Last update date 10 February 2022
The state-aid program "Strengthening Value Added Chains - Clusters – Networking” was launched in 17 May 2021 by the General Secretariat of Industry and the Special Agency for Managing Co-funding Projects in the Sectors of Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumers’ Protection of the Hellenic Ministry for Development and Investments. The program is co-funded by ERDF and national sources, actually by NSRF 2014-2020, Operational Program “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship, Innovation” and scopes to enhance economies of scale and vertical cooperation among the participating Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The budget of this state-aid program in terms of public expenditure is € 32 million.
The main scope to the program is strengthening the collaboration between SMEs of the manufacturing and other economic sectors in a value chain’s framework of a long-term cooperation. The program is addressed to SMEs which are active throughout the value chain of the nine (9) priority areas of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NRFP) 2014-2020 such as Agri-food - Food Industry, Tourism, Cultural & Creative Industries, Materials – Constructions, Information & Communication Technologies, Energy, Supply chain, Environment and Health. The core of the program includes SMEs of the manufacturing sector aiming to increase its contribution to the formation of Gross Domestic Product. The interconnection of manufacturing companies with other entities which participate in production value chains is a critical condition for economic development and cohesion. The Program aims at the development of new business models which should promote the development of permanent partnerships across the production value chain, either regionally, nationally or internationally, covering the specific needs of SMEs. Such collaborations should be considered necessary to increase the added value of the produced products and services ensure the conditions for business extroversion and internationalization.
Eligible for participation are currently existing SMEs or start-ups which should create a cluster or a network containing at least three (3) partners, one of which is prerequisite to be an SME activating in the manufacturing sector. The partners of the cluster should sign a cooperation agreement which is a prerequisite to entry the program and become beneficiary. Each potential beneficiary is obliged to submit a business plan of at least € 400.000 and at maximum € 3 million which should follow a certain funding scheme. The private participation in the funding scheme is at least 25% of business plan’s total budget and the amount of the grant depends on the thresholds defined for each region of the country and mentioned in the national Regional Aid Map according the Commission’s Guidelines for the Provision of Regional State Aid. The duration of the eligible business plans is 18 months. The program has been launched according to the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) 651/2014, article 2, par. 49. Eligible expenditures concern the provision of new mechanical equipment, the construction of buildings and infrastructures, software, technology and know-how, Certification of products or services and quality assurance procedures, as well as certain expenditures for SMEs as defined in article 14 “Regional state-aid”, article 18 “State-aid for consulting services to SMEs”, article 19 “State-aid for the participation of SMEs to conferences”, article 22 “State-aid for start-ups” and article 28 “Stat-aid for innovative SMEs” of GBER 651/2014.