INTERREG – Cultivating connections and partnerships in border regions.

Beneficiary Light Grant Scheme

The Beneficiary Light Grant Scheme is an SME development funding scheme specially designed for European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) and cross-border cooperation (CBC) programmes.

Priority Axis 1:  – Interreg V-A Hungary-Croatia Co-operation Programme 2014-2020

Specific objective: Fostering value-added business cooperation between SMEs operating on different sides of the Hungary-Croatia border

Follow us on Facebook for updates and access to the B Light video recorded on the occasion of the final conference here.

Co-financing rate

A maximum of 75% of the total eligible expenditure can be requested as grant from the Beneficiary Light Grant Scheme, the rest shall be covered as own contribution of Light Beneficiaries.

Light Project

Each Light Project should consist of at least one Light Beneficiary from each side of the border.

Minimum cooperation level requirement within a Light Project is a value-added cross-border joint technology, service and product development by the cooperating Light Beneficiaries operating on different sides of the border for setting up cross-border supplier networks and/or for jointly engaging into foreign market.

Light Beneficiaries

The applying Light Beneficiaries have to be registered or have to have a branch operating in the programme area of the Cooperation Programme Hungary -Croatia.

Light Beneficiaries should fall into the category of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) stipulated in 651/2014/EU Regulation, Annex 1.

For the 4th call – CLOSED

Minimum and maximum size of Light Projects per Light Beneficiary for the 4th call

*European Regional Development Fund

Total costs of cooperation activities of Light Partners may exceed EUR 160,000, but in this case, all costs above this threshold are regarded as costs outside the Light Project’s eligible cost.

As VAT is not eligible, all costs should be budgeted without VAT.

Selection

• • Light Projects are selected through a one-step selection system via open call (Call for Light Project Proposals).
  • Light Project Proposal is prepared jointly by the cooperating SMEs.
  • Required language of Light Project Proposal is English.
  • Submission of the Light Project Proposal should take place by any of the involved Light Partners through the B Platform operated by the Lead Beneficiary HAMAG-BICRO through the upload of the Light Project Proposal form in filled-in MS Excel version, the signed scanned version of the certification sheet, and all the needed supplementary documents.

Project duration

• • Duration of a single Light Project shall be between 6 and 12 months, the period of implementation of the project may not start before the date of the receipt of the Light Project Proposal by the LB but can start after what should be indicated in the proposal together with the final date of the implementation period of the light project.

Promotional video for the 4th call

For the 1st-3rd call – CLOSED

Minimum and maximum size of Light Projects per Light Beneficiary for the 1st-3rd call

*European Regional Development Fund

Selection

• • Light Projects are selected through a two-step selection system via open calls (Call for Light Concepts Call for Light Project Proposals).
  • The 1st selection step (Light Concepts) should focus exclusively on the content-related aspects of Light Concepts submitted by cooperating SMEs.
  • Owing to the 1st step of selection, 2nd step of selection can be made on a pre-selected matured Light Project Proposals.
  • Light Project Proposal is prepared jointly by the cooperating SMEs with assistance of the External Project Support Facility (EPSF) that is free-of-charge for the Light Beneficiaries applicants.
  • Required language of Light Concepts and Light Project Proposals is English.

For additional information please refer to the project documents and contact your county support organization. 

The brochure which combines 31 successful stories about cross-border cooperation between 67 small and medium-sized enterprises from Croatia and Hungary is available for download here.