The first half of 2020 hasn’t been favourable for the global economy so far.
With the rapidly spreading COVID-19, we are experiencing an economic downturn in almost every industry worldwide. The fallout of the governments’ activities aiming to overcome the virus has already hit hard many industries, causing disruption to many business operations.
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Especially owners of small- and medium-sized businesses are facing challenging times to protect their companies from breakdown.
Are you an entrepreneur struggling to support your venture due to the pandemic-induced crisis? Looking for funding for your enterprise or project?
To help you out in these challenging times, we’ve put together a list of private and public funding opportunities available in the upcoming months, sorted in no particular order:
FUTURY Mission IV: The Future of Work
Deadline: September 25, 2020 23:59 (CEST) | Apply NOW
Dates: October 26, 2020 – February 3, 2021
Eligibility: Entrepreneurially minded students in their final year of bachelor’s and master’s studies, as well as graduates serious about building their own future are invited to apply.
Location: Frankfurt, Germany
The Mission IV: WORK is an innovation project aiming to shape the how, where and with whom we work in a sustainable and future-oriented way.
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the way we work and proved us that there is a room for improvement. The way we as a society handled the situation has proven us that we have the ability to adapt to new circumstances and find solutions for the most pressing issues.
Are you passionate about entrepreneurship and ready to create your own venture? Do you have an innovative mind, eager to shape the future of work?
If this sounds like you, then: FUTURY together with Schaeffler invites you to join The Mission IV: WORK and create a sustainable business model that makes an impact on the future of work!
#MyGalileoSolution Competition 2020
Deadline: October 14, 2020 23:59 (CEST) | Register now
Eligibility: European innovators and entrepreneurs 18 years or older are invited to participate
Prize pool: EUR 1.450.000,-
Are you looking for funding to pursue your innovative idea?
Are you ready to present your location-based solution and get a cash prize from a pool of almost € 1.5 million?
💡 Join #MyGalileoSolution and turn your space idea into reality!
The European GNSS Agency (GSA) invites European entrepreneurs and innovators to develop location-based solutions, such as mobile applications, wearable-based solutions, asset management and tracking solutions, or robotics, leveraging Galileo as a source of positioning, navigation and/or timing.
Are you ready to reach new heights with your innovative idea? APPLY to participate in the MyGalileoSolution here.
Bio-based Open Innovation Challenges
Deadline: April 9, 2020 | Apply here
Funding: A voucher of €20,000
9 circular and bio-based innovation challenges are now open and PNO is looking for the best solution providers with the most promising idea to address the challenges.
- How can we ecologically prevent the macro-pollution (mussels and oysters) in our seawater cooling system?
- How can we reduce chromium levels in salt/brine?
- Which industrial applications are there for wheat protein?
- Phosphate recovery from a semi-dry wheat product stream
- Who has a biobased alternative for the raw material of our design flower pots?
- A sustainable application for hydrogen that will ultimately yield more than burning it as an alternative to natural gas.
- How can we clean and reuse 100% of our wastewater?
- How can we make the most of the pectine in sugar beet pulp?
- How can we counteract the grey discolouration of our potato products in a more environmentally friendly way?
Headstart Funding for COVID-19 Solutions
Deadline: April 14, 2020 | Apply here
Eligibility: Calling digital health start-ups with valuable COVID-19 solutions
Funding: Up to €50,000
Through Headstart, EIT Health will award up to €50,000 to companies with the potential to enable the community and health systems to fill in the gap until COVID-19 vaccines are ready.
IMPACT_POLAND Acceleration Program for startups
Deadline: April 15, 2020 | Apply here
Eligibility: Startups starting their business activity – ie. they operate for a maximum of 5 years from the date of registration which did not distribute profits and were not created as a result of the merger and are not listed on the stock exchange
Funding: Non-refundable financial support – a grant up to PLN 200 000,-
The acceleration program is directed to startups (ie. micro and small entrepreneurs), which develop innovative products, services or technologies especially in the smart city industries (Smart City), artificial intelligence (AI), industrial internet of things and expanded reality (IIoT, AR).
Impact Poland is looking for projects that have at least a working prototype (or are able to deploy the solution within a few months).
FundingBox Tech Match
Deadline: April 16, 2020 | Apply here
Eligibility: European technology startups that has received EU cascade funding, Danish SMEs in the construction (or related) industry.
Funding: Up to €100K for each project
It is an open call for 15 Tech Startups who previously received funding via FundingBox EU program to match with 15 Danish SMEs in the construction industry-funded with up to €100K from Realdania in order to transform the construction industry into a more sustainable & efficient sector.
Life saving-innovations: stop COVID-19
Deadline: April 17, 2020 | Apply here
Eligibility: Innovators, technology developers, start-ups and innovative companies that can offer non-traditional solutions using modern technologies are invited to participate in the competition.
Funding: About €52,000
The Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology (MITA) is launching a competition for innovative ideas “Life saving-innovations: stop COVID-19” and will give special priority to innovation projects related to COVID-19 virus and crisis management.
For the implementation of the best ideas, the financing of the EU measure “Inostartas” will offer about €52,000.
eSSIF-Lab First Business-oriented Call
Deadline: April 30, 2020 | Apply here
Eligibility: SMEs and startups
Funding: Equity-free funding up to €106K
“First Business-oriented Call” will focus on the extension of the eSSIF-Lab basic infrastructure/architecture with business solutions that makes it easy for organizations to deploy and/or use SSI, reduce business risks, facilitate alignment of business information, etc.
The call is open to SMEs and startups and selected projects will be invited to join an 8-month acceleration programme, structured in 3 competitive stages. Those reaching the last one can get equity-free funding up to €106K.
TETRAMAX Bilateral Technology Transfer Experiments
Deadline: April 30, 2020 | Apply here
Eligibility: One academic partner (publicly funded, university, research institution) or an SME partner (only in well justified cases) based in an EU member state or in a country associated to HORIZON 2020
Funding: €50,000 per applicant
TETRAMAX is a Horizon 2020 innovation action within the European Smart Anything Everywhere (SAE) initiative in the domain of customized and low-energy computing for Cyber-Physical Systems and the Internet of Things.
As a Digital Innovation Hub, TETRAMAX aims to bring added value to European industry, helping to gain competitive advantage through faster digitization. It will provide €50,000 per applicant.
MARKET4.0
Deadline: May 28, 2020 | Apply here
Eligibility: Production equipment providers or technology providers in the manufacturing sector; Manufacturing companies (e.g. Original Equipment Manufacturers, Tier-1 suppliers, Tier-2 suppliers, Tier-3 suppliers, in different sectors such as automotive, aerospace, white goods etc); Research/non-industrial legal entities (i.e. research centres, universities); Industrial associations
Funding: 100.000 EUR or 50.000 EUR funding per project
MARKET4.0 provides 50.000 EUR or 100.000 EUR in the form of fixed lump-sum for SMEs and midcaps to ‘connect and produce’ through the MARKET4.0 marketplace.
WeldGalaxy Open Call
Deadline: May 29, 2020 | Apply here
Eligibility: Production equipment suppliers, manufacturing SMEs or MidCaps that provide production equipment/technology products and services; echnology suppliers and/or System Integrators, SMEs/midcaps that can offer additional application(s) or service(s) on top of the WeldGalaxy platform; End Users: SMEs/MidCaps that use welding as a means of joining materials in a fabrication process; Research/non-industrial legal entities (i.e. research centers, universities, Competence Centres), with relevant expertise that can provide innovative solutions to the WeldGalaxy platform together with the industrial partners
Funding: Up to €100K funding per pilot, the total amount of 2.5M€
WeldGalaxy will launch 2 Open Calls (OICs) to select up to 25 Open Innovation Pilots [OIPs]. Those Pilots will participate as beta testers of the WeldGalaxy platform to help in creating the market proof to test the ‘online welding equipment and consumables platform’.
WeldGalaxy is looking for efficient and cost-effective arc welding methods to weld different materials with different geometries and thicknesses. The innovation should be shown in terms of equipment, consumables and/or welding processes.
agROBOfood Open Call
Deadline: May 31, 2020 | Apply here
Eligibility: Applicants need to be SMEs and need to apply as consortia of 2-5 partners; The coordinating SME needs to have a valid VAT number; Consortiums must consist of one end user and one technology provider; The solution provided must be based on robotic technologies; The solution provided must adress a problem of the agri-food sector; The consortium must have contact with the regional DIH
Funding: Up to €500K per project
agROBOfood builds upon its’ existing network and ecosystem and uses the mechanism of Open Calls to provide financial support to third parties, in order to accelerate network expansion, driven by the robotics community and the European agrifood sector.
Topics for Innovation Experiments:
- Agricultural Robotics for Crop Production: Robotic solutions and application areas
- Food Supply Chain Robotics
- Livestock Robotics
European Data Incubator
Deadline: June 17, 2020 | Apply here
Eligibility: SME/start-up legally established in one of the eligible countries listed here
Funding: Up to €100,000 equity-free funding
The European Data Incubator (EDI) is an Innovation Action project co-funded by the European Union. The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 779790. Furthermore, EDI is part of the Big Data Value PPP within a group of projects known as the Big Data Value PPP projects.
The objective of EDI is to facilitate the uptake of Big Data tools whilst increasing the technical and business skills of the selected start-ups/SMEs. The final aim is to give place to sustainable business incubation around Big Data.
SMART4ALL Open Call
Deadline: June 30, 2020 | Apply here
Eligibility: Universities and other Academic Institutions; SME and Slightly Bigger Companies, as defined in the EU recommendation 2003/361. Slightly Bigger Companies are defined respectively as organisations with a staff headcount below 500 employees and a turnover below €100M; System Integrators and/or Technology Providers, i.e. any type of organisation specialised in technology transfer or system integration, serving the needs of end-users, provided they can be categorised in one of the two previous types of beneficiaries from eligible countries.
Funding: A lump sum of up to EUR 8,000 each to cover mobility allowance for implementing the internship
Knowledge Transfer Experiments (KTE) comprise a novel type of experiments allowing smaller projects or less mature ideas to be presented, tested and thus potentially find the fertile ground to grow and reveal its product potentials.
KTEs are a short-term (3 months) internship projects between two different entities from two different Countries: one Academic/Industrial partner who acts as Sending Organization and one Academic/Industrial partner who act as Host Organization.
EUROBENCH FSTP Open Call
Deadline: August 31, 2020 | Apply here
Eligibility: Third Parties interested in using them to test the performance of their bipedal robotic devices / control algorithms
Funding: Lump sum of 60 k€ to Third Parties interested in performing tests in the facility or Lump sum of €10K to Third Parties interested in validating the Benchmarking Software in their own laboratory settings
EUROBENCH aims to provide researchers and companies with practical tools to benchmark the performance of robotics technologies, such as exoskeleton, prostheses and humanoids.
The aim is to have two facilities equipped with state-of-the-art assessment technology, as well as one benchmarking software that allows design, performs and tests in any laboratory settings.
EIC Accelerator
Deadline: October 7, 2020 | Apply here
Eligibility: For-profit SMEs only, including young companies and start-ups, from any sector – there are no set topics
Funding: Projects will receive between €0.5M and €2.5M in the form of grants.The maximum of investment in the form of equity is €15M
The EIC Accelerator is part of the European Innovation Council (EIC) pilot that supports top-class innovators, entrepreneurs, small companies and scientists with funding opportunities and acceleration services.
Selected companies receive funding and optional equity and are offered business coaching and mentoring to scale up their innovation idea. They get extra acceleration services to connect with investors, corporates and likeminded entrepreneurs.
S3FOOD Open Calls
Deadline: Varies depending on a project | Apply here
Eligibility: food processing SMEs or technology providing SMEs
Funding: up to €60,000
S3FOOD supports you in your digitalisation journey both on the level of implementing smart sensor systems as on turning your data into relevant information.
eSSIF-Lab Infrastructure-oriented Call
Deadline: June 20, 2021 | Apply here
Eligibility: Innovators in SSI domain
Funding: Up to €155K
The business-oriented programme is an 8-month programme to accelerate SSI-related businesses and social solutions, structured in 3 competitive stages.
“Infrastructure-oriented Call” will target the provision of open source components, for example the SSI-Roles layer, the SSI Protocols or the Crypto layer. Interoperability, scalability or features that provide generic business benefits are required.
IMPACT EdTech
Deadline: TBA
Eligibility: Startups in education and digital learning
Funding: Stage 1: Fixed lump sum of EUR 85,300,- per EdTech trial (including EUR 10,000 of voucher-based business & educational enterprise and specialised resources). Stage 2: Fixed lump sum of EUR 110,000,- per EdTech trial (including EUR 20,000 of voucher-based business & educational enterprise and specialised resources).
IMPACT EdTech will support 42 EdTech startups in education and digital learning via 2 Open Calls. We will guide the startups through validating and testing MVPs and prepare them to reach the market by providing early business and go-to-market support, in collaboration with education experts.
DIGI-B-CUBE Open Call
Deadline: TBA
Eligibility: SMEs from healthcare/medicine/biotech/biopharma, IT, and related sectors
Funding: Maximum funding per SME is €60K.
DIGI-B-CUBE project is launching an open call for voucher applications on 22nd April 2020. SMEs from healthcare/medicine/biotech/biopharma, IT, and related sectors will now have access to three new vouchers.
These vouchers will support projects in the reconfiguration of Medical Diagnostics and related value chains. An SME can apply for multiple vouchers but the overall maximum funding per SME is €60,000.
SBA Coronavirus Funding Options
On Friday, March 27, 2020, the US President signed into law the CARES Act, which contains $376 billion in relief for American workers and small businesses.
In addition to traditional SBA funding programs, the CARES Act established several new temporary programs to address the COVID-19 outbreak:
Paycheck Protection Program
Deadline: June 30, 2020 | Apply here
Eligibility: This program is for any small business with less than 500 employees (including sole proprietorships, independent contractors and self-employed persons), private non-profit organization or 501(c)(19) veterans organizations affected by coronavirus/COVID-19. Businesses in certain industries may have more than 500 employees if they meet the SBA’s size standards for those industries. Small businesses in the hospitality and food industry with more than one location could also be eligible if their individual locations employ less than 500 workers.
The Paycheck Protection Program is a loan designed to provide a direct incentive for small businesses to keep their workers on the payroll.
SBA will forgive loans if all employees are kept on the payroll for eight weeks and the money is used for payroll, rent, mortgage interest, or utilities.
Economic Injury Disaster Loan Emergency Advance
Deadline: September 30, 2020 | Apply here
Eligibility: This program is for any small business with less than 500 employees (including sole proprietorships, independent contractors and self-employed persons), private non-profit organization or 501(c)(19) veterans organizations affected by coronavirus/COVID-19. Businesses in certain industries may have more than 500 employees if they meet the SBA’s size standards for those industries. Small businesses in the hospitality and food industry with more than one location could also be eligible if their individual locations employ less than 500 workers.
This loan advance will provide up to $10,000 of economic relief to businesses that are currently experiencing temporary difficulties.
This advance will provide economic relief to businesses that are currently experiencing a temporary loss of revenue. Funds will be made available following a successful application. This loan advance will not have to be repaid.
Express Bridge Loans
More information of how to apply you’ll find here.
Express Bridge Loan Pilot Program allows small businesses who currently have a business relationship with an SBA Express Lender to access up to $25,000 quickly.
These loans can provide vital economic support to small businesses to help overcome the temporary loss of revenue they are experiencing and can be a term loans or used to bridge the gap while applying for a direct SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan.
If a small business has an urgent need for cash while waiting for decision and disbursement on an Economic Injury Disaster Loan, they may qualify for an SBA Express Disaster Bridge Loan. It will be repaid in full or in part by proceeds from the EIDL loan
Motivus Growth Fund to Support Sales & Marketers
Motivus has launched a new $250,000 Growth Fund to help new and existing companies address the growing economic challenges we are facing globally. This growth fund is designed to help fuel account-based marketing and sales growth.
The Motivus Growth Fund provides marketers with a 30% match on audience data to help marketers get in front of more people. Additionally, Motivus will supply service consultants for programs with no cost to help shift budgets to the audience rather than personnel.
If you would like to learn more about the Motivus Growth Fund, schedule a call with a team member.
Are there any other funding opportunities out there that we should include in this list? Let us know by leaving a comment below or get in touch with us via our contact form.
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