Small and medium enterprises (SME) of any nature and under any legal form. 
Non-corporate entities of the R&I system are also beneficiaries in the case of co-promoted projects.

Direct costs:

• Expenses with technical staff for the R&D core.
• Human Resources Training.
• Technical and scientific assistance and consulting necessary for the structuring of the core.
• Scientific and technical instruments and equipment, software for the project, to name a few).

Overhead costs.

The R&D Core projects, besides the already established, must: 

a) Involve qualified Human Resources whose curricula guarantee adequate execution, which includes the mandatory hiring of at least one PhD or technical staff with a level of qualification equal to or higher than a bachelor’s degree and experience in R&D activities. 

b) Be part of the innovation strategy of the company(ies) and supported by a R&D activity plan to be executed simultaneously with the duration of the project. 

c) By the end of the project, have a research, development and innovation management system certified according to NP 4457/2007. In a co-promotion regime this condition refers to all the business actors. 

d) Non-SME participation in consortium projects is only possible if they effectively cooperate with SMEs in collaborative clusters and if the SMEs concerned bear at least 30% of the total eligible costs. 

e) A maximum implementation period of 24 months in the case of individual projects and 36 months in the case of co-promoted projects, except in duly justified cases. 

f) Whenever there is a hiring incentive, maintain the respective jobs in the company for 3 years after the end of the project and, in case of replacement, the new hire must maintain the same or equivalent level of qualification. 

g) When integrating vocational training actions, demonstrate that the training project is coherent and consistent with the project’s objectives and complies with the regulations established under the vocational training incentives and does not include mandatory training actions to comply with national training regulations. 
 

Projects can be individual or co-promoted. 
The latter must: 

a) The company that ensures the incorporation of the most significant portion of the investment in its activity, or the one designated by all, is identified as the project leader.

b) Submit a consortium contract signed in the legal terms, explaining, in the scope of cooperation between the entities involved, the identification of the project leader, the joint responsibility between the parties. 

c) Provide a critical and substantial contribution to the development of R&D activities and demonstrate an effective interest in the final appropriation of the results generated by their participation. 

d) Be "complete consortia", namely: include the participation of business entities in critical stages of the value chain of the products or processes targeted by the project and that constitute a necessary condition for the effective valorization of the R&D project results. 

Non-refundable incentive of 50% for SMEs and 15% for non-SMEs (in co-promotion only), aimed at the creation or reinforcement of competencies and internal capacities of companies in R&D, through the creation of structures dedicated to R&D and certification of research, development and innovation management systems by the NP 4457:2007 standard.

Included are expenses related to the acquisition of assets, personnel costs, HR training, acquisition of services from third parties, certification processes, and others.

You can find the specificities of the R&D cores in articles 59 to 80 of the Portaria n.º 57-A/2015. 

The last open notice for this measure was n.º 30/SI/2018 SI I&DT – Núcleos de I&DT, which can be consulted to prepare future applications, with the possibility that future notices may be subject to change. 

For more information on how to acquire the Standard 4457/2007, refer to Instituto Português da Qualidade (IPQ). 

• IAPMEI – Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation