STEP Business R&D&I : Energy

COMPETE2030-2026-11 — STEP Business R&D&I — Energy. Published on 30 September 2026. Portugal 2030 Programme / STEP Platform.

Applications from 30/09/2026 to 04/01/2027, until 17:00. Indicative duration of the operation: 36 months, unless duly justified. Pre-project year: 2025.

Companies of any size and legal form, with organised accounts, in co-promotion consortia; non-business entities of the research and innovation system (ENESII) may take part. Consortium led by a company, as a rule up to 10 beneficiaries; companies must hold the majority of the investment, unless a justified exception applies.

Norte, Centro, Alentejo and Algarve (COMPETE 2030 funding for the Norte, Centro and Alentejo regions). Investment in facilities physically located in the regions covered; check the boundaries of the funding programme in each region.

Clean and resource-efficient technologies, including net-zero technologies and critical energy solutions. Covers final products, components and specific machinery, critical raw materials and specialised services essential to the value chain. Excluded, in particular: financial and insurance activities, defence and gambling, according to CAE and other legal exclusions.

Develop and manufacture critical STEP technologies through integrated projects of industrial research, experimental development and productive innovation. The R&D component should generally be the larger one; projects with only R&D or only productive innovation are not accepted. High TRL levels and bringing results to market are favoured.

Eligible expenditure per application: minimum €5,000,000 and below €25,000,000, unless duly justified and accepted. The amounts refer to eligible cost, not total gross investment.

R&D: technical staff and research fellows; patents; raw materials and consumables; prototypes and pilot facilities; technical and scientific services; instruments, equipment and software; industrial property protection; dissemination of results; technical travel; NP 4457 certification; audit and expense validation. Indirect costs: flat rate of 7% of eligible direct costs. Productive innovation: machinery and equipment not powered by fossil fuels, IT and software, patents, licences and technical know-how; for SMEs, studies, engineering, architecture, marketing, DNSH and expense validation. Works, when justified, as a rule up to 20% of the productive component per beneficiary.

Non-repayable grant, with an indicative budget of €75M. 80% on R&D for companies; up to 85% for ENESII under the regulatory conditions. For R&D, base rates of 50% (industrial research) and 25% (experimental development), with bonuses for size, collaboration/dissemination or location, within the applicable limits. Productive innovation follows the STEP regional map. Payments by advances (initial up to 10%, against invoice/guarantee), reimbursements and final balance.

Demonstrate the critical nature of the STEP technology, technical and financial viability, incentive effect (no work started before the application, except eligible preparatory work) and DNSH compliance. A technical annex in English, of up to 45 pages, is mandatory. See Annex E for the exact scope of the technologies and the aid map for the applicable rate.