Over time, companies have tried to find new, more effective and efficient ways to make things easier and achieve better results in a wide range of areas. This vision became more evident with the 1st Industrial Revolution, when the focus was on developing mechanised production, later evolving with the arrival of electricity to boost mass production and finally with the automation of this production through computing. Always striving for more, we are now witnessing the transition to the 4th Industrial Revolution, for which the concept of Industry 4.0 emerged, which has been taking shape in Europe and now in Portugal.

The aim is for our companies to fit into the value chains of international customers and suppliers through the adoption of new and innovative technologies, where for the first time geographical location becomes irrelevant. This 4th Revolution, in which the physical, the digital and the biological combine to drive Digital Transformation, is fuelled by the exponential reduction in the costs of products, such as robots and drones, and technology services, such as cloud storage and 3D printing, over recent years. This price reduction can be seen as a two-sided coin, with opportunities on one side and threats on the other.

Opportunities arise naturally from the greater ease with which startups and SMEs can access technology products and services that would have been impossible to obtain in the past due to high costs, and develop their business from there. On the other hand, with more opportunities there is, as a result, also more competition in the market from companies exploring new and more innovative solutions, always trying to find a differentiating factor.

"The EU Grants Advisor consortium is a clear and logical step to kick-start SME growth across the region. The SME Union has always recognized that structural funds are the catalyst to growth in this sector."

- Jacques Santer, President of the SME Union and Former European Commission President

It is with this clear understanding that, since 2004, Microsoft has worked together with the European Commission on the European Union Grants Advisor (EUGA) initiative. This came about after answering a key question: why are there 200 billion euros available in Europe for projects while companies say their greatest need is access to funding? Two main problems were identified: first, only 45% of companies knew that EU funds existed (with only 4% having applied), and the success rate of applications was around 25% (resulting in only 1% of companies benefiting from support).

With these problems identified, EUGA was created with two very specific objectives, based on filling the gaps identified above. In a first phase, raising companies' awareness of the existence of the funds and matching their possible projects to the specific incentives available, and in a second phase, providing these companies with a service to prepare the application, submit it and follow up the project, as it is essential to increase the application approval rate. All these processes are carried out by European Grants Advisor consultants specialising in the various incentives available.

To date, more than 113,000 European companies and 431 public bodies have contacted the European Grants Advisor looking for support, and the success of this initiative is shown by the more than 8,100 projects submitted in the previous EU framework alone, which generated an investment of 800 million euros.

Following on from this initiative came the MAIS Programme (www.programamais.pt), a Microsoft initiative together with the Government of Portugal, with the same foundations and objectives as EUGA, simply adapted to the reality of our country.

In a first stage, the MAIS Programme offers, free of charge, the services of specialist consultants to research and analyse how companies' projects fit the Portugal 2020 incentives. In a second phase, if a project is successfully matched, the team of consultants can prepare the project application and provide full follow-up for 24 months.

The time from first contact to approval of the application varies depending on the project. This efficiency is also evident in the success rate of applications submitted through the MAIS Programme, which currently stands at over 90%. As the national average is around 33%, this is a differentiating factor compared with the competition.

Portuguese companies also have an advantage, as Portugal is in a privileged position regarding European funds, having been allocated 25 billion euros for projects up to 2020, because most of its territory has a GDP per capita below 75% of the European average.

As part of the Industry 4.0 strategic committee, we are also committed to helping companies obtain funding through EU funds. This is an initiative of the Ministry of the Economy whose main objective is to accelerate the adoption of these technologies by companies, defining the strategy for our country's competitiveness in a digital world. A broad set of measures was selected, including the adaptation of some Portugal 2020 funds to facilitate this goal.

These companies will be able to build capacity, win new markets, innovate and develop new products through non-repayable funds, and can learn about and match their projects through specialist European Grants Advisor consultants (www.programamais.pt).

Article written by: Bruno Rodrigues and Rafael Fernandes Microsoft European Grants Advisor

Written by:
Openlimits

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