Support for cooperation between enterprises and research organisations in the priority sectors of the South Aegean Region
End date: 11/12/2026 (at 15:00)
The Managing Authority of the "South Aegean" Programme has launched the Action "Support for cooperation between enterprises and research organisations in the priority sectors of the Region", under the "South Aegean" Programme 2021-2027 (Priority 1 "Strengthening competitiveness and productive capacity", Specific Objective 1i), co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.
The Action aims to strengthen the Region's innovation ecosystem by reinforcing cooperation between enterprises and research organisations. The objective is twofold: on the one hand, harnessing the know-how of research organisations for the development and differentiation of products, services and processes, and on the other, meeting the technological and research needs of the Region's enterprises, with the ultimate aim of strengthening their productive activity and improving their financial performance.
Research, development and innovation activities are a necessary object of every proposed project. The products or services must have been developed, or be developed, by the enterprises themselves or in cooperation with research organisations. Projects concerning Basic Research are not eligible.
The Action serves the Smart Specialisation Strategy (RIS3) of the South Aegean Region, as specified through the Entrepreneurial Discovery Process, in the following sectors:
- Experience tourism (tourism, culture, creative industry)
- Agri-food
- Fisheries and Aquaculture
- Renewable Energy Sources
Information and Communication Technologies, clean "green" technologies and human capital run horizontally across all sectors. Each investment plan must be demonstrably linked to at least one RIS3 priority, as well as to the investment activity code. Detailed documentation of that linkage constitutes a basic condition of inclusion, not a mere description.
Who it addresses
Existing micro, small and medium-sized enterprises that operate lawfully and are active in the South Aegean Region. A proposal may be submitted under three alternative structures:
- An enterprise with its own existing research department.
- An enterprise with a contract with research and knowledge dissemination organisations or with their research departments.
- More than one enterprise with their own research departments or with a contract with research and knowledge dissemination organisations.
An enterprise with its own research department is one that has a distinct Research and Development unit, or employs staff holding a master's or doctoral degree who carry out research activities, or implements projects producing new knowledge, new products and processes.
The part of the project assigned under a subcontract or within a collaborative scheme may be carried out by higher education institutions, public research centres or institutes, university research institutes, other bodies treated as research and knowledge dissemination organisations, or enterprises with a private research centre. In every case the beneficiary remains the enterprise, which bears responsibility for implementation.
Eligible legal forms
S.A., Ltd, General Partnership, Limited Partnership, Private Company, sole proprietorships, Social Cooperative Enterprises under Law 4430/2016, Recreational Shipping Company (N.E.P.A.), agricultural and civil cooperatives, Limited Liability Social Cooperatives (KOI.S.P.E.).
Basic eligibility conditions
- They must have at least two (2) closed accounting periods by 31/12/2025.
- They must hold at least one eligible activity code for at least one year (one full closed period before 01/01/2025), which must also be the investment activity code.
- They must employ at least two (2) FTEs in dependent employment.
- They must submit one single proposal per Tax Identification Number, or participate in one research project only.
- They must keep books of the second or third category.
- They must not be undertakings in difficulty as defined in Regulation (EU) 651/2014, must not be under bankruptcy, liquidation or compulsory administration, and must not be subject to a pending recovery of state aid.
- They must operate lawfully, holding the appropriate licensing document, and be registered in the Register of Beneficial Owners under Article 20 of Law 4557/2018.
Two points that deserve attention before any file preparation:
- Incentive effect: work on the research project must not have started before the submission of the application. Otherwise the entire project becomes ineligible. Correspondingly, the start date of cost eligibility is the date of submission of the proposal, not the publication date of the call.
- The activity code list defines the real scope. Annex XIII contains more than 3,300 eight-digit codes and covers manufacturing, energy, construction, trade, transport, accommodation and food service, travel agencies, information technology, scientific and technical activities, research and development, education and culture. It does not, however, include primary fisheries and aquaculture activities or fish processing: an enterprise in the sector qualifies only if it holds a different, eligible activity code. Eligibility is checked at the level of the specific code, not the sector.
Grant rate
Aid is granted under Articles 25 and 28 of the General Block Exemption Regulation (EU) 651/2014. The intensity depends on the category of research activity, the size of the enterprise and the existence of cooperation:
| Activity category | Medium | Micro & small |
|---|---|---|
| Industrial Research | up to 60% | up to 70% |
| Industrial Research, with uplift (cooperation or wide dissemination of results) | up to 75% | up to 80% |
| Experimental Development | up to 35% | up to 45% |
| Experimental Development, with uplift | up to 50% | up to 60% |
| Feasibility studies | up to 60% | up to 70% |
| Costs for SME innovation projects (Article 28) | up to 50% |
The uplift of 15 percentage points is granted where the project is implemented in cooperation between enterprises of which at least one is an SME and none bears more than 70% of the eligible costs, or in at least two Member States, or where the results are widely disseminated through conferences, publications, open access repositories or open source software.
The choice of research category must be substantiated in the submission form, as it constitutes a component of eligibility and not merely a factor in calculating the aid.
Type of aid
Grant. Interim payments may not cumulatively exceed 80% of the approved public funding, with the final payment following the on-site verification and the definitive acceptance of the project. Where an advance payment is made, a letter of guarantee of equal amount is required.
Area of application
South Aegean Region. Beneficiaries must be active and incur the corresponding costs in the Region. The investment is maintained in the area for at least three (3) years after its completion.
What is funded
Person-month cost limits
Members of the project team are classified into categories, with a maximum gross cost per person-month excluding VAT: experienced researcher up to EUR 4,000, researcher up to EUR 2,500, technical staff up to EUR 1,500, supporting staff up to EUR 1,000. An experienced researcher is a holder of a doctoral degree, or of a master's degree with at least five years of prior experience, or a graduate with more than ten years of prior experience in a corresponding position.
Not eligible, among others
- Purchase or financial leasing of vessels and vehicles.
- Purchase or financial leasing of land and building infrastructure.
- Purchase of used equipment, equipment rental, and depreciation of equipment already acquired with national or EU funding.
- Funding the recruitment of spouses and relatives of the first and second degree.
- Additional remuneration not provided for in the employment contract.
- Fines, financial penalties and dispute resolution costs.
Budget
A project with a subsidised budget below the lower limit of its category is deemed ineligible. Any amount exceeding the upper limit is covered exclusively from own resources, but remains subject to evaluation and audit.
Additional restriction: the subsidised budget may not exceed three times the highest turnover achieved in one of the three closed accounting periods preceding the year of submission. The check is carried out at Tax Identification Number level at the time of submission.
The total Public Expenditure of the call amounts to EUR 2,000,000, with an over-commitment capacity of 150%.
Implementation period
Up to twenty-four (24) months from the electronic notification of the final approval of the funding application. Extension requests are not accepted for any reason and at any stage, except for reasons of force majeure under Article 23 of Law 3885/2010. Here, the project timetable is not renegotiable after the fact.
How the proposal is evaluated
The evaluation is comparative. The score is formed by four criteria, on a scale of 1 to 10:
The minimum acceptable total score is 5, of which at least 1.2 points must come from the first criterion. It is worth noting that three of the four criteria, with a combined weight of 60%, concern data that are known and unchangeable at the time of submission: two-year profitability, employment and the record of distinctions. Real differentiation is decided in the first criterion and in the quality of documentation of the research plan.
Submission period
From 09/10/2026 (13:00) to 11/12/2026 (15:00). The application is submitted online through the Integrated State Aid Information System (OPSKE), where an OPSKE Project Coordinator is also designated. The Managing Authority of the South Aegean Programme reserves the right to amend the terms of the call and also to withdraw it.
The competent Intermediate Body is EFEPAE, through ELANET.
The substantive difficulty of this Action is not the file, it is the research content. It requires a genuine research object, documented linkage to RIS3 priorities, correct selection of the research category, and where there is no in-house R&D department, timely arrangements with a research organisation and a signed contract. At the same time, the start of work on the project must be placed after submission. These determine both eligibility and the score, and they are not settled in the final fortnight.