REI Analysis: More than EUR 6.5 billion in Non-Reimbursable Funds in the Second Half of this Year

Entrepreneurs and companies operating in Romania will have access to more than EUR 6.5 billion in non-reimbursable funds this autumn, which can be used for investments in agriculture, green energy production or consumption, recycling, the food industry, or the production of building materials.

 

According to a REI analysis, a group of companies specialized in attracting non-reimbursable financing, among the largest players in the sector, with more than 1,000 successfully managed projects, more than 80 specialists, and a nationwide presence in 13 cities, in the second half of this year we will benefit from the best period for investments with non-reimbursable support, where nine financing programs provide entrepreneurs and companies present in Romania, from start-ups to large companies, with non-reimbursable funds for development investments in almost all key areas of the economy.

“Romania is currently going through the best period in history in terms of development opportunities and we are confident that more and more entrepreneurs and companies will rely on the non-reimbursable support solutions made available by the authorities, as an alternative or in complementarity with access to bank credit or project financing from their own resources. We are optimistic and we already see clearer communication and an improvement in the evaluation processes of the submitted projects, we have received assurances that these evaluations will be digitalized and will work much more efficiently, which will make access to grant funding a much-simplified process“, Roxana Mircea, managing partner of REI Grup, stated.

Among the most important funding programmes in the second half of this year we have:

1. National Strategic Plan 2023 – 2027 – Investments in Agriculture

• Budget: EUR 1.7 bn (2023)

• Responsible authority: Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), through the National Agency for Payments and Intervention in Agriculture (NAPIA)

• Main funding streams:

• o DR-25 Modernisation of the irrigation infrastructure: EUR 400 mln. (Call – Q3/Q4 2023)
• o DR-26 Setting up irrigation systems: approx. EUR 100 mln. (Call – Q3/Q4 2023)
• o DR-30 Support for setting up young farmers: approx. EUR 250mln. (Call – Q3 2023)
• o DR-20 Investiții în sectorul zootehnic: approx. EUR 225 mln. (Call– Q3 2023)
• o DR-22 Investments in packaging, storage and processing of agricultural and fruit products: approx. EUR 210 mln. (Call – Q32023)
• o DR-15 Investments in fruit farms: approx. EUR 150 mln. (Call – Q32023)
• o DR-13 Purchase of agricultural machinery for the plant sector:EUR 100 mln. (Call – Q4 2023)
• o DR-14 Investment in small farms: EUR 108 mln. (Call – Q4 2023)
• o DR-16 Investments in the vegetable and/or potato sector: approx. EUR 150 mln. (Call – Q4 2023)

2. Modernisation Fund – Programme 1 – Renewable energy sources and energy storage

• Total budget: EUR 1.575 bn. (2023)

• Responsible authority: Ministry of Energy / Ministry of Agriculture

• Grants for self-consumption – about 350,000 EUR/MW

• Grants for energy production – 100 – 130,000 EUR/MW

• Green energy grants for agriculture

• Eligible applicants: start-up, SME, large enterprises

• Calls: September – October 2023

3. “Fair Transition” Operational Programme (POTJ) – only for Hunedoara, Gorj, Dolj, Prahova, Galați, Mureș counties

• Total budget: Approx. EUR 1.5 bn. (private companies)

• Responsible authority: Ministry of Investments and European Projects (MIEP), through Regional Development Agencies

• Funding: between 200,000 – EUR 2 mln. and  between EUR 2 – 5 mln.

• Eligible applicants: start-up, SME, large enterprises

• Call: September – October 2023

4. Regional Programmes (RP) 2021-2027 – SME investment funding

• Budget: approx. EUR 800 mln.

• Responsible authority: Ministry of Investments and European Projects (MIEP)

• Financing: min. EUR 20,000 – max. EUR 3 mln., own contribution of min. 10%

• Eligible applicants: micro, SME

• Eligible expenditure: construction of premises, purchase of equipment, software, etc.

• Targeted benefits: technological development and modernisation of SMEs, growth of dynamic SMEs with a focus on smart specialisation sectors, increased productive investment in SMEs, increased technological capabilities, acquisition of specific skills

• Calls: Q3 2023 – Q2 2024

5. Waste management – Recycling – (PNRR)

• Budget: EUR 286 mln.

• Responsible authority: Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests (MEWF)

• Objective: development and modernisation of municipal waste management systems

• Financing: between EUR 500,000 – 8.4 mln. / project

• Eligible applicants: SME, large eneterprises

• List of eligible NACE codes:

• o 3821 – treatment and disposal of non-hazardous waste;
• o 3822 – treatment and disposal of hazardous waste;
• o 3832 – recovery of sorted recyclable materials;
• o 3831 – dismantling (disassembly) of disused machinery and equipment for the recovery of materials;
• o 3811 – non-hazardous waste collection;
• o 3812 – hazardous waste collection.

• Call: Q3 2023

6. INVESTALIM – National programme to develop and support the food industry

• Budget: EUR 150 mln. (2023)

• Total budget: EUR 600 mln. (multi-annual scheme)

• Responsible authority: Ministry of Agriculture

• Financing – min. EUR 500,000

• Co-financing – min. 25%

• Eligible areas: food industry, processing, bakery NACE: 1011, 1012, 1013, 1020, 1031, 1032, 1039, 1041, 1051, 1061, 1071, 1081

• Eligible applicants: start-up, SME, large enterprises

• Call: September 2023

7. PNRR – Grants for the development of advanced digital technologies

• Budget: EUR 150 mln.

• Responsible authority: Ministry of Investments and European Projects (MIEP)

• Financing: min. EUR 500,000 – max. EUR 3 mln. / project (no more than 5 times the 2022 revenue)

• Eligible applicants:

• a) micro, SME, cooperative enterprises serving the interests of members through the investments foreseen in the project; investing in tangible and/or intangible assets for automation and robotics for technological workflows, integrated with digital solutions and
• b) enterprise operating in one of the following sectors ( NACE): 5829, 6201, 6202, 6203, 6209, 6311, 6312, 6399

• Targeted areas: industrie alimentară, industrie prelucrătoare, construcții, industrie auto, transport și distribuție, servicii adresate populației, turism și alte domenii eligibile

• Eligible expenditure: acquisition of tangible and intangible assets, acquisition of blockchain technologies, acquisition of tangible and intangible assets cybersecurity, acquisition of artificial intelligence systems, machine learning, augmented reality, virtual reality, acquisition of data services and cloud computing, eligible expenditure of research projects

• Call: August 2023 (est.)

8. CONSTRUCT PLUS – State aid for the building materials industry

• Budget: EUR 149 mln. (2023)

• Total budget: EUR 590 mln. (multi-annual scheme)

• Responsible authority: Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism

• Financing: max. 75% of the investment value, but not more than EUR 50 million (investment located in urban areas), respectively max. 85% if the investment is located in rural areas

• Eligible applicants: start-up, micro, SME, large enterprises

• Eligible areas: building materials production

• Call: September – October 2023

9. Sustainable Development Programme – Improving energy efficiency

• Budget: EUR 135 mln.

• Responsible authority: Ministry of Investments and European Projects (MIEP)

• Eligible applicants: SME, large enterprises, companies in industry with a consumption of more than 1,000 toe/year

• Eligible expenditure: making technological processes more efficient and achieving energy savings at enterprise level by replacing equipment, retrofitting/modernisation, monitoring and optimising energy consumption at the level of economic operators, and using energy produced from renewable sources to ensure exclusively the enterprises’ own consumption

• Call: Q3 2023 (est.)

“We recommend companies to define their investment projects during August-September, to identify a consultant with expertise and who offers contractual guarantees on the submission of a correct and complete project, a designer, a technologist and technology providers, so that they can submit projects as well founded as possible and with a real chance of funding, given that the interest for non-reimbursable funds has increased at a very high rate. In some funding programmes, we have applications for more than five times the budget allocated to those schemes”, Roxana Mircea added.