Preparing your business to enter the market can be a tough task to accomplish, but it’s only a small milestone on a rocky road towards success. If you’re in the process of gearing up for this kind of business journey, you don’t need to go in blind: after all, the act of choosing a development strategy can be what makes or breaks your entrepreneurial dream. Fortunately, The Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP) is here to help: their Smart Development Operational Program (POIR) is designed to help startups and SMEs grow, and do so in a smart way.
As the biggest program of the kind in the entire European Union, POIR aims to foster the spirit of innovative entrepreneurship, and offers financial support for projects at every stage of development: from an idea, through research, market implementation, and until later expansion stages. As stated on PARP’s website, the program was designed to help those who want to contribute towards building a modern economy by disrupting past expectations, and who wish move their development across borders: both geographic, and those of imagination.
As for the business sectors qualified for grants within the program, POIR focuses on entities whose work falls under any of the National Smart Specializations. The list, published by the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Technology, identifies business sectors which showcase the most potential within the context of Polish economy, as well as the prospect of international expansion. Its current iteration specifies 17 market sectors, and includes fields such as photonics, waste reduction, smart networks, automation, and eco-friendly transportation. The whole list can be accessed on the Ministry’s website.
PARP’s involvement within the program is rather complex, and includes everything from startup acceleration contest to innovation and research grants. The agency also offers support for entrepreneurs who wish to secure their intellectual property, as well as those who feel ready to expand their business into foreign markets.
Now, let’s take a look at a few numbers: POIR has the budget of approximately 8,61 billion Euro (or 36 billion Zloty), and is expected to support the R&D endeavors of over 12 thousand businesses. According to estimates, the program will contribute towards creating at least 20,5 thousand of new jobs, and result in an additional 4.4 billion Euro contributed towards innovation development from participating business entities.
Interested? Make sure to head to PARP’s website for more information about the project, as well as accelerators and contests associated with POIR. And right after that, make sure to register for Impact fintech’18 – with PARP as the event’s partner, our event will be the prime place to find out about the agency’s future projects. See you in Łódź on November 28th – 291th!
