Innovation aid for SMEs Beneficiaries Small and medium-sized enterprises are eligible. Maximum aid intensity Maximum aid intensity Medium-sized enterprise Small enterprise Consultancy services provided by external consultants 50% Costs for obtaining, validating and defending patents and other intangible assets 50% Costs for secondment of highly qualified personnel 50% Innovation advisory and support services Up to 100% with a maximum of €200,000 per undertaking within any 3-year period Definitions Consultancy services provided by external consultants: the services concerned shall not be a continuous or periodic activity nor relate to the undertaking's usual operating costs, such as routine tax consultancy services, regular legal services or advertising. Admissible costs for obtaining, validating and defending patents and other intangible assets: intangible assets means assets that do not have a physical or financial embodiment such as patents, licences, know-how or other intellectual property. Admissible costs for secondment of highly qualified personnel are the staff costs seconded from a research and knowledge-dissemination organisation or a large enterprise, working on research, development and innovation activities in a newly created function within the beneficiary and not replacing other personnel; Secondment means the temporary employment of staff by a beneficiary with the right for the staff to return to the previous employer; Highly qualified personnel means staff having a tertiary education degree and at least 5 years of relevant professional experience which may also include doctoral training Admissible costs for innovation advisory and support services comprise: innovation advisory services: consultancy, assistance and training in the fields of knowledge transfer, acquisition, protection and exploitation of intangible assets, use of standards and regulations embedding them; innovation support services: the provision of office space, data banks, libraries, market research, laboratories, quality labelling, testing and certification for the purpose of developing more effective products, processes or services. Submitting an application Use the guidelines to submit your application. In addition, any company less than 3 years old must also include a business plan. Aid applications and their appendixes should be submitted both: in electronic format (pdf and docx or doc, rtf, odt) to the following e-mail address: loi.rdi@eco.etat.lu. The mail subject must include the name of the company and the name of the project and in paper format to the Ministry of the Economy, Directorate of Research and Innovation, L-2914 Luxembourg Luxinnovation will be pleased to help you prepare your application free of charge.
