Norway Grants Green ICT programme

Main call budget is 18,871,549 EUR. Implementation of the main call shall take place in three simultaneous open calls in following budgetary details:

1. Green Industry Innovation budget is 12,515,882 EUR.
2. ICT projects budget is 1,930,667 EUR.
3. Welfare Technology projects budget is 4,425,000 EUR.

Applying for a grant is a call-based procedure.

Project applications are submitted electronically in Enterprise Estonia e-service .

Small Grant Scheme

Application for small grant scheme is closed.

Main Call

Grant per Project is 200 000 – 700 000 euros. In welfare technology focus area, maximum grant sum per Project is 1 250 000 euros.

Grant rate is maximum 50% of total eligible costs.

Project maximum length is 36 months.

Eligible applicants are private companies registered in Estonian Commercial Register, with no more than 25% public ownership.  Eligible project partners are legal entities established in Estonia or in Norway.  

Preparations towards the Main Call application

When preparing the main call application, please bear in mind the following requirements:

• For Green Industry Innovation projects: forecast of the green results of the project. Green results analysis describes and analyses the resource savings (CO2 emissions reductions, decrease of energy consumption) resulting from the project. The methodology for such calculations is chosen by the applicant (no form provided).
• Project’s business plan. The project’s business plan must include, among other things, a description of the economic impact of the project: the financial forecasts of the solution resulting from the project (including increase in annual turnover and operating profit), the market potential of the solution and the number of new jobs created. Applies to projects under all focus areas.
• Project plan. Project plan is a consolidated document of the project and includes, among other things, the background of the main call, the description of the application, the idea of the project, the objective, the description of the activities, the overview of the project team and management, the overview of the involvement of the partners, risks and the calculation of all costs of the project. Applies to projects under all focus areas.
• Communication plan – applies to projects under all focus areas.
• A project that is directly linked to the national information systems must not contradict the principles of the national IT architecture and interoperability framework and the European Interoperability Framework nor duplicate existing national information systems. The highest level of security must be used for authentication and digital signature of the information system users to be created in the course of the project in accordance with the eIDAS Regulation for e-identification and e-transactions.

The activities of the main call Projects should contribute to at least one of the programme focus areas: Green Industry Innovation, Information and Communication Technologies or Welfare Technology as described below:

1.Green Industry Innovation. This focus area addresses the low level of productivity in Estonian manufacturing sector and is mainly targeted to digitalisation related activities, the uptake of digital technologies and practices. Grant is provided to develop and apply new green products and services that would lead to more sustainable processes and the use of resources. Such projects could be, for example, development and adoption of automation and robotics – based solutions aimed at increasing efficiency of processes of the industry and energy sector. Among other projects to be funded, green innovative ICT initiatives are supported under this focus area that are targeted to attain green results in other related areas, such as transportation, energy efficiency, smart cities, etc.

All projects financed under this section must contribute to at least one of the following green results: a) CO2 emissions reductions (tons of CO2 equivalent per year); b) decrease of energy consumption (in MWh).

2. ICT. Grant is provided to develop new innovative ICT-lead products, services and processes, which have a large potential to enhance performance across the different business sectors. Projects financed under this section do not need to carry the green results, but nevertheless must contribute to the following outcomes: a) estimated annual growth in net operational profit; b) estimated annual growth in turnover and c) number of jobs created.

3. Welfare Technology. Support under this section aims to contribute to developing new solutions in the field of personalized medicine by combining health data, digital prevention and treatment basis solutions that are more closely targeted to individual patients. Activities in this area are fostered to develop new ICT products and services designed in cooperation with the end users in the following areas:

• solutions for hospitals, the aim of which is to empower the ecosystem of personalized medicine;
• solutions for simplifying patients’ journey with the aim of improving the patients’ individual health indicators and quality of life;
• products and services targeted at collection, standardization and analysis of health data;
• solutions for primary care.

State aid

State aid regulations are applicable for main call. This means that the EU legislation on state aid, as transferred into the national legislation in Estonia has to be observed during the implementation of the Programme. Grant provided as part of the main call are as follows: