New EU Funding Opportunities

E.U. AND CYPRUS / GRANT SCHEMES LAUNCHED or EXPECTED TO BE LAUNCHED during 2023 – 2024

A. Energy Saving in Enterprises and other Entities Grant Scheme

  • Currently Open for applications
  • Duration: until 21/12/2023 or until the budget is exhausted (whichever comes first)

Target Audience:

  • SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) in almost all business sectors
  • NGOs (N0n-Governamental Organizations)

Other information:

  • Subsidy Rate for SMEs : 40%
  • Subsidy Rate for NGOs : 60%

 B.  Grant scheme for Big Enterpises in the Manufacturing Sector

  • Expected to be launched during Spring 2023

Target Audience:

  • Big companies in the Manufacturing Sector

(Big companies=more than 250 people in stuff and/or Turnover over €50.000.000 and/or Balance Sheet over €40.000.000)

Other Information

The scheme will cover planned expenditures for:

  • Construction of premises (given that there is a Building permit and approved architectural plans)
  • Landscaping / layout of buildings
  • Purchase and installation of new equipment / machinery
  • Purchase of equipment or expenditures for digital transformation
  • Purchase of photovoltaic system and/or other expenditures for energy saving

C.  Grant Scheme for Energy Saving in Residences

  • Expected to  Open for applications during April 2023
  • Duration: Until the budget is exhausted

Target Audience:

  • Owners of residences with Building Permit dated before 1/12/2007

D . Reinforcement of New Entrepreneurship Grant Scheme

  • It is expected to maybe launched during the second semester of 2023
  • Duration: 5 months or until the budget is exhausted (whichever comes first)

Target Audience:

  •  Men 20-50 years old and women 20-55 years old, who want to start their own business (for the first time) in any sector
  • Applicants should not be a shareholder in a company with more than 25% at least 6 months before submitting the application
  • Applicants should not be self-employed at least 6 months before submitting the application. They must be either unemployed or employed by another enterprise.
  • Applicants must be permanent residents of Cyprus at least 6 months before submitting the application (unless they were abroad for study or work)
  • Franchise companies are not subsidized
  • Businesses intending to set up their business in areas of the British Bases are not subsidized
  • Excludes wholesale and retail trade (e-commerce is covered), agriculture, livestock and fisheries

Other information

The plan will cover planned expenditures for:

  • Construction of premises (given that there is a Building permit and approved architectural plans
  • Landscaping / layout of buildings
  • Purchase and installation of new equipment / machinery / furniture
  • Expenses for promotion of the business
  • Other expenses (indirect costs) 7% of the total budget, which are necessary for the implementation of the investment plan such as expenses for consultants’ fee for proposal preparation, feasibility study and project management, etc.

Total maximum budget per applicant (for all sectors): € 15,000 – € 120,000

  •  Subsidy Rate: 60%
  •  The Subsidy rate may increase to 70% if the applicant is under 30 years old

E. Business Digital Transformation Grant Scheme

  • Expected to Open for applications during the first timester of 2024
  • Duration: Applications are submitted electronically and examined in order of priority until the budget is exhausted=about 2hrs from the time the platform opens

Target Audience:

  • All existing SMEs that want to be upgraded digitally
  • Newly established small and medium enterprises – only for investment proposals concerning e-commerce / store and software

Other information

The plan covers expenditures for:
Equipment required for the digital upgrade such as supply of network equipment (Routers, Firewalls, WAFs, Load Balancers), Servers (Servers, Bladeservers), Storage Networks (SAN), Gateways, Ups etc.

Off the shelf software produced for bulk purchase and license and installation on the user’s computer and / or license via cloud or SaaS.
Specially designed software designed and developed to meet all business requirements
Online Store, Industrial Digitization, e-Invoicing – Electronic Invoicing, Data Analytics, Secure Payments etc.
Services related to Information Systems such as Software Configuration, Data Transfer (initial system setup), Installation, Staff Training etc.
Purchase of Services for other Digital Upgrade costs (Digital Marketing), presence on social media (Social Media), creation of videos for presentation of the company’s products, creation of digital content, etc.

Total maximum budget per applicant: € 5,000 – € 100,000

Subsidy Rate: 50%