Public Competition for Awarding Grants for Early Stage of Startup Development
The Ministry of Science and Technological Development has announced a public competition for grants for the early stage of development of startups worth a total of 200,000 euros.
The competition co-finances startup projects that will offer digital solutions in four priority areas of smart specialization (agriculture and food value chain; energy and sustainable environment; sustainable and health tourism and ICT), as well as for projects that encourage social innovation in these areas. The amount of funds that will support social innovation can be a maximum of 20% of the value of the total funds allocated under this competition.
Amount of financial support per individual project is from 6,000.00 to 20,000.00 euros and can amount to a maximum of 80% of the total project value, while the duration of the proposed projects is from 6 to 12 months.
Through this financial assistance, we provide continuous support to startups to, despite the situation with COVID, develop innovative solutions with high growth potential in the market or innovative solutions that contribute to solving social challenges in the priority areas of S3.
The goal of the competition is to improve business in the form of strengthening their capacity, sustainability and competitiveness, and we want to contribute to increasing the number of startups and their quality of business, as well as connecting the Montenegrin ecosystem with the international one.
Applications for the Competition must be submitted no later than September 20, 2022, by 3:00 PM, and the application is done exclusively online, via portal www.inovacije.gov.me.
1. The project application should contain the following:• Completed, signed and stamped application form by an authorized person of the applicant or certified by an electronic signature (if the applicant is already an established legal entity) / Completed and signed application form by the project manager (in case the startup at the time of application is not registered in CRPS);• Financial plan of the project;• Short presentation of the project (in ppt format);• Biographies of the project manager and all members of the project team;• Statement on secured financial participation (at least 20% of the total value of the project), notarized; and• Letter (s) of intent from interested partners (only for projects proposing social innovations).2. For projects that have been positively evaluated and proposed for co-financing, before signing the contract with the Ministry, the following certificates should be submitted:• Declaration form for de minimis aid;• Certificate of settled tax liabilities or an appropriate document on tax debt rescheduling (should be submitted if the business entity has been on the market for more than a year);• Confirmation or belief that no bankruptcy proceedings and liquidation proceedings have been instituted against the business entity;• Statements of the Applicant on one form, certified by a notary: - that as part of his own financial participation in the project implementation he did not show the funds allocated to him from any public domestic and international source of funding (Budget of Montenegro, relevant international funds, etc.), and for purposes of conducting same activities proposed in the application of the innovative project under this Competition; - that he has fulfilled contractual obligations from previous projects financed from the state budget, in the last five years;• Proof that the company is registered in Montenegro (Excerpt from the Central Register of Business Entities); and• Proof of registration in the Register of Innovative Organizations will be obtained by the Ministry ex officio. Text of the Competition and Instructions for Applicants is given below. The application documentation can be downloaded from the portal www.inovacije.gov.me. Source: Ministry of Science and Technological Development of Montenegro