Grant scheme and conditions
As previously announced, this round of the National Growth Fund focuses on the four areas set out in the coalition agreement and the six programmes of the strategic industrial policy.
The Government is making the funds available through the National Growth Fund Grant Scheme. Only the grant route is open for this round. Under this grant route, funds are allocated directly to the consortia of businesses and research organisations that will carry out the projects. This enables projects to get off the ground more quickly once funding has been awarded, and means that their implementation involves far less legal and financial complexity. This requires project proposals to be drawn up in great detail in order to be eligible for funding. Government departments support these projects where necessary with accompanying policy measures, but do not submit projects themselves.
For this call for proposals, the minimum project size and contribution is €30 million, and the maximum contribution is €100 million. Projects are assessed against the existing NGF criteria: investments must contribute to sustainable earning capacity and, for example, be additional to private investment. The National Growth Fund’s advisory committee assesses grant applications against these criteria and issues a binding recommendation to the fund managers.
Concept planning
From this autumn, interested parties will be able to submit their initial draft plans to RVO for feedback. Current draft plans:
End of January 2027 | publication and launch of the grant scheme
Spring 2027 | submission of the mandatory preliminary application
Autumn 2027 | submission of the final proposal
Late 2027 – Early 2028 | making the funding available
Further information will be available on the RVO and National Growth Fund websites.
