This is the sixth ERDF scheme for SMEs launched this year by the Parliamentary Secretariat for the EU Presidency 2017 and EU Funds.
Key characteristics:
Overall Scheme BUDGET of € 5,000,000, with indicative annual thresholds of €1,000,000.
GRANT of up to 50% of the eligible costs and up to €5,000, subject also to compliance with de minimis state aid rules (i.e. up to maximum €200,000 over a 3 years fiscal period)
TARGET GROUP: Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) that do not have as yet an e-Commerce platform, nor internal capabilities to develop one.
This Scheme aims to support enterprises in increasing their competitiveness by integrating e-commerce in their day-to-day operations. It thus supports investment in the design, development, implementation and delivery of an e-commerce website and/or a mobile application, or an upgrade of an existing website or mobile application to enable online sales/bookings. The end product should be an e-commerce website/mobile application with a content management system and in compliance with current industry standard e-commerce security practices. The e-Commerce website/mobile application should incorporate an online payment gateway and support at least basic analytics like:
- Design, development, implementation and delivery of an e-commerce website and/or mobile application to meet the needs of the beneficiary SME.
- Development, implementation and delivery of all technical elements to enable the function of the website and/or mobile application including a CMS for use to upload content, secure online payment integration, including an online graphical product or service catalogue.
- Development, implementation and delivery of all technical elements to allow the successful integration of a payment system including appropriate electronic communication channels.
- Integration of appropriate web analytics software to allow SMEs to generate data reports on web traffic to and from the website and/or mobile application.
- Creation of a design for the website and/or mobile application that is in line with the brand identity of the SME.
- Registering and hosting of the site on secure servers.
- Compliance across all website and/or mobile application design and development with at least W3C Level A accessibility guidelines.
- Domain name registration
- Hosting fees
- Content Management System (CMS) software including required licenses
- e-commerce Website and/or Mobile Application design in line with the brand identity of the organisation
- Shopping Cart integration
- Other Set-up fees.
This Scheme is managed through an open rolling call for applications with the first cut-off date set for Tuesday 28th February 2017.