Good practice:

Grants for working capital for micro and small enterprises

Grants could be awarded to entrepreneurs for projects supporting the maintenance of economic activity who, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, were in a difficult situation on the day of granting the aid (within the meaning of Article 2 (18) of the EC Regulation No 651/2014) or in a situation of a sudden shortage ie they recorded a turnover decrease of not less than 50%. This decrease may only be shown from the next month after February 1, 2020. i.e. from March 2020. compared to the previous calendar month or the corresponding calendar month of the previous year.
Entrepreneurs who were in a difficult situation before 1 January 2020, or found themselves in a difficult situation after that date for reasons other than the COVID-19 pandemic, were excluded from the possibility of granting aid. The call for applications for aid in the form of grants was conducted via the gov.pl platform, using a trusted profile (ePUAP). The amount earmarked for support in the form of grants was EUR 8 590 839.56 (PLN 39,425,606.54), including for economic activities in the tourism and tourism-related industries - 2 577 251.91 EUR (PLN 11,827,681.96); and for business activities in other industries - 6 013 587.86 EUR (PLN 27,597,924.58).
The main beneficiaries were Micro and Small entrepreneurs from the Podkarpackie Region, who were in a difficult situation because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Many entrepreneurs are facing really difficult problems because of the pandemic. The most needed resources, for now, finance that will allow running similar projects. The pandemic isn't over yet, what causes that such help will be necessary for the nearest future.

The interest in this form of support was huge. The amount allocated to aid for the tourism industry was used within 11 minutes, and only 2 minutes were needed to use the funds for other industries. As part of the call, over 13 thousand applications from entrepreneurs were submitted, and 1002 of them were selected for support. 264 of these chosen ones were submitted by entrepreneurs of the tourism industry.

The biggest challenge was to be sure that the server will work properly, as the governmental server was used to submit the application. It took only a few seconds to use the whole amount of money that was addressed for the support. Even, it wasn't a problem that the submission was opened at midnight

Pandemic situation caused that many entrepreneurs from Podkarpackie Region, met really difficult problems with their company's capital. This project is a really great tool that was used to help them to keep their sustainability. The date of submission of the grant application was the date and time specified as the "delivery date" visible on the UPP (Official Submission Certification) document, generated by the ePUAP system after the letter has been correctly sent.

Easy application to be completed by the entrepreneur, no detailed settlement of the project - a lump sum calculated depending on the number of employees, the order of applications as an element of choice.