The European METASTAR project, in which CTA participates as a partner of the consortium, has just opened a call for funding for SME innovation projects. This project is part of the Euroclustes initiative and aims to increase the resilience of European SMEs in the aerospace and defense sector, in addition to promoting the collaboration of European aerospace clusters, in their interaction with other clusters related to technologies of interest to the aerospace sector. such as ICT or the energy sector.

The call to request this second block of bonds, which has just been opened and can be requested until June 6, 2023 at 5:00 p.m. CET, is aimed at financing up to 17 projects, nine of them must have TRL between 3 and 5 and eight of them between TRL 5 and 7. The beneficiaries must be European SMEs in this sector. In addition, the beneficiaries will be able to opt for one of the 5 awards announced for the best projects in the field of resilience, sustainability and digital transformation.

The project currently has several calls for different types of bonds for SMEs: Financing of innovation projects and financing of services, which are not mutually exclusive.

Applicants may benefit from more than one type of METASTARS financial support, reaching a maximum funding of €60,000 per SME. They will be able to obtain financing for an Innovation Project (up to €40,000 per SME, reaching up to €80,000 per project, when several SMEs are involved) and/or two Innovation Services and a prize for a maximum of €60,000.

An SME may apply for these grants for Innovation Projects individually or by forming a consortium of several SMEs, which may benefit from up to €80,000 in total for the implementation of the project. Likewise, different innovation actors may be involved in the project for the creation of new synergies towards innovative and sustainable products/services, however, they will not be able to directly benefit from an Innovation Project, it will have to be an SME or a consortium who applies for it. the calls for innovation projects.

Additionally, a total of €8,000 will be distributed in 5 prizes to SMEs as a reward for the greater resilience of the projects and green and digital transformation.

To facilitate access to it, we collect the information of interest below:

• Link to the call: https://www.dolinalotnicza.pl/en/open-call-for-innovation-projects-for-smes/
• Link to Guide for Aplicants:  a la guía para los solicitantes: https://www.dolinalotnicza.pl/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Guide-For-Applicants-Innovation-Projects-1.pdf
• Link to application instructions: https://www.dolinalotnicza.pl/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/METASTARS-Submission-form-template-InnoProjects.pdf
• Link to FAQ: https://www.dolinalotnicza.pl/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/FAQ-METASTARS.pdf