Public Call for Proof of Concept

The public call is closed.

Public Call for Proof of Concept program

Based on the Article 8 of the Budget Law of the Republic of Serbia for year 2020 (“Official Gazette of RS” No. 84/19) and Government Decision RS 05 No. 401-422/2020 dated January 30th, 2020, for the purpose of implementing the Law on the ratification of the Loan Agreement (Competitiveness and Jobs Project) between Republic of Serbia and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (“Official Gazette of RS” – International Agreements No. 24/15-4, with changes in accordance with the Decision of the Government of the Republic of Serbia 05 No. 48-6875/2018 dated July 30, 2018)

                                                                           The Innovation Fund announces

                                                                   Public Call for Proof of Concept program

The Proof of Concept program (Program) aims to support activities at the stage of turning research outputs towards commercial or socially valuable proposals. At the same time, this program will enable the creation of a number of high-quality projects with sufficient technological readiness that will be suitable for further commercialization steps.

Eligibility for the Program

Applicants eligible to apply for the Program are all public sector research organizations in Serbia, as well as all other institutions and organizations in Serbia that are accredited for scientific research (including private), such as: universities, faculties, research institutes, and other scientific organizations in Serbia.

Services funded by the Program

The Program will support projects in all fields of science and technology, including humanities and the arts.

Applicants are expected to define a hypothesis (concept) that have arisen from previous activities and developments that can create a product, process, or technology that could be marketed. This Program is there to provide insight into whether the concept described can have a practical application.

Eligible costs:

  • Personnel costs (honorariums for the research team up to RSD 0.6 million). Maximum amount per man-month cannot exceed gross RSD 120,000.
  • Experimental PoC (may include consumables, rental of equipment or facilities and external experts (up to RSD 1.2 million)
  • International and local travel excluding scientific conferences (up to RSD 240,000)
  • Legal services (general legal counsel and IP services (excluding drafting and filing IP) up to RSD 240,000)
  • Costs of business adviser up to RSD 480,000
  • Other costs such as licenses, software and organization overheads up to RSD 120,000.

The Program cannot be used to fund the following services:

  • Sales activities
  • Direct Marketing costs
  • Activities financed through another framework, programme or company/institution
  • Purchase of equipment incl. IT equipment
  • Standard websites development
  • Travel for participation to conferences.

Financing

The Program covers 100% of the total cost of project, up to a maximum of RSD 2,400,000, including value-added tax (VAT).

Approved projects must be realised for a maximum of 12 months.

Applying for the Program

In order to apply for the Proof of concept program, Applicants must register on the Portal for the Proof of Concept program, which is available at the website of the Innovation Fund, https://secure.inovacionifond.rs/poc.

Application for the Program consists of four parts:

  • Registration of the project on the portal of the Innovation Fund;
  • Word document application (the completed, proposed Word document format provided on the portal);
  • Budget proposal in accordance with the submitted Application for the purpose of proving the proposed concept (the completed, proposed Excel format provided on the portal)
  • CVs of the Project leader and team members.

The entire application process is conducted through the Proof of Concept program portal, without the need to submit the application in paper form. After closing the Public Call, all applications that meet the requirements of the competition (eligibility requirements) will be evaluated by Peer reviewers, and internal Decision Committee of the Innovation Fund will make a final decision, taking into account assessments provided by peer-reviewers. A final list of projects that have been approved for funding will be published on the website of the Innovation Fund.

Business consulting: 30 days after the signing of the Contract, each project will sign a cooperation agreement with one of the business advisors from the official list of of the Innovation Fund.

The deadline for submission of applications expires on June  15th, 2020 by 15h.

The total amount of this Public Call is RSD 120,000,000.00.

Incomplete applications, as well as applications that have not been submitted electronically on the portal, or applications submitted in paper form, will not be considered.

The Guidelines detailing the terms of the Proof of Concept program is available at: http://www.inovacionifond.rs/cms/files//dokaz-koncepta-dokumentacija/PoC_guidelines_1_1.pdf

Please use the following link for the application: http://www.inovacionifond.rs/login

Innovation Fund

54 Veljka Dugosevic st., Section B4, second floor, 11000 Belgrade

(Science and Technology Park Belgrade)

Contact: PoC@inovacionifond.rs