Open Call for Proposal Submission until 18/12/2020, 13:00, or until budget exhaustion

General Objectives
The “Innovation Vouchers” Programme, aims to introduce SMEs to the concept of Innovation, and to encourage the cooperation between enterprises and knowledge intensive organisations, aiming at the involvement of SMEs in innovative activities, therefore positively affecting their competitiveness.

General Objectives
The “Industrial Property” Programme aims to increase the number of patents and industrial designs rights, granted to Cypriot entities, in order to maximize the benefits that derive from the exploitation of research, development and innovation results.

Description
The protection of industrial property is considered as one of the fundamental mechanisms of promoting innovation, as it provides motivation to the organisations to get involved in activities of research and development of new products, methods and procedures, in anticipation of exploiting exclusive rights.

The Programme provides the opportunity to protect important research and innovation results, resulting from the implementation of research projects which have been self-funded, or funded through Programmes launched by the RIF, the EU, or other research funding organisations, and have started or have been completed in the last five years from the date of the proposal submission.

As the Programme is part of Pillar III of the Smart Specialisation Strategy, which aims to upgrade the RTDI System in Cyprus, the thematic selection of projects does not apply.

Beneficiaries
Research Organisations, Enterprises, Other Organisations.

Specific Participation Restrictions and Conditions
The Host Organisation must be an SME (B1, B2), Research Organisation, or Other Organisation (C1 C2).

The participation of Partner Organisations and Foreign Research Organisations is not permitted.

Proposals for funding by the RIF should be submitted by the organisation who owns the Intellectual Property Rights. In the occasion where the application for patent / industrial design is submitted by a natural person, RIF accepts as evidence the relevant agreement for granting the Intellectual Property Rights to the organisation submitting the proposal.

Project Activities
The projects must include Innovation Activities, which concern patenting and industrial designs, resulting from the implementation of a research project which has been self-funded, or funded through Programmes launched by the RIF, the EU, or other research funding organisation, and has started or been completed within five years from the date of proposal submission. In the case that the industrial property rights are the result of self-funded research in Enterprises, then: (a) the Enterprises’ activities must be relevant to the rights, and (b) the Enterprises must be able to prove that a specific research methodology has been followed to the production of the specific research result.

The activities that are eligible for funding should fall into at least one of the following stages:

• Patent protection or industrial design rights on a national level, covering Cyprus, or another European country, or a third country, through the submission of a relevant application at the respective national authority,
• Patent protection through the submission of an application at the European Patent Office (EPO), or industrial design protection through the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), or
• Patent protection in the frame of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) or industrial design protection through the Hague System of International Registration of Industrial Designs administered by the World Intellectual Property Office – WIPO).

Duration of Project Implementation
Up to 30 months

Budget
€400.000

Maximum Funding per Project
€10.000

The maximum aid intensity is up to 50% of the eligible costs.

Eligible Costs
Innovation Costs.

Eligible costs:

• All costs preceding the application until the grant of the right in the first level of jurisdiction, including costs relating to the preparation, filing and processing of the application.
• Translation and other costs incurred in order to obtain the granting or validation of the right for other jurisdiction level.
• Costs incurred in defending the validity of the right during the official evaluation of the application and possible appealing proceedings.

It is noted that the following are not considered eligible costs: (a) personnel costs of the Host Organisation for the purposes of preparation, translation and defending the patent / industrial design application, and (b) costs incurred in renewing the patent protection / industrial design protection, after the right is granted.

Evaluation
Internal Evaluation.

Approval of applications for funding is not subject to competitive procedures.

Evaluation Criteria/Weighting
Not Applicable

Selection of Projects
Prioritised in order of submission to the RIF (non-competitive procedures apply), on the condition that proposals have been deemed eligible for funding following the internal evaluation procedure until the sum of:

1. the requested funding in proposals submitted to the RIF and that of ongoing projects, and
2. The approved funding for projects that have been completed,

equals the total Call budget.

Open Call for Proposal Submission until 18/12/2020, 13:00, or until budget exhaustion

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

RESTART-2016-2020-WORK-PROGRAMME – VERSION 9