Additional CZK 6 Billion in European Aid for Czech Businesses

1 Nov. 2013 | CzechInvest, Ministry of Industry and Trade | CzechInvest calls for submission of aid applications for business development, innovation projects and the ICT sector.

In the last week of October, CzechInvest announced calls in three programmes of the Operational Programme Enterprise and Innovation (OPEI): Development, Innovation – Innovation Project and ICT and Business Support Services. At the end of the 2007-2013 programming period of support from EU Structural Funds, companies will thus be able to receive additional aid for acquisition of new technologies, production improvement, innovation of products and processes, and development of information and communication technologies. The Ministry of Industry and Trade will provide a total of CZK 6 billion to recipients within these three programmes.

“The Development programme is focused on supporting enterprises in regions with a higher unemployment rate. Compared with the previous call of the programme, we have expanded the list of such locations based on a decree of the Government of the Czech Republic on the situation in the Moravia-Silesia region,” says outgoing Minister of Industry and Trade Jiří Cienciala. Frýdek-Místek, which was the only district of Moravia-Silesia that was not included in previous calls, is one of the 14 newly supported districts.

logo OPPI Development, Innovation – Innovation Project and ICT and Business Support Services are among the programmes that have traditionally received intense interest from businesses. This is evidenced by current statistics. “Since the beginning of the programming period in 2007, 2,024 business projects have received aid in excess of CZK 17.8 billion from the Operational Programme Enterprise and Innovation within only these three programmes,” says Alexandra Rudyšarová, deputy minister for the area of European funds, research and development at the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

“Businesses will have time until roughly the middle of November to send registration applications to the Development and Innovation – Innovation Project programmes, and until mid-December to the ICT and Business Support Services programme. We will receive full applications including formulated projects until January, February next year,” specifies Marian Piecha, CEO of CzechInvest. “However, companies will be able to implement their actual projects throughout the course of 2014 and even in the first half of 2015.”

The Development programme will offer businesses up to CZK 20 million for individual projects. Applicants can submit registration applications within the second extension of Call III of this programme from 4 to 15 November 2013, and then full applications until 20 January 2014.

Companies will be able to receive up to CZK 50 million or, in the case of regions with concentrated state aid, up to CZK 75 million from the Innovation – Innovation Project programme. CzechInvest will receive registration applications within the third extension of Call IV of the programme in the period from 11 to 22 November 2013, and full applications until 31 January 2014.

Within the ICT and Business Support Services programme the maximum amount of aid per project is CZK 100 million or up to CZK 150 million in the case of regions with concentrated state aid. The deadline for submitting registration applications within the second extension of Call III of this programme is 17 December 2013; for full applications, the deadline is 7 February 2013.