Good practice:

Digital Vouchers – Enterprises 4.0

The regional call for Proposal provided for the provision of non-repayable grants for consultancy, training and the purchase of capital goods and services aimed at introducing technologies in the 4.0 business environment.
The beneficiaries of the measure were micro, small or medium-sized enterprises having their registered office and / or local unit in Lazio.
The concessions were granted in the form of vouchers, equal to 70% of eligible expenses, up to the maximum amount of 10,000 euros per company. To access the measure, the investment had to include a minimum expenditure of 3,000 euros (net of VAT).
The technological areas of digital innovation included in this notice for which the beneficiaries are required to submit digitization projects must concern at least one technology from List 1 (Main technologies) with the possible addition of one or more technologies from List 2 (Ancillary technologies).
An important novelty that bring and added value also to this practice concerns the ministerial decision which took place on 7 December 2021 in Italy regarding the signing of a protocol promoted by the Minister of Labor and Social Policies with the social partners to implement home work even outside the state of emergency. This did not exist before the pandemic and favors home working in rural areas and small villages.

The Lazio region has allocated 5 million euros (FSC 2014-2020 - Pact for the Lazio Region) to support the adoption of a personalized analysis of the digital needs of SMEs.

Achieved 3 priority objectives:
1)develop the ability to collaborate between SMEs and qualified individuals in the use of 4.0 technologies, through the implementation of projects aimed at introducing green oriented business models;
2)promote the use by SMEs of solutions focused on new skills and digital technologies defined in the National Transition Plan 4.0;
3)favor digitalization and automation functional to business continuity during the pandemic and to restart in the post-emergency phase

The criticality consisted in being able to impact in a targeted and quick way the digitization of regional SMEs to support production realities even in rural areas, offering them the possibility of adopting technologies and digital tools for restarting after the crisis caused by the pandemic.

The experience gained demonstrates the importance of providing grants (vouchers), up to a maximum of 10 thousand euros per SMEs, for the implementation of digitization projects - which can range from advanced robotics through cyber security, smart working and the blockchain, up to artificial intelligence and the IoT - presented by individual companies.
The maximum amount of the subsidy could not exceed 70% of the eligible expenses and, to access the measure, the investment had to foresee a minimum cost of 3 thousand euros net of VAT. “With this announcement, 7.5 million euros were made available to companies, including those in rural areas, for the digital transformation processes of local businesses. Through digital tools, local SMEs can transform themselves into global companies while maintaining their traditional character, and the help has been particularly useful to smaller companies by helping them to cope with the changes related to digital transformation on their own.