Innovation Credit

For whom?

The Innovation Credit is a government financing scheme designed to stimulate innovation in businesses. It offers subsidies for the development of innovative projects involving significant technical risks and excellent market prospects. With the Innovation Credit, you can develop promising innovations into working products or processes.

Technical or clinical project

For the Innovation Credit, we distinguish technical and clinical projects. A characteristic of clinical development projects is that the products or processes to be developed, or parts thereof, have to be clinically tested in humans before introduction to the market. This comes with an extra risk, because it can be difficult to predict in advance whether the clinical testing can be completed successfully.

Conditions

We will carefully review your application for Innovation Credit. Your project has to meet certain criteria.

• For example, you can only apply for Innovation Credit for one specific development programme. Software, IT and AI projects are also included.
• You have to demonstrate that, within this development programme, there is a systematic reduction of the technical or clinical risks.
• You will also substantiate your own share of the funding with signed term sheets or contracts, including a buffer for setbacks and delays.

Read all the conditions for Innovation Credit

How much subsidy will you get?

The credit percentage varies from one application to another. It depends on the size of your company and whether you plan to carry out the project in a potential partnership. In most cases, the Innovation Credit finances up to 45% of the project. The remaining funding must come from your resources. The percentage is calculated on the total project costs.

Amount of Innovation Credit without collaboration

• Small enterprises: maximum 45%
• Medium-sized enterprises: maximum 35%
• Large enterprises: maximum 25%

Amount of Innovation Credit with collaboration

• Small and medium-sized enterprises: maximum 50%
• Large enterprises: maximum 40%

Quick Scan

With the Quick Scan, you submit your plan or project idea to us and receive no-obligation advice. You are, therefore, not bound by any further obligations. After you fill out the form, a financing adviser will contact you within 2 working days. You will then discuss your project and the possible next steps.

• Do the Quick Scan

Preparing your application

A number of steps are required to properly prepare your application for the Innovation Credit. Review the step-by-step plan.

The Innovation Credit is for a project, so applying for it across several projects within your company is possible.

After your application

After assessing your application, you will keep us informed of the project's progress. At the end, we will determine the subsidy amount and the repayment schedule. Read more about the process following your application.

Laws and regulation

• The Framework Decision on national EZ grants. This decision contains information on most standard procedures. Such as those for payment of advances, reporting and notification of deviations in a project for which a grant has been awarded.
• Chapter 3, Title 9 of the National EZ Grants Regulation. This chapter is part of the Framework Decision. It states to whom and for which activities grants are awarded.
• Subsidy game rules (in Dutch). The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate's subsidy game rules apply to this scheme. These subsidy game rules cover, for example, eligible costs and obligations of a subsidy recipient.

The applicable legal texts for the Innovation Credit can be found on overheid.nl. All the pages above are in Dutch.