The EU4Business “Support to SME Development in Armenia” (SMEDA) project, which is co-funded by the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by GIZ’s Private Sector Development in South Caucasus Programme, in cooperation with Enterprise Incubator Foundation announces “EU4Business Science and Technology Entrepreneurship (EU4Business STEP) programme – Business Development Support for innovative technology Start-ups” grant competition.

The EU4Business STEP programme is aiming at igniting the spark of entrepreneurship and advancing innovative technology-based ideas to the market. The overall objective of the programme is to help start-up teams, innovators, scientists, engineers, researchers, and entrepreneurs move their ideas and products to the market, create new ventures, and promote innovation and entrepreneurship in Armenia. The grant is linked to a mentorship support scheme.

The specific aim of the call is to support the development of technology driven business ideas and commercially viable technologies. This idea seed grants target the facilitation of a further development of technology projects and their customer validation.

Competition is open to start-up teams, consisting of two or more members who want to further develop their idea with technology base in the field of Engineering (including IoT, IIoT), CleanTech, Biotech, Advanced ICT (e.g. Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, Blockchain, Big Data) etc.

Further young companies registered no more than 3 year at the time of starting the grant project are eligible. Companies registered more than 3 year, have the possibility to spin-off a team with its new product or service idea and develop the project in its newly registered company.

 

         Activities covered by the grant are:

–           Technology development & demonstration

–           Prototype Development

–           Pilot Application

–           Market Testing

–           Business Development

 

GRANT AMOUNT & CO-FINANCING REQUIREMENTS

  • Grant amount per initiative is between 6.000 EUR and 15.000 EUR and will be provided with project duration of 6 months. The final grant amount will be agreed during the selection process and is mainly determined by the experience of the individuals in the planed project team.
  • The company should provide a co-financing in the amount of 15%.
  • The contract should be concluded in AMD, EUR/AMD exchange rate would be determined based on the Armenian Central Bank exchange rate announced at the date of the winner notification.

For more details please see full Announcement.

 

Deadline for application submission is October 1, 2018, 23:59 Yerevan Time.

 

Applications must be submitted in English online via following link: https://goo.gl/forms/CcfSRzHm4PGa5l3w2

 

For all interested applicantes dedicated information sessions will be held.

 

 

In case of any questions regarding the grants competition, you may contact us by email: [email protected] or Tel: +37411 219787/97.