Voucher Innovation Manager. Latest Updates

NEW Directorial Decree March 9, 2020 -Vouchers for consulting in innovation. Second list of those eligible for subsidies

Additional companies eligible for new allocations see attached.

Update:

• Decree (pdf)
• Annex A (pdf)
• Voucher for innovation consulting

Deadlines to apply for 40-thousand-euro vouchers are triggered. Neikos fields five professionals on its staff who are already accredited to MISE.
It will be possible to submit applications from November 7 until November 26, 2019

Who is the Innovation Manager

This is a decisive figure, especially in the context of the Enterprise 4.0 Plan, for companies that want to accelerate their innovation and digital transformation processes.

The innovation manager is thus a professional who is responsible for fostering processes of digitization and corporate reorganization and for developing skills, on the technical and managerial level, capable of enabling the management of organizational and production complexity profiles that technological transformation imposes.

The Innovation Manager Voucher is the grant for the purchase of consulting services aimed at supporting the technological and digital transformation processes of enterprises.

How the Innovation Manager Voucher Works

The May 7, 2019 implementing decree sets out the general requirements for accessing the voucher. The grant is aimed at SMEs and business networks that have hired managerial resources to foster digitization processes, the Innovation Manager in fact. The network contract should include a minimum of three enterprises.

The voucher is diversified according to the type of enterprise applying for it:

• for micro and small enterprises, the contribution is 50% of the costs incurred and up to a maximum limit of 40 thousand euros,
• for medium-sized enterprises is 30 percent within the ceiling of 25 thousand euros,
• In the case of network contracts, the voucher is 50 percent within the maximum limit of 80 thousand euros.

Expenditures eligible for the grant must be incurred as compensation for specialized consulting services rendered by a qualified, independent innovation manager temporarily included, under a consulting contract of not less than nine months’ duration, in the organizational structure of the enterprise or network.

Expenditures that must address and support processes of innovation, technological and digital transformation through the application of one or more of the following enabling technologies:

• (a) big data and data analysis;
• (b) cloud, fog and quantum computing;
• (c) cyber security;
• (d) integration of Next Production Revolution (NPR) technologies into business processes, including and with particular regard to production of traditional nature;
• (e) simulation and cyberphysical systems;
• (f) rapid prototyping;
• (g) visualization systems, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR);
• (h) Advanced and collaborative robotics;
• (i) human-machine interface;
• (l) Additive manufacturing and three-dimensional printing;
• (m) Internet of things and machines;
• (n) Digital integration and development of business processes;
• (o) digital marketing programs, such as transformative and enabling processes for the innovation of all processes of brand and distinctive mark enhancement (so-called “branding”) and business development to markets;
• (p) open innovation programs.

Not only that. Vouchers also cover a very different type of expenditure, for consultancy aimed at guiding processes to modernize management and organizational structures, includingaccess to financial and capital markets, through:

• (a) the application of new organizational methods in business practices, business management strategies, and workplace organization, provided that they involve a significant process of organizational innovation of the enterprise;
• (b) the initiation of paths aimed at listing on regulated or unregulated markets, participation in the Elite Program, the opening of venture capital to independent investors specializing in private equity or venture capital, and the use of new alternative and digital finance tools such as, but not limited to, equity crowdfunding, invoice financing, and the issuance of minibonds.

According to the directorial decree approved on Sept. 25 by MISE, the resources available for Innovation Manager Vouchers for 2019 and 2020 amount to 50 million euros.

Two reserves are also planned: a 25 percent share of the budget allocated to micro and small enterprises and networks and a 5 percent share for SMEs with a legality rating.

How to apply for vouchers

From Nov. 7 to Nov. 26, you can apply for the voucher. The application process has three stages:

• (a) Preliminary verification of compliance with the requirements for access to the IT procedure, starting at 10 a.m. on October 31, 2019. At this stage, the proposing party verifies that it has the technical requirements and necessary permissions to access and use the IT procedure;
• (b) filling out the application for access to the facilities, starting at 10 a.m. on November 7, 2019 and ending at 5 p.m. on November 26, 2019. At this stage, the proposing party may carry out the following activities:
  1) access to the computer procedure;
  2) Entering the information and data required to complete the application and uploading the relevant attachments;
  3) generation of the application form in the form of an unalterable “pdf” containing the information and data provided by the proposing party and affixing the digital signature;
  4) Uploading the digitally signed application and subsequent issuance of the “application preparation code” required to submit the application;
• (c) submission of the application for access to the facilities, starting at 10 a.m. on December 3, 2019. In this phase, the following activities are planned:
  1) Proposer’s access to the computer procedure;
  2) Entry by the proposing party, for the purpose of formally submitting the application for facilitation, of the application identifier and the “application preparation code.”
  3) issuance of the certificate of successful submission of the application by the IT procedure.

Applications will be admitted to the processing stage on the basis of chronological order of submission and financed in over-the-counter mode until available resources are exhausted.

Once eligible for the facility,voucher disbursement will take place in two installments. The grantee may apply for the disbursement of the first installment, amounting to 50 percent of the facilities granted, following the implementation of at least 25 percent of the activities under the contract and the payment of related expenses. Disbursement of the balance, on the other hand, may be requested after the completion of the activities under the contract and upon payment of the relevant expenses, and in any case within 60 days from the date of issuance of the balance expenditure certificate.

List of Innovation Managers

On Nov. 6, the MISE approved thelist of managers and consulting companies qualified qualifiers. This list includes 5 Neikos professionals: Daniele Carbone, Alfonso Fabrizio Ianniello, Roberto Verdino, Nando Ruggiero, Pio Muto.