With "piggy bank" 960 million from the NSRF, four new actions are launched in the near future, for two of which it has been known that the application period starts on 6 February. For the other two, however, while the original plan was to start already last autumn, it remains unknown when they will be announced and the NSRF application period will start.

It is about the Second cycle of the action Research – Create – Innovate with a budget of € 200 million. euros which is estimated to start in the first quarter of the year and for the action Reward – Support businesses, with a budget of €300 million. euros which concerns existing micro and small enterprises which increased or retained their staff in the last three months before applying for inclusion in the action.

As regards the action: the Competitiveness Toolbox for Small and Micro Enterprises, with a budget of €400 million. and the action: the Entrepreneurship Toolbox, Trade-Food-Education, with a budget of €60 million. The starting period for the submission of applications for membership has been set for 6 February.

At the same time, the action Qualitative Modernization of Enterprises, with a budget of 150 million euros, is in progress. euro. Investment projects can range from €50,000 to €400,000 and 50% of the eligible costs are subsidised.

960 million Euro from the NSRF - Distribution in Actions

The actions to come are the following:

1. Research - Create - Innovate

total 200 million. euros are going to "fall" in the market through the second cycle of the action Research – Create – Innovate. Proposals under Cycle B should fall into one of the following four categories of interventions:

• Research and Development by Enterprises,
• Business Partnerships with Research Organizations,
• Utilization of Research Results
• Seal of Excellence for businesses.

The Seal of Excellence for businesses, concerns the funding of proposals that passed the scoring threshold of the EU Horizon 2020 SME Instrument, i.e. received the "Seal of Excellence" as highly innovative but were not funded due to exhaustion of available funds. It is addressed only to existing SMEs, which have a highly innovative activity. The total budget of the submitted project proposals is up to €600,000 for Intervention I Research and Development by Enterprises, up to 1 million euros for Intervention II Business Partnerships with Research Organisations and up to EUR 2 million; euros for Intervention III Exploitation of Research Results.

For Intervention IV Seal of Excellence for enterprises: the total budget of each proposal (and any allocation per co-beneficiary/partner if it concerns a group of enterprises) is the approved budget from the evaluation of Horizon 2020.

2. Reward -Enhance business

This action, which according to the planning should already be "running" from last Autumn, will be budget 300 million euros and will concern existing micro and small enterprises that have increased or maintained their staff. In essence, this is a bonus of up to 10,000 euros to these companies (excluding tourism companies), provided that they proceed with the recruitment of new staff. Among the main conditions are, these companies:

• employ at least 2 full-time or part-time employees in the year before the submission of the proposal
• have maintained stable or increased employment in the last three months prior to the submission of the application compared to the corresponding period one year before;
• have no insurance backlogs
• not to implement an OAED program related to the subsidy of new jobs

3. Competitiveness Toolbox for small and micro enterprises

On a budget 400 million euros, this Action aims to strengthen existing micro and small enterprises. Investment plans are financed for the modernization of the production equipment of enterprises, as well as for all the tests and quality controls required for the certification and compliance of products in accordance with national, harmonized as well as voluntary standards of European countries and / or non-EU countries. starts on February 6 and will remain open until the available budget is exhausted.

The subsidized budget of each investment project ranges from 20,000 euros to 200,000 euros. The subsidy rate is between 50 and 65%, and the amount of the subsidy is determined on the basis of the export performance of the enterprises.

For an investment project with a budget of more than 200,000 euros, the excess amount will be implemented with own funds. In this case, although the excess costs are not subsidized, the entire investment project, including the excess costs, is evaluated and monitored-controlled.

4. Entrepreneurship Toolkit, Trade-Food-Education from the NSRF

Budget 60 million euros is the specific action of the NSRF, which aims to support existing micro and small enterprises operating in the following sectors: retail trade , provision of services catering services and the provision of services private education services .

The submission period starts on February 6, 2019 and ends on April 19, 2019. Investment projects must be from €10,000 to €150,000. Companies will have to implement 30% of the approved subsidized budget of the investment, in the first 12 months from the date of adoption of the accession decision, while the implementation time of the investment projects has been set up to 24 months from the date of the adoption of the accession decision. The starting date for eligibility of expenditure shall be the date of publication of the call.