Genecom Limited Doherty Innovation Centre Pentland Science Park Bush Loan PENICUIK, EH26 OPZ
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E: info@genecombio.com
Funding : State Aid and de minimis funding
The Orphans scheme is administered by Genecom Ltd on behalf of the members, the Moredun Research Institute, the Institute for Animal Health and the Roslin Foundation and is supported by grants from the Scottish Government inder Priority 1 of the 2007-2013, Lowlands and Uplands Scotland, European Regional Development Funding initiative and from the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) through a grant to Genecoms partners under the Public Sector Research Exploitation (PSRE) initiative.
The Orphans initiative provides small grants of up to £15,000 under the de minimis exemption rule to allow SME's, small businesses and entrepreneurs working on or aiming to develop innovation in the life sciences and sustainable energy sectors to work with the Moredun Research Institute, Roslin Foundation, Scottish Crop Research Institute and Institute for Animal Health on projecst of mutual interest.Grants are subject to State Aid rules.
The Orphans Project and State Aid
The Genecom Orphans Project is part supported by European Structural Funds which are considered to be a State Resource. Where State Resources are used to provide assistance to an undertaking and that assistance confers an advantage which has the potential to distort competition and trade between Member States then State aid arises and funding must comply with State aid rules and regulations.
Genecom Orphan Projects grants are given under the terms of de minimis aid. This allows Genecom to make grants regardless of the size of the recipient organisation and for a range of purposes as long as the terms of the regulation are met. These terms require Genecom to:
- ask you (the recipient) about all other de minimis aid that you may have received, from all sources, in the three-year period preceeding the date of offer
- use reasonable endeavours to check before granting de minimis aid that the grant will not bring the total de minimis aid received by you, the recipient, over the €200,000 threshold
If you are offered a grant, you will be asked to sign a statement regarding previous de minimis aid received
We will advise you in a formal offer letter, that you are being offered de minimis aid using the following language as required by the Scottish Government
"Under EC regulation 1998/2006 ( de minimis aid regulation), this is a de minimis aid. There is a ceiling of €200,000 for all de minimis aid provided to any one firm over a 3-year period. Any de minimis aid awarded to you under this offer letter will be relevant if you wish to apply, or have applied, for any other de minimis aid. For the purposes of the de minimis regulation, you must retain this letter for 3 years from the date on this letter and produce it on any request by the UK public authorities or the European Commission. (You may need to keep this letter for longer than three years for other purposes.)"
Any offer under the Orphans project initiative will show the amount of de minimis aid granted in Pounds Stirling, calculated at the sterling equivalent using the Commission exchange rate applicable on the written date of offer of the de minimis funding. The Commission publishes this information on its web-site.
If you want to know more about State Aid and de minimis funding [click here]
de minimis aid and the individual
We have asked for a ruling from ESEP regarding individuals who may have previously been associated with a company that hAs received de minimis funding but now wishes to apply for an Orphans grant as an individual or Sole Trader.
ESEP has interpreted State Aid as "relating to an enterprise and, in the case of a sole trader it is the business rather than the individual themselves (that is judged to have received the aid)".
However, Genecom is still required to confirm whether the new enterprise seeking grant is being developed as a 'subsidiary' of an existing business that has received de minimis aid in which case, we have been told that de minimus aid would need to be fully accounted for.
We will apply this interpretation of accounting for de minimus aid but may seek further guidance in some circumstances from the Scottish Government State Aid unit.
Patrick McCarthy CEO, 20 August 2010