Innovation Vouchers

A1: The Innovation Voucher initiative allows small and medium-sized companies to apply for a €10,000 voucher. The voucher can be used to purchase academic support from one of the 36 registered knowledge providers, North and South, listed on our website www.innovationvouchers.ie.

If you are awarded an Innovation Voucher, you can use it to purchase leading-edge academic expertise to meet your innovation requirements. The aim is to improve your company’s innovation capability and to build links between Ireland’s public sector knowledge providers and the small business community.

A2: There are two types of vouchers available under the programme: the fully funded €10,000 Standard Voucher and the Co-funded €20,000 Voucher.

Standard Voucher: The application for a Standard Voucher can be submitted at any time, and a response may normally be expected within four weeks. You do not need to identify your knowledge provider in advance, and the voucher is valid for 18 months from the date of issue.

Co-funded Voucher: The Co-funded Voucher also has a value of €10,000, but the company contributes 50% of the project costs in cash. Therefore, a company may use a Co-funded Voucher to cover project costs up to €20,000 on a 50-50 co-funded basis.

The company and the knowledge provider jointly agree on the work programme for the project in advance of applying. Companies may wish to use this option when they are no longer eligible for a Standard Voucher, for example, if they have used three or more Standard Vouchers. The application for a Co-funded Voucher can be submitted at any time, and a response may normally be expected within four weeks.

A3: All small and medium-sized limited companies in all sectors of the Irish economy are eligible to apply for an Innovation Voucher. The only exclusions on a sectoral basis are enterprises in the agricultural sector. Enterprises in the agricultural sector have their own supports. Companies with charitable status, commercial semi-state companies, not-for-profit organisations, trade associations, holding companies, company representation bodies such as Chambers of Commerce, sports bodies and associations, sports clubs and other non-commercial bodies or associations are not eligible to participate in the Innovation Voucher initiative.

For the purposes of the Innovation Voucher Initiative, a small and medium-sized enterprise is defined as a company with fewer than 250 employees and an annual turnover not exceeding €50 million and/or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding €43 million.

A: Applications are made via the Enterprise Ireland Online Application system. We do not accept voucher applications via any other method; Word documents are no longer considered valid submissions. The link to the Online Application system is available on our website www.innovationvouchers.ie. If you are a first-time applicant, you will have to register on the Enterprise Ireland Online Application System and create your own account.

A5: Standard and Co-funded Voucher applications may be submitted at any time. The evaluation process normally takes four weeks to complete.

A6: You do not have to be a client of Enterprise Ireland, nor do you need to have an Enterprise Ireland Client Advisor, to apply for a voucher.

A7: Enterprise Ireland awards vouchers following a review of both the eligibility of the applicant and the knowledge question. Typically, 80% of applications are successful. The four main reasons for turning down applications are non-eligibility of the applicant, insufficient information, ineligible activity and a low level of innovation.

A8: No, the Innovation Voucher initiative is restricted to small and medium-sized companies, and they must be registered as such with the Companies Registration Office www.cro.ie at the time of submission.

A9: Yes, provided you conform to the small and medium-sized company definition for the programme: For the purposes of the Innovation Voucher Initiative, a small and medium-sized enterprise is defined as a company or, if part of a group, a group of companies where the total number of full-time employees in the company or the entire group is fewer than 250 and has an annual turnover not exceeding €50m and/or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding €43m.

A10:  Yes, a Start-up company or a pre-revenue company can apply for an Innovation Voucher so long as they are registered on the CRO as a Ltd company

A11:  No, the company must be registered in Ireland 

A:  Where an applicant company forms part of a group structure, the group will be assessed for eligibility. This assessment will consider the collective number of employees, annual turnover, and annual balance sheet total of the group, in line with EU SME classification criteria.

A13: The Voucher may be exchanged for advice and expertise from any of the Knowledge Providers listed on our website www.innovationvouchers.ie. The Voucher may be used to access advice and expertise provided by the Knowledge Provider in addressing the Knowledge Question outlined in the company’s original application to Enterprise Ireland. The Knowledge Question should form the basis of discussions between the company and the Knowledge Provider leading to the development of an agreed work programme. The Knowledge Providers are publicly funded research organisations and will offer services from within their resources. 

A14: Yes, the €10K vouchers are subject to VAT, and the company is responsible for the payment of the VAT. The voucher is exclusive of VAT and cannot be used to cover the VAT. VAT will be paid on the €10,000 but in general can be reclaimed through the normal VAT procedures. Please note that the company is responsible for paying the VAT on the full project costs for the co-funded voucher projects. The company can use the co-funded voucher to pay for 50% of the project costs (up to a maximum of 10k) and the rest in cash. 

A15: The main objective of the Innovation Voucher scheme is to increase interaction between publicly funded research organisations such as the universities and Institutes of technology and small and medium-size businesses in Ireland. The Innovation Voucher scheme has considerable potential to increase the transfer of knowledge between academics and business. It will achieve this by the demand led nature of the scheme which is designed to eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy. 

A16: The website provides all the information that you need to apply for a voucher, to help you identify a knowledge provider, as well as instructions about how to submit an application using the Enterprise Ireland Online system. 

A17: The Knowledge Providers involved in the Innovation Voucher Initiative can be found on us website. They are all publicly funded research organisations. Vouchers may only be used by working with one of the registered knowledge providers. They are Universities, Institutes of Technology and state funded research organisations such as Teagasc.

A18: The voucher may not be used, either directly or indirectly, to fund services provided to the company by a private sector company or research provider. State-funded research organisations, such as Teagasc, are eligible.

A19: Enterprise Ireland. 

A20: Yes. If you have been unsuccessful, you will receive feedback outlining the issues with your application. Please take this feedback into account before resubmitting the application.

A21: We have provided a list of eligibility criteria on our website. The most important criterion is that you must be an SME company registered with the CRO. This may be checked on the CRO website at www.cro.ie.

A22: When Enterprise Ireland receives your application, we appraise the knowledge question to determine whether the voucher should be awarded. One of the key objectives of the initiative is to increase the level of innovation in Ireland’s small and medium-sized enterprises, so it is important that the knowledge question demonstrates that the proposed activity requires an innovative solution that will have additional value and ongoing benefits for your company.

Many solutions may already exist in the marketplace and, if this is the case, Enterprise Ireland is likely to reject the application. Examples of applications that have not received support include standard website development, standard software development, standard mobile applications development, software purchases, standard training, development of advertising or promotional material, market research and marketing activities. Please check the full list of eligible and ineligible activities on our website before completing the knowledge question: www.innovationvouchers.ie.

A23: The company initiates the process by contacting one of the Knowledge Providers through the contact points for each knowledge provider listed on our website. The contact point will assist the company in identifying and locating the required knowledge and expertise within their organisation, if it exists. The company may have granted permission to Enterprise Ireland in the application form to circulate the Knowledge Question to all of the Knowledge Providers. This is a service we provide to companies that have not yet identified their preferred knowledge provider and may result in an interested research group making direct contact with the company.

A24: The company and the Knowledge Provider must agree on the work programme to be undertaken. The work programme should be in general agreement with the activity outlined on the original application form and reprinted in the Voucher documentation. Agree a project plan for your project, including scope, timeframe, deliverables and costs, with your Knowledge Provider.

A25: The value of the Voucher is €10,000, which is used to offset the final costs of the project activity as agreed between the company and the Knowledge Provider. If the final costs are greater than €10,000, the company will pay the balance. It is therefore recommended that the company agrees the full work programme and cost structure with the Knowledge Provider before the commencement of the project activity. Where the full project costs are considerably greater than €10,000, the company may wish to consider alternative funding mechanisms, such as Enterprise Ireland’s Innovation Partnerships Programme: Innovation Partnership Programme | Business Support | Enterprise Ireland.

A26: No. These are academic research projects, and a finished commercial product should not be expected as a deliverable. Examples of the type of deliverable you could expect include reports, drawings, technical specifications, technology roadmaps, rough product or process prototypes, or the results of specific analysis. This particularly applies to projects in the software and engineering sectors.

A27: When the work programme has been completed, the Knowledge Provider will invoice the company in relation to the agreed work programme. The company signs the declaration at project completion on the back of the voucher. The Knowledge Provider subsequently returns the Voucher, duly signed by both parties, a copy of the invoice issued to the company, and a completed reimbursement claim form to Enterprise Ireland to claim the €10,000 reimbursement of the Voucher. Please note that the Innovation Voucher is exclusive of VAT.

A28: A company may make use of a maximum of four Innovation Vouchers, one of which must be a co-funded voucher. A company may have one active voucher at any point in time. Companies should ensure that the voucher has been redeemed by the Knowledge Provider before applying for a subsequent voucher. A company will not be eligible for further vouchers until its account with the Knowledge Provider is settled in full, including the payment of VAT.

A29: All vouchers, Standard and Co-funded, are valid for 18 months. Each voucher we issue has a voucher number, an issue date and an expiry date printed on the voucher. The vouchers must be returned to Enterprise Ireland before the expiry date.

A:30 Yes, once Enterprise Ireland is satisfied that the project is underway with a registered Knowledge Provider before the expiry date for the voucher. Under normal circumstances, only one extension is permitted, and the maximum extension granted is six months. There is a formal procedure in place to apply for an extension for a voucher project, and this must come from a Knowledge Provider, not the company. Extension requests are processed by our Institutes Contracts Unit. The application form to apply for an extension is available to download at the following link on our corporate website: Project Alteration Form. Send the form to our Innovation Vouchers team email address: innovationvouchers@enterprise-ireland.com.

A31: Yes. There is a formal procedure in place to apply for a voucher reissue, and this request must come from the company. To request a reissued Innovation Voucher, please send an email to innovationvouchers@enterprise-ireland.com with your company name, CRO number, Innovation Voucher number/application number, and ask for your digital voucher to be resent.

A32: In exceptional cases, yes. A Knowledge Provider may request that up to a maximum of 20% of the value of the voucher be used for external consultancy input to a voucher project. Knowledge Providers must request approval for any such expenditure in advance by sending an email to the Programme Manager.

A33: All researchers employed by a Knowledge Provider may receive payment for the work undertaken in an Innovation Voucher project, provided such payments are within the terms and conditions of the individual’s contract with the Knowledge Provider.

Salary costs for work undertaken by students recruited by the Knowledge Providers on short-term contracts for the purposes of the Innovation Voucher project.

Small items of equipment and materials may be purchased as required and as agreed with the partner company. This should not be used to purchase equipment and materials that the Knowledge Provider would normally be expected to have available onsite.

A small amount of travel may be claimed as required and agreed with the partner company.

Enterprise Ireland normally expects that at least 70% of the claimed costs of any voucher project should go towards paying for the skills and expertise of the Knowledge Provider.

Ineligible Costs

Subcontracting of the entire project activity to private sector Knowledge Providers.

The VAT charged on Innovation Voucher project activities must be paid separately by the company.

Personal computers and devices, including phones, tablets, satnavs, etc.

Overhead charges associated with the project.

Project costs incurred before the issue date of the Voucher.

Note 1: If the project costs incurred by the Knowledge Provider exceed the value of the Voucher, the excess shall be borne by the partner company.

Note 2: Vouchers may be redeemed by Knowledge Providers at their issued value or approved eligible expenditure, whichever is the lesser, in respect of work undertaken on Innovation Voucher projects.

A34: Yes, we will put your application on hold pending receipt of the CRO number. The CRO number must be with Enterprise Ireland before the year-end in which the submission is made.

A35: Any patentable IP generated under an Innovation Voucher project will normally belong to the company and can be patented by the company, unless the company and the Knowledge Provider have agreed a different IP ownership arrangement beforehand.