Fianna Fáil Minister Dara Calleary has reminded small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), enterprise organisations and third level institutions that the first call for the Smart Regions Enterprise Innovation Scheme is open for applications with a closing date of March 31 2024.
The aim of the scheme is to accelerate economic growth across all regions with a focus on enterprise development and support the development of innovative services through local infrastructure, innovation clusters, services to SME’s and early-stage feasibility and priming research.
The scheme, with a total value of €145.3m, is co-funded by the government and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and will be administered by Enterprise Ireland.
Minister Calleary said, "Fianna Fáil in government is committed to fostering and delivering balanced regional development and the overall objective of this scheme is to drive job creation and enterprise development in each region throughout Ireland.
"There is €35 million available under this call to assist the regions to collaborate with other partners to embrace digitisation, green economy and other new opportunities.
"In support of this Fund, Enterprise Ireland is hosting a series of webinars to provide an overview of the scheme, share examples of best practice and support and encourage applications. The first information webinar takes place tomorrow Tuesday, 14 November 2023 at 1pm and I would encourage interested companies to attend.''
Further information on the scheme, the application process and how to register for the webinars can be found here.