On 12 August, the Latvian Council of Science announced an open call for project applications under the long-term state research programme “Innovation Fund – Long-Term Research Programme” established by the Ministry of Economics. The programme was approved in accordance with the provisions of Cabinet of Ministers Order No. 474 of 18 June 2024 "On the long-term state research programme "Innovation Fund - Long-Term Research Programme", under which the Ministry of Economics was designated as the institution responsible for implementing the programme.
The programme is intended to support early-stage applied science and commercially oriented research in two development fields with strong prospects for Latvia:
- biomedicine, medical technologies, pharmaceuticals,
- photonics, smart materials, electronics, electrical engineering, technologies and engineering systems.
The programme plans to create a platform formed by research organisations from these two fields, working closely with the Latvian industry representing those fields, in order to build a joint state and industry commission for research work and, together with foreign experts, to select promising research projects, while applying flexibility in project monitoring.
The long-term state research programme established by the Ministry of Economics is to be implemented in cooperation with the Latvian Council of Science in several stages up to 2032. The following stages are planned: 2024-2026, 2027-2029 and 2030-2032, with 22 million euros available to the Ministry of Economics for the first stage (2024-2026) and the possibility of increasing funding for the next three stages by 8 million euros a year (a total of 24 million euros in each of the next three three-year cycles).
According to the terms of the programme, the minimum results to be achieved by 2032 are:
- one research platform established;
- at least 45 technologies developed, including prototypes, corresponding to technology readiness levels 3 and 4, of which at least 30 technologies correspond to technology readiness levels 5 and 6.
- at least 5 new technologies transferred to commercialisation, including prototypes.
The regulations of the long-term state research programme “Innovation Fund – Long-Term Research Programme” and their annexes are available on the Latvian Council of Science website.
The deadline for submitting platform applications is 12 September 2024 at 17.00.