The National Centre for Research and Development has announced a competition for large enterprises under the "fast track" programme. Its aim is to improve the level of innovativeness of Polish companies by using the results of R & D. The budget of the competition is PLN 1 billion.
The maximum grant for an entrepreneur per one project is EUR 20 million (if over half of the total eligible project costs is incurred for industrial research) and EUR 15 million (if more than half of the total eligible project costs is allocated to development). Funding for the project under the "fast track" may be granted subject to implementing by an entrepreneur the results of an R & D project. An entrepreneur can implement the results of research and development to their business practice, grant a license to use to another entrepreneur or sell the rights to another entity, who will use it in their business practice.
In the "fast track" competition the formalities have been reduced to a minimum. The evaluation of applications in scientific-technological and economic-business terms is performed the expert panel. An entrepreneur must defend their idea while confronting it with experts during a direct conversation. The project should include industrial research and research and development or should exclusively relate to product or process innovation. The research team and technical resources needed to ensure the proper execution of scheduled tasks are also evaluated. Moreover, the project must be part of the National Smart Specialisation. The minimum value of eligible costs of the project financed in the competition is PLN 12 million.
The call for proposals is open from 1st June 2016 to 30th December 2016 and consists of various stages. The stage of the competition includes a call for applications for funding in a given calendar month, their evaluation and publishing lists of projects recommended and not recommended for funding. The evaluation takes 90 days.
