Enterprise Estonia support for product development in Estonia at 345 million kroons and counting
Over 18 months, Enterprise Estonia has provided around 345 million kroons in product development support for 151 Estonian companies.
Since the support programme was opened last June, Enterprise Estonia has financed 47 product development projects and 104 preliminary studies. Product development has received 321.2 million kroons in funding; while preliminary studies have received 23.6 million kroons.
According to Enterprise Estonia innovation division director Ilmar Pralla, biotechnology and IT companies are the leading recipients of product development support. "Above all, these companies have been start-ups," said Pralla. "We would like industrial enterprises to request support for product development to a greater extent than before, along with companies that have been active for some time already. These companies have tended to be more active in using innovation vouchers. For some reason, they have not applied so much for product development support.
Most of the innovation projects that have received support are still in a development stage, but or instance the Jõgeva County company Same OÜ has completed the development of an innovative sand spreading machine. Enterprise Estonia contributed 530,000 kroons of support for the development of this new piece of road maintenance machinery. The new machine is used for providing traction in slippery winter conditions on smaller roads, parking lots and other places where very good manoeuvring ability and greater performance are considered important. Same OÜ exports new equipment to the Scandinavian market and other destinations in Europe, such as Switzerland.
Among other companies, Hansabiomet OÜ received 10.7 million kroons in Enterprise Estonia product development support for studies for diagnosing cancer in its earliest stages, GOLIATH Wind OÜ received about 3 million kroons for producing a new type of wind turbine and Luksusjaht AS received about 6 million kroons for developing a new model of yacht.
Enterprise Estonia product development support is meant for all Estonian companies who, regardless of their size, wish to develop new or existing products, services and technologies. Three primary activities are supported: preliminary studies for preparing development work, applied research necessary for product development and product development itself. Innovation projects carried out in cooperation with research institutions and companies are eligible for support. The amount of support ranges up to 50 million kroons. Companies are required to finance 25-60% of the project cost themselves. The application submission process is well within the capacity of the entrepreneur.
The product development support programme is funded by the European Fund for Regional Development and the project budget up to 2013 is billion kroons. In addition, Enterprise Estonia will provide 1 billion kroons in support over five years for implementation of innovation projects in technology centres and will offer companies support through the innovation voucher support programme.
