Funding Programs & Project Management

Funding programs are basically a form of external financial aid and aim to current and new businesses that wish to develop new technologies and innovations, to modernize their production, to produce new products or services, to increase their productive vigor, etc. The funding criteria, although they differ per case, concern in general: issues of accurate / legal operation of a company, sustainability of the investment, experience of businesses’ shareholders and employees’ regarding the investment subject, the innovation grade that is introduced with the suggested investment plan, the protection of the environment, the energy saving and the new work positions that are created by investment etc.

The services that SustChem Engineering offers, include:

Basic planning of the investment– project, selection of the proper funding tool

Pro-assessment of the proposal based on the grading criteria

Composition – justification and submission of the funding proposal accompanied with the relevant business plan

Monitoring and guidance of the implementation of the investment until the final payout of the respective subsidy

The main funding tools in which our company is specialized are:

See here the catalog of the current and expected NSRF programs.

Investment Incentives Law

The New Investment Incentives Law: L. 4399/2016 “Statutory framework for the establishment of Private Investments Aid Schemes for the regional and economic development of the country Composition of an Incentive Board and other provisions” is published in the Official Gazette in June of 2016 (Official Gazette Α” 117 / 22.06.16).

Beneficiaries of the Investment Incentives Law 4399/2016:

Personal Company
Commercial Company
Social Cooperative Company (SoCC)
Agricultural Cooperatives (AC), Producer groups (PG) and Agricultural Corporate Partnerships (ACP)
Companies in establishment or merger procedures
Companies that operate as joint ventures, provided that they are registered in the General Electronic Commercial Registry (GEMI)
Public and municipal companies, and their subsidiaries

Participation in the cost of the investment plan:

The participation itself can be also supported by external funding. The alternative means of capitals coverage are:

Share capital increase
Bank loan
Exhaustion of current reserves
Capitalization of reserves

Content of investment plan:

Creation of new business unit
Expansion of the capacity of an existing business unit
Transformation of the business unit’s productive procedure
Fundamental change in the overall production process of an existing business unit
Purchase of all of the assets of a non-operating facility by the beneficiary

Strengthened investment categories:

Investment plans of all economy fields are included under the reservation of paragraphs of article 7 of the law.

State aid incentives:

Tax exemption
Cash grant
Leasing Subsidy
Subsidy for the cost of created employment
Fixed corporate income tax rate
Funding of business risk through mutual holding funds

Aid incentives percentages:

The aid incentives percentages, based on the new Regional Aid Map that range from 20 % – 55% depending on the Region of the investment implementation and the company’s size.

State Aids Schemes:

The New Incentive Law is distinguished in State Aids Schemes: a) General State Aids (Machinery and Equipment, General Entrepreneurship, New Independent SMEs), b) Investments of Innovative Character, Synergies and Networking, c) Financial intermediation and capital funds, d) Integrated spatial and sectoral plans and e) Major Investments.

European Program LIFE

The program LIFE is the funding instrument of the European Union for the environment. LIFE contributes to the sustainable development and the accomplishment of scopes and goals of the Europe 2020 strategy, supports the implementation of the 7^th Action Program for the Environment and other strategies and schemes of the EU for the environment and climate. Through the LIFE program, measures and projects are funded with a European added value for the members-states.

At the LIFE program for the next funding period of 2014-2020, two sub-programs are established, the first concerns the Environment and the second the Climate Action. The budget for this period reaches the 3,4 billions €.

The part “Environment” of the new program (75% of the budget) covers three priority sectors:

Environment and Resource efficacy
Nature and biodiversity
Environmental governance and information

The part “Climate Action” (25% of the budget) covers:

Mitigation of climate change
Adaptation to climate change
Climate governance and information

The LIFE program besides the “traditional projects” such as pilot (innovative), demonstrative, best practices, information and awareness tasks and dissemination, also includes a new type of projects, the complete projects, strategies or tasks for the environment or climate, which will operate in extensive territorial scale and that will be funded in conjunction with at least one more funding source.

Moreover, it includes projects of technical aid, projects of capacity building and preparatory projects.

At least 55% of the resources, destined for action subsidies within the framework of environmental projects, will be funded in support measures for the conservation of nature and biodiversity.

The maximum funding sum for all projects during the first phase of the program (2014-2017) comes up to 60 % of the selected expenses and for the second period (2018-2020) up to 55%.

For the whole duration of the program (2014-2020) for the complete projects, the technical aid projects, the preparatory projects and the projects funded in the field of priority “Nature and Biodiversity” the funding comes up to 60 % of the selected expenses and up to 75 % of the selected expenses for projects that concern habitats or priority species.

European Program Erasmus

European Program Interreg

The programs of the European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) are a basic tool for the reinforcement of cross-border cooperations within the European framework, but also with third countries and are one of the main options for the programming period 2014-2020.

The European territorial cooperation in the level of members-states of the European Union is implemented through the cross-border, transnational and interregional cooperation. These programs are distinguished in bilateral and multilateral.

The bilateral programs of cross-border cooperation aim to address the common challenges that cross-border areas face, to capitalize the development potentials and of course to strengthen the cooperation in aid of the harmonized route of the Union. The bilateral programs of foreign cooperation in Greece with bordering countries are:

Cross-Border Program Greece – Bulgaria 2014-2020
Cross-Border Program Greece – Italy 2014-2020
Cross-Border Program Greece – Cyprus 2014-2020
Cross-Border Program Greece – Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) 2014-2020
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia – Albania 2014-2020

The multilateral Programs of Territorial Cooperation, in which regions of our country participate, are:

The Adriatic – Ionian (foreign)
MED (foreign)
MED ENI CBC (cross-border)
Black Sea basin ENI CBC (cross-border)
INERREG EUROPE (cross-regions)
Balkan Mediterranean (cross-regions)

European Program Horizon

The program “Horizon 2020” is the financial instrument of the EU for the Research and Innovation that will cover the time period 2014-2020, with a budget of almost 80 billion dollars. The program supports the strategy “Europe 2020” that emphasizes the research and innovation as main gears for the smart, sustainable and complete development, by aiming at the same time to the efficient handling of significant social challenges.

The three basic axes of the program are:

Εxcellent Science: scientific research of universal level that aims to the attraction of the best scientists to the EU.
Ιndustrial Leadership: strategical investment in key technologies, such as nanotechnology-microelectronics, participation of the private sector, creation of innovative businesses.
Societal Challenges: Handling of important social challenges, such as ageing of the population, exhaustion of energy resources, handling of climate change.