SME Call for Public Private Partnerships in 2025 (Round 2) – Netherlands

The call stimulates public-private partnerships (PPP) focused on innovative industrial research within the LSH-sector.

SMEs play a key role in strengthening innovation and accelerating the valorisation of research results. The SME Call enables SMEs to hire or retain an R&D employee (under certain conditions). This helps them enhance their development capacity and innovative strength.

Theme

• Social theme ‘Health & Care’
  • The societal theme Health and Care focuses on six missions formulated by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS). These consist of one central mission and five specific missions. The central mission aims to increase healthy life expectancy by five years and reduce the health disparities between individuals with high and low socioeconomic status by 30%. The five specific missions address changes in the living environment, providing more care in the right place, offering better prospects for people with chronic illnesses, addressing dementia, and improving protection against socially disruptive health threats. The missions run until 2040 and align with focus areas such as digitalisation, key enabling technologies, circularity, and energy. The Knowledge and Innovation Agenda 2024–2027 (KIA) describes how public-private innovation contributes to these aims.

Funding Information

• SMEs: in total up to €150,000 PPP subsidy per project year
• Research organizations: in total up to €150,000 PPP subsidy per project
• Available budget: approximately €5 million for this round, of which €3.3 million is reserved for SMEs
• Important: Co-financing by both parties is mandatory and must comply with the PPP regulations.

Eligibility Criteria

• The main applicant must be an SME established in the Netherlands.
• The main applicant and any other Dutch SMEs applying for PPP-Subsidy must not be classified as Enterprises in Difficulty.
• The consortium must comprise at least one Dutch for-profit SME and one research organization.
• Foreign enterprises and research organizations are also encouraged to participate in the consortium, provided that the outcomes of the research project benefit the Dutch knowledge infrastructure and economy.
• The project is a genuine public-private partnership: this means, among other things, that the project is carried out for joint account and risk, and all consortium partners must make an substantive contribution to the project.
• All consortium partners must contribute in-kind. This entails, among other things, that all partners must incur salary costs, reflected as an in-kind contribution, and these costs must be visible in the budget form (Excel).
• The project must involve industrial research (Technology Readiness Level 4 to 6). Appendix A, available on their website, provides sector-specific guidelines on the types of research eligible for funding.
• The project must align with one or more of the defined Growth Markets and at least one of the ten priority Key Enabling Technologies listed in the National Technology Strategy. Definitions for each Key Enabling Technology can be found in Appendix B on their website.
• The project must contribute to the central mission and at least one specific mission within the Health & Care theme (KIA 2024–2027).
• The research must be of high scientific quality.
• In addition to the in-kind contribution, cash contributions are permitted. A cash contribution must be used within the project to cover the costs of another partner. The consortium must jointly decide for which and whose costs the respective cash contribution will be used.
• Financially creative constructions are not permitted; improper use of PPP-Subsidy by consortia is prohibited (this includes, among others, the provision of a cash contribution and the use of PPPSubsidy by the same party).
• Consortium partners are not allowed to invoice each other for services or products within the project. However, third parties may be contracted for services and are not considered as consortium partners.
• The project may not commence before 1 January 2026 and must start no later than 1 May 2026. The maximum project duration is two years.
• An SME may only participate in one application within this call. Note: applicants that are part of the same corporate group are considered a single entity; in such cases, only one company within the group may submit an application.
• Per project year, the company must incur at least 1650 hours of salary costs (for a project lasting 1.5 years, at least 2475 hours). These hours must appear on the company’s payroll; payment from another entity (e.g., a different private BV or holding) is not permitted.
• The SME’s subsidy must be primarily used to finance one R&D full-time equivalent (FTE); the remaining subsidy may be used for other eligible costs, including material costs and additional personnel.
• Only the formats specifically prepared for Round 2 of the SME Call 2025 will be accepted. Outdated versions will not be accepted.

For more information, visit Health-Holland.