For each project, the participants will receive € 50,000 to finance feasibility studies for new products that can disrupt the market. They can also get three days of free business coaching.

The European Commission received 2057 proposals under Phase 1 by 25 November 2015, the fourth and last cut-off date for 2015. The 185 SMEs that will receive funds proposed 175 projects in total (multiple SMEs can be involved in one project). This brings the success rate of funded proposals up to 8.4%.

Most of the projects funded were in the area of low-carbon energy systems. It was closely followed by food production and processing and biomarkers and medical devices.

For this cut-off, all projects over the threshold were funded for the topics low-carbon energy systems and protection of urban soft targets and critical infrastructures.

Spanish SMEs were particularly successful with 39 beneficiaries accepted for funding, followed by firms from Italy (37) and the UK (20). Since the launch of the programme on 1 January 2014, 1284 SMEs have been selected under Phase 1 of the SME Instrument.

The results for Phase 2 of the SME Instrument, where companies get funding up to € 2.5 million to make their products ready for the market, will follow around mid-February 2016.

The next cut-off for Phase 1 is 24 February 2016, further information here