EU Support for Your Company’s Digitization – What to Expect from 2022?

Author: Rasa Gulbe, Board Member, DATI Group

It is important for companies to evaluate all aspects of IT when setting their digital development goals, starting with the very basics – IT infrastructure. Only powerful infrastructure can guarantee the efficiency of business applications, data storage, and computation Although technical solutions aimed at digital development can be expensive, a wealth of EU programmes aimed at providing financial support for IT capacity development  are available. “DATI Group” in cooperation with “Investīciju Risinājumu Birojs” have compiled an overview of the planned co-funding opportunities for company digitization, including those targeting IT infrastructure development, from 2022 to 2027.

‍Support for business process digitization

This is most relevant for small and medium-sized companies with less than 250 employees, annual turnover under 50 million EUR or balance sheet value under 43 million EUR. The program is a great fit if you are planning to purchase solutions that will help automate the company’s day-to-day processes.

This program also features funding for equipment purchases – monitoring equipment, sensors, platforms (incl. cloud solution platforms), and information systems (e.g., CRM, ERP, CAD, etc.).

The available support is planned to be up to 200,000 EUR per company. This amount would be used to cover up to 45% of the eligible project costs. The total amount available for this program is 40 million EUR, which means that more than 400 companies might be able to implement their projects.

Expected start of the program application submissions – 2022 Q2.

Support for new product or service development

If you are planning to do research to develop new digital products, there will be a separate grant program for this. Its main aim will be financing research. The program aims to promote cooperation between the private sector and research institutions, therefore partnering with a university or a research institute will be required .

It is planned that a single research project will be able to attract up to 1 million EUR in funding. In the case of small businesses, the support will cover up to 80% of total project costs. This amount is intended to cover the costs of the research itself and the salary costs of research employees and other people involved in the project. The eligible project costs also include external services provided by partners, universities or institutes.

The support program can be used by small and medium as well as large enterprises, but the aid offered to small businesses will be the highest. The implementation of the program will be monitored by six specialized innovation clusters that are currently being set up. This means that the applications from the companies that want to develop a product will be evaluated by their relevant clusters. More information will be available at each innovation cluster’s website.

Project implementation period is around two years. Intended program start – 2022 Q2.

Financial instrument for promoting the digital transformation of businesses

A new “Altum” loan with grant elements will be made available in 2022 or 2023 for those who are considering a large-scale project for company digitization to switch to Industry 4.0 in everyday operations.

Companies will be able to apply for up to 7 million EUR loans, where “Altum” will cover up to 90% of the full amount and the company will have to co-finance only the remaining 10%. When the project is implemented, it will be possible to erase the grant down to 35%, so the remaining amount doesn’t exceed 1 million EUR.

While this program is available for both large,  small, and medium enterprises, it is primarily aimed at large projects requiring large investments, for example, in different manufacturing processes. The supported activities include hardware robotization, automation and system integration, as well as deployment of automation-enabling systems – IT infrastructure, cloud platform introduction or adaption.

We know that initial investments in infrastructure or cloud solutions can seem large, which is why we work with our clients to find the best solutions and identify co-financing options. We offer the required support in the initial stages of transformation to ensure that the new solution is long-lasting. If you have an idea how to develop your company’s infrastructure to create new solutions, improve existing ones or automate business processes, apply for a consultation here: https://www.datigroup.com/en/contacts