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Last update 27.11.2020
In the context of the post-Covid-19 economic recovery strategy " Neistart Lëtzebuerg ", Luxinnovation, with the support of the Ministry of the Economy, has set up a new strategic innovation programme called "Fit 4 Resilience".
Resilience is defined as the ability to get through crises and to reinvent oneself.
This programme takes the form of in-depth support for businesses of a certain size. It is designed to help them to:
The objective is to support them in a concrete way in the relaunch of their activities and to establish with them a short and medium-term strategic plan to make them more resilient.
The programme is aimed in particular at businesses of a certain size within the Luxembourg ecosystem, in terms of the volume of their turnover, their impact on the ecosystem, their positioning in the local and regional supply chain, the number of employees, etc.
This may be:
which have been structurally impacted by the Covid-19 crisis and feel that they need to reposition themselves, or even reinvent themselves, following the changes that the crisis has brought to their respective ecosystems.
The support takes the form of face-to-face interviews and workshops (in compliance with the health precautions in force).
These are:
The analysis is carried out with the help of consultants with, among other things, expertise in:
In order to ensure the same level of quality in the coachings provided, all consultants apply the same methodology, defined upstream by Luxinnovation.
Businesses must meet the general conditions applicable to all aid in the field of research, development and innovation.
To be eligible for the programme, they must meet the following cumulative criteria:
Before applying for the "Fit 4 Resilience" programme, the business must send several documents to Luxinnovation in order to verify its eligibility for the programme, including a cover letter in which the business manager justifies his request, in particular by objectively detailing the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on his business.
Luxinnovation will check the eligibility of the applications, within a maximum of one week, and will inform the businesses of the result of this examination by email (acceptance, correction, reorientation).
If the business is indeed eligible, the application form will need to be completed, dated and signed, and sent to the Ministry of the Economy.
The "Fit 4 Resilience" programme has a fixed duration and is a specific measure developed in the context of the Covid-19 crisis.
Businesses can apply until 31 December 2021 on the Fit 4 Resilience online platform set up by Luxinnovation, which details all the terms and conditions of the programme.
The business benefiting from the programme commits to paying 50 % of the consultancy costs. The consultant's fees will be paid by the business according to the terms agreed upon beforehand. An offer will have to be signed between the business and the consultancy firm.
Eligible businesses must send their signed application to the Ministry of the Economy for consideration.
It is the receipt of the acknowledgement sent back by the Ministry of the Economy that marks the beginning of the project.
The business will be able to choose the consultant of its choice from a list of approved consultants to whom it will ask for an estimate of the total cost of the project. These consultants are pre-selected upstream by Luxinnovation and must commit to accept any type of mission (small SMEs and large companies).
The business benefiting from the programme undertakes to pay 50 % of the consultancy costs. The consultant's fees will be paid by the business according to the terms agreed upon beforehand. An offer will have to be signed between the business and the consultancy firm.
This offer must specifically include, among other things, an explicit reference to the "Fit 4 Resilience" programme as well as a methodological note containing the essential elements of this program (objective, purpose, approach & methodology, deliverables, ...).
The remuneration for a strategic coaching programme will be proportional to the total workload for the consultant (on-site interviews, workshops, report writing (and annexes), debriefing meeting, ...) for these strategic coaching missions, which has been set within a range of 5 to 25 working days. The daily remuneration has been fixed at a flat rate of EUR 1,200 excluding VAT. The rhythm and modalities of the different sessions will be agreed with the beneficiary business.
The cost of the support (consultant's fees) is thus estimated between a minimum of EUR 6,000 excluding VAT and a maximum of EUR 30,000 excluding VAT, depending on the number of working days provided by the consultant who has been retained to carry out the analysis.
Thus, 50 % of the consultant's fees referred to above are paid by the Ministry of the Economy, either by the General Directorate for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, or by the General Directorate - Research, Intellectual Property and New technology, depending on the business's sector of activity.
Upon receipt by the Ministry of the Economy of the application signed by the business, the subsidy corresponding to 50 % of the consultancy fees will be paid to the business at the start of the project.
The amount of the subsidy can under no circumstances exceed EUR 30,000 excluding VAT.
In order to take advantage of any misuse of funds, a repayment clause is included in the document from the Ministry of the Economy.
The proper use of the funds will be checked on the basis of the deliverables obtained and the supporting documents for the expenditure (invoices and proof of payment).
At the end of his mission, within 7 days following the last coaching session, the consultant provides the beneficiary business and Luxinnovation with a report including the following elements:
It is important to stress that the consultant is asked to put each recommendation in perspective with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
In addition, the consultant must organise a feedback meeting to which Luxinnovation is invited. Within 7 days after the feedback meeting, the consultant submits the final report including the comments made by the parties during the feedback meeting.
At the end of this exercise, Luxinnovation takes over to provide assistance adapted to the needs of the business (possible orientation towards other state aid schemes, search for financing, ...).
Within 3 months following the end of the mission, Luxinnovation will provide the beneficiaries with an evaluation questionnaire in order to assess the opportunity and quality of the support, the implementation of the proposed measures and their impact on the business's activities.
The beneficiaries undertake to provide Luxinnovation with all relevant information and figures within the framework of this questionnaire.
The beneficiaries also undertake to:
Demande d'aides étatiques : Programme Fit 4 Resilience
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