion plan to stimulate the Lithuanian economy. Two more calls for advanced and mature innovators – InoPažanga and InoBranda – are expected in early 2023. The latter will be similar to InoStartas, but with higher amounts and slightly different requirements for applicants.
The measure is managed by the Innovation Agency. Applications for funding are open until 31 March 2023.
On 11 January 2023, the Innovation Agency invites entrepreneurs interested in the InoStartas call to a distance training. Registration is available online.
For full information on the measure, visit the Innovation Agency's website.
