Malta has become a member of the Eurostars programme, a pan-European initiative spread across 33 countries aimed at stimulating companies, particulary SMEs, to lead international collaborative research projects by easing access to support and funding.

With a fund of €400 million, of which €300 million is contributed by the participating states and €100 million by the European Union, the initiative brings together companies from different countries to work on a research project that is market-driven.

Eurostars projects must be aimed at the development of a new product, process or service that should be ready for launch onto the market within two years of their completion, with the exception of biomedical or medical projects, which require clinical trials.

The lead-company in the collaboration, which must comprise at least two companies from two Eurostars member states, must be a research-performing SME which invests 10 per cent or more of its full-time equivalent or annual turnover in research activities.

As announced in the budget, the government is committing €500,000 to assist Maltese companies’ participation in the programme, thereby increasing their access to financial support for their research and development projects.

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech remarked thatthis programme was all about research, development and innovation with the added benefit of doing this in collaboration with international partners and research institutions.

Forming part of the EUREKA network, which Malta joined in 2006, the Eurostars programme is the first European funding and support programme to be specifically dedicated to SMEs, with at least 50 per cent of the project to be carried out by SMEs. Malta’s membership in the Eurostars programme was approved on Thursday.

The programme is open for funding applications on a continuous basis, with an average of two application submission deadlines each year. The next deadline for the submission of applications is March 24.

http://www.eurostars-eureka.eu