The INGENIOUS (Building resilience and accelerating transition to green and digital economy in Energy Intensive Industries) – Euroclusters project fosters SMEs operated in energy intensive industry to develop innovative projects. The INGENIOUS Internationalisation Grants will serve to expand the internationalisation activities of SMEs that want to stay competitive.

The applicants can apply only for one Internationalisation Grant (one grant worth € 2500) keeping in mind that the total maximum funding will be € 60.000 per SME including all financial support to third parties (Innovation grants and Training grants) within the INGENIOUS project.

Only target countries are available for funding. The main target countries are: Africa, Asia, North America and Latin America. The specific options of target countries are described in the Guide of Applicants.

Eligibility criteria

Eligible participants:

• Applicants must declare their SME status in accordance with the SME definition of the EU.
• Applicants need to submit their application via the INGENIOUS website using the template provided in the respective group: Internationalisation Grants
• A motivation letter (not exceeding two DIN A4 page) needs to be filled-in in the template provided on INGENIOUS website: https://ingenious-eurocluster.eu/internationalisation-grants/
• Internationalisation activities should meet one of the above mentioned main target destinations (Africa, Asia, North and Latin America)
• Applications must be written in English (applications partially written in another language are not eligible)
• Applicants must be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:

• EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)) and Ukraine
• EEA countries and countries associated to the COSME part of the Single Market Programme or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature (Please note that a minimum of 10% of selected organisations in the call must be established in a country other than the project partners’ countries.)
• Applicants can apply for only one INGENIOUS Internationalisation grant, however, a total maximum funding of €60.000 per applicant applies

Funding conditions

Number of internationalisation grants: 10

Call:                                   22 May 2023 at 09.00 CEST until 30 September 2024 at 17.00 CEST.

The consortium retains the option to end the open call ahead of schedule if the budget is exhausted, but it will remain accessible for a minimum period of two months.

Grant amount:                   € 2.500 (financial support)

INGENIOUS budget:         € 25.000

Participants (SME’s):         1

Submission

The applications must be submitted using the Application Form in the INGENIOUS website. Before starting the submission process, applicants should read the Guide for Applicants available on the website.

Only those proposals fulfilling all eligibility criteria and completing all mandatory fields in the application form will be considered eligible.

Evaluation process

Two neutral INGENIOUS consortium partners will assess submitted applications. The evaluation process starts with the assessment of the eligibility of the applicant, according to the criteria above (see chapter: Main requirements for applicants and Application conditions). The assessment period takes max. 4 weeks starting from the application date. The applicant will receive an email about the outcome of the assessment and then the results will be published. The validity of the Internationalisation Grant is 6 months starting from the approval email date. The entirety of the lump sum must be utilized by the conclusion of the project. All eligible applications will be reviewed against the following evaluation criteria: Target country (40 Points), Importance (40 Points), Motivation (20 Points). To be considered for funding, the application must pass an overall threshold of 70 points out of a maximum score of 100 points. To ensure a consistent minimum quality for all award criteria, each sub-criterion needs to score at least half of the points available for the criteria.

Further information

• Applicants can find complete information about the Internationalisation grants in the Guide for Applicants available in the INGENIOUS website.
• INGENIOUS contact: marytova [at] nanoprogress.eu (marytova[at]nanoprogress[dot]eu) 
• INGENIOUS partnership is organising an Info Day on 31 May 2023 from 16.00 to 17.00 (CET) to present the Internationalisation grant call and answer the questions from attendees Registration form

Euroclusters FSTP Euroclusters green economy digital economy Resilience Internationalisation