33 | Smart Regions Enterprise Innovation Scheme
Operational Costs Operational costs include personnel overheads – heat, light, insurance, maintenance, etc. These costs are relevant for the calculation of the funding gap, i.e. the maximum amount of aid that can be granted, but these costs cannot be supported (support is limited to investment costs in tangible and intangible assets). Projected Profit Funding is only available to projects which can demonstrate they are viable, sustainable and profitable over the life of the project. It must be shown that there will be a projected cumulative profit at the end of a minimum 15-year period. STREAM TWO Funding for Stream Two – Aid for Innovative Enterprise Clusters and Consortia The projects supported in this Stream will range from €50k up to €2m per project. The types of linkages and activities that are important in clusters include: promotion of mutual interests and addressing mutual challenges (e.g., developing and sourcing skills and talent), sharing of facilities, exchange of knowledge and expertise, networking, information dissemination, and collaboration among the businesses and other organisations in the clusters. The Stream Two Grant will be made exclusively to the legal entity owning and operating the innovation cluster which shall: ώ demonstrate industry networks/linkages that are at nascent or early phase of organised innovation cluster collaboration with the potential to scale and deepen their level of engagement that will generate some identifiable and measurable impact on the participant businesses; and /or ώ have as members (whether as shareholders or as non- shareholder cluster members) participants in already established informal clusters or particpants in already established business networks that are seeking to undertake activity that is additional to the activities currently being undertaken (and additional to activities currently funded by the State) that will generate some identifiable and measurable impact on the participant businesses. Eligible Costs All eligible costs 15 must be directly related to the implementation of the work programme. Programme Support Cost categories are strictly limited to the personnel and administrative costs (including related apportioned overhead costs) relating to: a. Animation of the cluster to facilitate collaboration, information sharing and the provision or channelling of specialised and customised business support services; b. Marketing of the cluster to increase participation of new undertakings or organisations and to increase visibility
15 All eligible costs exclude VAT. Where applicants can certify through the Revenue Commissioners that they have unrecoverable VAT, it may be deemed an eligible expense under this fund.
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