I&D Empresarial - 2025

The grant aims to support small and mid-sized enterprises in low-density areas of the regions in Portugal by encouraging and strengthening their research, development, and innovation capabilities. This initiative focuses on improving competitive advantages and economic performance in low-density regions through innovation and technological adoption.

Be focused on research and development work—either to explore new ideas or to test and improve existing ones.

Aim to create new products, services, or processes, or bring major improvements to existing ones.

Include activities that are realistic to carry out, both technically and financially.

Involve an investment of at least €250,000.

Examples of Admissible Projects

• Creating a new eco-friendly consumer product.

• Improving a production line to reduce costs and waste.

• Using new technologies to boost product quality or performance.

Staff Costs: Salaries of researchers, engineers, and technical staff directly working on the project.

Materials and Supplies: Purchase of raw materials, components, and other consumables needed to carry out tests and prototypes.

Equipment and Technology: Acquisition or rental of machinery, tools, or technology used specifically for the R&D project (e.g., lab equipment, testing platforms).

External Services: Subcontracting specialized services that cannot be done in-house, such as certification, testing, or expert consultancy.

Intellectual Property: Costs for patent applications, IP protection, and freedom-to-operate analyses directly related to the project.

• Total budget for the grant: 36,000,000€
• Co-financing percentage: Up to 80%
• Minimum funding per company: 150.000€

Type of Applicant: Only micro, small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and small mid-cap companies (up to 499 employees) are eligible. This is proved by presentation the SME Certificate by IAPMEI for individual applications. Academic institutions or entities belonging to the national technical-scientific system may apply in consortium with SMEs.

Project Duration: Projects must not exceed 24 month. Or 36 months if the application is in consortium.

Financial Viability: Applicants must demonstrate a balanced financial situation, based on their 2023 accounts (or 2024, if already closed).
If required, an interim balance sheet (no older than 3 months from application date) must be submitted, certified by a certified accountant (ROC). Simplified exams are not accepted.

Organized Accounting: All applicants must have organized and up-to-date accounting systems.

Environmental Compliance (DNSH – Do No Significant Harm): The project must respect environmental objectives as defined under EU law.
Applicants must ensure that the investment does not harm any environmental goals..