Innovation Credit: Conditions

General criteria

General rules apply to obtaining the Innovation Credit. Your project must:

• be innovative. The technology must be new to the Netherlands. If another Dutch company offers a similar technology, that technology may not qualify. But is the process different? Then, it is new, and does qualify for Innovation Credit;
• have sufficiently substantial technical or clinical risks. There must be a possibility that the project will fail due to a technical risk. The project must have no other risks, such as financial or commercial risks. Demonstrating the technical risk is a focus during the application process. Describe this risk as well as possible in the plans. 
• be part of a company based in the Netherlands that performs a significant part of its activities there;
• result in a marketable product, process or service that makes a positive contribution to the Dutch economy within 5 years;
• offer a market advantage with great perspective that is quantitatively substantiated and allows for the option to include any deals made at the end of the project;
• be able to show a good degree of technical feasibility, also known as Proof of Principle, based on previous research. As a result, any of the hurdles and technical risks associated are largely known;
• contain one concrete development path to achieve a new product, process or service (software, IT and AI projects included). You must demonstrate that the solution can start working but that development is still needed;
• be able to substantiate the own funding of the project during the project period with, for example, a signed term sheet or signed customer contracts;
• have scope to handle setbacks or delays. Reservations for setbacks are not eligible;
• have a minimum scope of €150,000. There is no maximum scope for technical and clinical projects, but the maximum contribution from the Innovation Credit is €10 and €5 million respectively.

Terms and conditions of loan

The loan conditions for the Innovation Credit are:

• Once the project is completed you will have to repay the loaned credit amount plus a remuneration. This remuneration consists of:
  • A one-off fixed mark-up on the loaned amount. For technical projects, this mark-up amounts to 15% and for clinical projects 25%. You will not pay interest over this mark-up.
  • Annual interest. The interest begins the moment you receive money from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. Next, the interest is calculated over the credit amount you are set to receive and will increase annually until the credit amount is repaid in full. For 2023, the interest rate for the compound interest has been set to 3.0%.
• Have you received a subsidy for your project through another scheme? Then we will reduce the Innovation Credit based on this amount.
• No loans can be repaid to shareholders until the Innovation Credit has been repaid in full.  
• During the project you will frequently report on the progress to ensure the continuation of your credit payments. The credit payments are linked to the milestones, as stated during the application procedure. Please note: the credit payments are spread out across each quarter of the project period in question.
• After the project has been completed, the applicant must submit a final report. This final report must also include an audit report as completed by an accountant. You will have to bear the costs for this. For the duration of the credit, you will be required to send annual financial statements to the Netherlands Enterprise Agency.
• To obtain the credit, you will be required to sign a pledge agreement with the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. This gives the Netherlands Enterprise Agency first lien to all tangible and intangible assets that:
  • already exist and are used in the project;
  • arise in the context of the project;
  • arise after the project period in the context of continued development and arise from the project.

Pledge

RVO acquires a 1^st lien on all assets involved in the project. This includes all tangible and intangible assets. Examples include patent rights, copyrights (such as source codes or other technical documentation), other intellectual property rights, machinery and inventories. We establish a pledge only on assets owned by a legal entity (in principle, the applicant for the innovation credit). RFO has the 1^st lien:

• until the Innovation Credit is fully repaid (meaning the principal, interest and mark-up); or
• until the company is fully exempted from repaying the Innovation Credit.

If one of these 2 conditions is met, the pledge is released.

We consider which of the applicant's assets should be pledged for each application.

More information

• Read more about the attachments to your application.
• Read how the application process works.