E-Service

Innovation voucher

Open Target group: small and medium-sized enterprises who have not previously received the innovation voucher grant.

You are the perfect candidate for the innovation voucher grant of EAS if your company could use expert advice from specialists in their field in order to implement changes.

The innovation voucher enables a small and medium-sized entrepreneur (SME) who is cooperating with a higher education institute, test laboratory, or intellectual property experts, to develop innovative solutions for development obstacles, carry out tests with new materials, gather knowledge on technologies, conduct studies in intellectual property databases etc.

An increased number of connections that entrepreneurs have with universities and test laboratories, as well as the growth of contacts between entrepreneurs who provide engineering services, leads to service providers being better equipped to offer customer-driven solutions.

Maximum grant 4,000 EUR

 
The maximum grant percentage from the entire cost is 80%

Own contribution is at least 20%

Total budget

4 million euros (co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund)

Goal

Terms and Conditions

  • Before applying, it is advisable to get acquainted with the terms and conditions of awarding innovation and development voucher grant; you can find the info here. Translation.
  • Only companies that have not previously received innovation voucher grants can apply for the grant.
  • This support measure is aimed at a fairly broad range of SMEs, although, there are a few fields of activity in which entrepreneurs cannot apply for this grant. These fields of activity have been listed in section subsection 1 (6) of the measure regulation.
  • The applicant may not have been in a contractual relationship with the service provider specified in the application during the year preceding the date of application.
  • The applicant may not have received de minimis aid (along with the support sought within this measure), which would exceed 200,000 euros.
  • The applicant should have made payments in the required sum of reimbursements.
  • The applicant cannot be in financial difficulties.
  • Selection criteria have been established for legal and natural persons who provide engineering services. 

Each applicant who has received a grant from European Regional Development Fund must inform the public about receiving the grant, using the logo of the European Regional Development Fund and the EAS. Please refer to the guideline and logos.

Service providers for the innovation voucher can be the following:

  • Estonian Centre for Standardisation
  • The Estonian Central Office of Metrology and the accredited calibration and testing laboratories
  • The Estonian Patent Office
  • Patent agents
  • Technology development centres
  • Institutions of applied higher education
  • Universities and higher education institutions (research and development institutions that have been established as state authorities, local government institutions, legal persons under public law or bodies with legal personality under public law).
  • Corresponding institutions in other European Union Member States, who have been accredited there. The applicant is required to demonstrate the accreditation of the service provider they have selected from another country by submitting the corresponding document. Information about the accreditation centres of other countries can be found on the website of the European co-operation for Accreditation.
  • Engineering services are provided by legal persons, whose performance of the innovation voucher project is overseen by an employee (at least level 7) who is a professional engineer.

Activities that are supported

  • consulting regarding product or service development;
  • consulting regarding production or technology;
  • conducting product tests and industrial experiments;
  • carrying out feasibility and cost-benefit research;
  • legal protection consultation, tests and registration regarding patents, utility models or industrial design;
  • consulting regarding metrology, standardisation and certification;
  • development and implementation of technological solutions.

Activities that are not supported

  • Formal education or in-service training, incl. vocational training, applied higher education, university studies (on the bachelor, master, doctoral and post-doctoral level), professional training, continuing education and other similar courses or study trips;
  • Developing a business model, making amendments or additions to it.

Application

The application procedure is conducted via the EAS e-service.


Information and support centre, +372 627 9700, info@eas.ee

Evaluation

 

The applications are evaluated by an EAS consultant who can bring aboard independent experts, if necessary.

Processing time for an application (including evaluation) is up to 10 days.

A more thorough description of application evaluation can be found in the project path.

Reporting

Reporting documents can be found in the e-service, a more detailed account of reporting is included in the project path.

 

Project path

  • Defining the problem

    The entrepreneur should define their development obstacle, question or issue that needs a solution, regarding which they need expert advice, technology or material tests, studies in intellectual property databases etc.

  • Selecting a cooperation partner

    The entrepreneur will find suitable cooperation partner(s); the selection list can be found  here.

  • Compiling a project plan

    A suitable project plan will be developed with the cooperation partner. The cooperation partner also has to set a price quote, which is an integral part of the project plan when applying for a EAS innovation voucher grant. The price quote should include a clear description of the activities of the service bought and unit prices, so that it would be understood how the given price quote came to be.

    NB! Three independent price quotes have to be submitted if the price of the purchased service exceeds 5,000 euros. If the applicant of the grant is unable to submit three independent price quotes, they should add a corresponding explanation to their application.

  • Application via e-service

    After receiving price quote(s) and determining specific activities of the project, it is necessary to fill a short application form, which has to be submitted via the EAS e-service . We are glad to provide consultation in regard to compiling the application, so that your project would be high-quality and would meet all the necessary requirements.

  • Evaluation

    The EAS can evaluate the applications for up to 10 working days. In the case of a positive decision, an innovation voucher shall be issued and you can begin work on your project.

    The evaluation criteria of the innovation voucher application and their percentages of the total grade are the following:

    • project impact in terms of solving the problem, the quality of the application submitted, the capabilities of the team, and the cost-effectiveness of the project (40% of the total grade);
    • project impact in terms of meeting the goals of the measure (30% of the total grade);
    • project impact on establishing long-term cooperation between the applicant and innovation service provider (30% of the total grade);

  • Execution of the project

    The entrepreneur and their cooperation partner will conduct the project in accordance with the agreed conditions. If the cooperation partner requires an advance payment, then the entrepreneur is responsible for paying it initially (as is the case for all other state grants).

    NB! The public should be notified of using the innovation voucher; more information can be found here.

    NB! According to clause 24 (11) of the Structural Assistance Act, the grant recipient is required to distinguish the expenses relating to the project from other expenses. The distinguishing of project expenses, depending on the accounting software used at the company, can be organised by setting up a separate expenditure account for the project or adding appropriate identifiers (object, project etc.) to the account codes.

  • Final report and disbursement

    After the completion of the project, the entrepreneur shall submit a final report on the work that has been done, as well as other necessary documents. If everything got done in accordance to the initial agreement EAS will reimburse the innovation voucher to the entrepreneur in full.

    After the completion of the main project, a final report of the project has to be submitted via the e-service of EAS along with the following documents:

    • list of expenses (submitted via the e-service),
    • a free form description of the activities carried out during the project,
    • technical specifications of the results of the project in free form or the complete result as a file
    • an extract from the general ledger to confirm the distinction between expenses
    • a proof of compliance with the notification obligation (for example, a photo of the final report with the logo of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), a photo of the poster in the office, a reference to the website, which has been provided with the ERDF logo and which reflects the project activities);
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