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This article was originally published on April 4, 2020, by The Ministry of the Economy on Meco.gouvernement.lu. The article has been replicated on Innoget's Innovation Blog by Innoget's Editorial Staff for information purposes.
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As part of the economic stabilization program, the Government Council approved on April 8 on a proposal from the Minister of the Economy, Franz Fayot, an aid scheme to support both industrial research projects and experimental development as well as investment projects enabling the production and development of products helping to combat the health crisis linked to Covid-19.
R&D projects
For R&D projects that can benefit from aid, this may, for example, be research and development on medical devices or else focused on hospital equipment such as ventilators, protective equipment or disinfectants as well as process innovations allowing more efficient manufacturing of the necessary products.
An industrial research and experimental development project can be supported up to 80% of the costs or even up to 100% when it is a fundamental research project. If the R&D project is carried out within the framework of a cross-border collaboration with another company or a research organization, the aid intensity can be increased by 15% without being able to exceed 100% of the costs.
Investment projects
As for investment projects eligible for a subsidy, they may in particular relate to the production of products relevant to the fight against Covid-19, medical devices, hospital and medical equipment (protective clothing and equipment, ventilation devices, diagnostic tools, disinfectant). Such an investment project may receive aid up to 80% of the investment costs. The aid rate can be increased by 15% if the investment project is fully completed within two months.
As part of this investment aid, the company may also request a guarantee to cover any losses linked to this investment. The amount of the guarantee depends on the duration of the maintenance of the production, it is however limited to 30% of the loss and to an absolute amount of 500,000 euros.
A financial envelope of 30 million euros
For the two types of support, namely aid for research projects and aid for investment linked to the production of relevant products, a total financial envelope of € 30 million is foreseen.
The Minister of the Economy, Franz Fayot, declared: "This aid system comes to supplement the panoply of aid to the companies set up within the framework of the program of stabilization of the economy. With this new system, we encourage everything particularly the production companies and active in R&D to mobilize in the fight against Covid-19."
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