Our main objective is to increase the competitiveness of the agri-food sector in Southern Hungary by providing customized DIH innovation services. ProAgro introduces digital solutions, encourage their use, support access to resources, explore and present direct EU funding opportunities, and transfer national and international good practices to local businesses. With the initiative, innomine is putting agri-food businesses in a position to succeed.

FUNDING

Innomine aims to introduce and demonstrate agri-food companies’ opportunities for EU fundings through advice and digital maturity assessment, evaluation of the analysis, the development of a personalized action plan and the collection of national and international good practices. ProAgro identifies and connects to appropriate funding sources by mapping available national and international funding opportunities.

The granting of EU subsidies to agri-food companies enhance their digital transformation, increases their competitiveness and profitability, and helps the innovation development of the region.

At all stages of development, small businesses struggle more than large enterprises to get finance. To stay competitive, both start-ups and scale-ups rely on external finance for innovation, digitalisation, internationalisation and upskilling.

Instead of going directly to the source which in this case is Horizon Europe, SME owners and start-uppers can seek funding as third parties through an already implementing call. These are cascade funding or Financial Support for Third Parties (FSFTP). Some of the Horizon Europe funded projects under certain topics are granted a budget to basically open a second call and provide financial support to third parties. Some of these beneficiaries include SMEs, start-ups, scaleups and mid-cap companies.

Cascade funding is a European Commission mechanism aiming at distributing funding to help new companies and increase their scalability, create new SMEs or mid-cap companies and all that under the development of the digital innovation scheme. Cascade funding has one very specific objective to simplify administrative processes with SMEs and allow some already implementing European projects to open calls and obtain more funding.

The cascade funding calls within the project are one of these three following categories: Competitive; Distribute funding; Vouchers for support services. The cascade funding usually aims at: Supporting pilots, experiments and demonstrations by start-ups and SMEs under a specific innovative technology or framework; Integrating even more participants into the project. The funding itself has a range from € 50,000 all the way to € 150,000. Such calls do not always distribute money. Often they provide vouchers for support services or even free access and support for SMEs and start-ups to use testing facilities.

Accelerators provide intensive and time-limited business support for cohorts of star-tups, aiming to get them ready for investment more quickly than traditional incubators. Start-ups typically enter into an accelerator programme for three key reasons: funding, mentoring, and networking opportunities. We aim to find EU funding related incubator or accelerator programmes. These programmes typically cover funding in the form of: seed funding, in return for equity; mentoring from successful entrepreneurs; and networking with peers and industry leaders. 

Available Horizon Europe and other direct Brussels calls for SMEs, structural funds related R&D and innovation and digitization funds will be periodically updated on this page.

During the workshops organized within the framework of ProAgro, the need for digitalisation was also confirmed by actors from different sectors. They shared their activities, arguments and good practices with those interested in the form of presentations.