Good practice:

Re-design of RD&I industry support schemes

RELOS3 focuses on implementing RIS3 in a local context by actively involving local authorities, innovation actors and companies. As national economic development agency Malta Enterprise ran 3 RD&I support schemes for industry to support advanced manufacturing, a smart specialisation area in Malta. The need was identified to address increase participation and uptake of RD&I related incentives by industry. This was done through an initiative to redesign – based on past success – the existing RD&I incentives. The aim was to create more options, reducing any extra red tape and simplify the application, implementation and administration of the support schemes. The objective set was to be better aligned as a corporation to support industry R&I initiatives, creating a higher value added in the economy as a result.

1 FTE

The existing industry R&I support schemes have been re-designed and increased based on the success of the past incentives. The incentives increased from 2 to 5 incentives, now with a better support focus: either project or personnel.
The new incentives are related to support projects:
• R&D Feasibility Study
• R&D 2014 - 2020
• Aid for R&D Projects (Tax Credits)
Incentives related to engage Personnel
• Tax Credits for R&D Innovation
• Innovation Aid for SMEs

No particular challenges have been encountered. To implement this action the Corporation undertook an in-depth review and gap analysis of the available schemes and their shortcomings, therefor had all the information available to address the identified shortcomings accordingly.

The full process of design, deployment and managing RD&I industry support schemes, tailored to the current ecosystem, can be shared with the partners.
This practice can inspire public authorities and the improvement of a public policy as it supports the policy by creating visibility for RD&I policy as part of RIS3. Furthermore, this approach to incentive redevelopment can be adapted also to other areas of RD&I as has been the case in Malta.