The National Centres of Competence programme supports projects that lead to an increase in the efficiency and quality of applied research and technology transfer in prospective fields.

Support will be provided for projects that are based on the achievement of a certain type of result, such as an industrial or utility model, patent, prototype, functional sample, software, etc. A necessary prerequisite is also that two research topics per project (main and secondary topic) are selected from the list of approved topics available in the Tender Documentation.

The allocation of the tender is set at CZK 6.2 billion, with no limit on the maximum amount of support per project.

Who can apply for the subsidy:

• The main applicant must be a research organisation; other applicants can be enterprises and research organisations. However, the minimum number of additional participants is set at 5 entities in the form of SMEs. Large enterprises may be additional entities.

The subsidy covers the following:

• Personnel expenses;
• Subcontracting expenses (up to 20% for the duration of the project);
• Other direct expenses;
• Indirect expenses.

Subsidy percentage per project:

• A maximum of 80% of the total eligible expenses

Subsidy amount per project:

• Unlimited

Project proposal submission dates:

• From 16 December 2021 to 6 April 2022

The announcement of the tender results is scheduled for 30 November 2022. The minimum duration of the project is set at 48 months, with implementation starting in January 2023 at the earliest.