The call is aimed at strengthening the ecosystem that facilitate the foundation, mentoring and training of startup businesses in Central Hungary by supporting incubation, reinforcing well-established incubator houses in the market and promoting the creation of new incubator houses.

Purpose of the call

The call aims to increase the willingness of incubators involved in pre-seed and seed funding to take risk as well as to improve their financial resources so that they can provide even more opportunities to explore and implement innovative ideas.

This call exclusively relates to the First Project Element (the process and criteria of selecting incubators), but also includes those conditions in connection with the Second Project Element (the activity of startups to be incubated) that are relevant to writing the incubator’s application. During the Second Project Element incubators selected for funding will announce their calls to select the startup ideas they wish to support, and will independently assess project proposals and fund the activities of startup businesses.

Who can apply

The First Project Element is open to business companies with registered seat in Hungary or with registered seat in the European Economic Area and a branch office in Hungary which maintain double-entry accounting and are engaged in startup incubation as a core business, provided that their own equity reaches at least 20% of the full requested amount.
In the Second Project Element, incubator houses selected for funding may only mentor startups which have their seat, business premises or branch office in Central Hungary and will implement their activity there.

Deadline for submission: Project proposals may be submitted by 31 January 2017 from the activation of the online application form.

Eligible project objectives

• in the First Project Element: actions directly related to the operation of the incubator (project coordination related to forwarding funding, activities related to incubation)
  
• in the Second Project Element: actions related to the forwarding of funding to recipients (startups) as final beneficiaries
  

Main eligibility criteria:

• The projects have to be implemented in Central Hungary.
  
• The projects have to be implemented with the content specified in the proposal. The proposal has to indicate a specific goal.
  
• No more than 20% of the funding awarded to incubators can be spent on their own operation costs, and at least 80% has to be spent on financing recipients (startups).
  
• Incubators shall continuously ensure in the implementation period and, where relevant, in the monitoring period that their executives have the specific professional experience and competencies.
  
• During the implementation of startup projects, incubators shall continuously update the NRDI Office on the progress of the projects, and the achievements and development of startups.
  
• Incubators shall take direct responsibility for the due implementation of the projects of the selected startups.
  
• Maximum project duration is 42 months.
  

Available funds

The planned budget of the call is estimated at HUF 1.5 billion, financed from the NRDI Fund. Applicants can apply for a non-refundable support of min. HUF 300 million, max. HUF 500 million. Maximum funding intensity is 50% for incubator activities (First Project Element) and 80% for startup activities (Second Project Element).