Author: Caterina M.V. Mainieri

From February 14, small and medium-sized enterprises located in the Lazio Region will be allowed to electronically submit their applications for funds allocated by the Lazio Region for the promotion and support of internationalization projects.

In fact, on February 3, 2017, the tenders concerning the Internationalization for SMEs were issued, through which, with a budget of 5 million Euros, the Lazio Region intends to contribute, again this year, to the internationalization projects of small and medium-sized enterprises (individually or in Temporary Aggregation), representing the main regional business.

The tenders aims at awarding non-repayable funds for projects involving, inter alia:

• Participation in exhibitions, international fairs or relevant business events held abroad;
• Project and implementation of promotional events or the realization abroad of temporary showrooms or exhibition centers;
• Acquisition of specialized services for the elaboration of plans of commercial interest in certain countries or sectors, or of advisory services useful for the international project.

The funds are destined to small and medium-sized enterprises (individually or in Temporary Aggregation) having, at the date of the first disbursement request, an operating office in the Lazio Region. It is worth remembering that, according to the European legislation, the category of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises ("SMEs") is constituted by companies with less than 250 employees, whose annual turnover does not exceed 50 million Euros or whose annual balance sheet total does not exceed 43 million Euros.

Funds are also available to freelancers and professionals.

In order to become eligible, projects must have a total amount of admissible expenses not inferior to 50,000 Euros if submitted by an individual SME and 100,000 Euros if submitted by a Temporary Aggregation. The funding will cover 40% of the admissible expenses (no more than 100,000 Euros) in case of individual SMEs and 50% of admissible expenses (not exceeding 150,000 Euros per individual SME Partner or 250,000 Euros for the whole project) in case of Temporary Aggregations.

Projects must have a start date subsequent to the date of submission of the application and must be implemented within 360 days from the date in which the funds were granted.