The Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy published the Decree March 31 with the operating rules for applications for the Transition 4.0 measure for southern SMEs with applications starting May 20.
The initiative has a budget of more than 300 million and is part of the National Program “Research, Innovation and Competitiveness for the Green and Digital Transition 2021-2027.”
Applications will be evaluated based on criteria of financial soundness, project quality and environmental impact in an open-door procedure until funds are exhausted. The managing entity is Invitalia.
1) Sustainable Investment 4.0: the beneficiaries
The decree stipulates that the facilities are aimed at SMEs:
- duly incorporated and active in the Register of Companies,
- Are not in liquidation or subject to bankruptcy proceedings,
- operate under the ordinary accounting system with at least two approved financial statements or two filed tax returns,
- Are based in one of the less developed regions of the SOUTH such as: Molise, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Apulia, Sicily and Sardinia.
2) Sustainable Investment 4.0: eligible investments.
The decree promotes investments aimed at:
- Energy efficiency, with minimum savings of 5% compared to previous consumption,
- digital transition, through the adoption of advanced technologies such as IoT, AI and blockchain,
- environmental sustainability, encouraging production processes with low ecological impact and the circular economy.
Projects must have a value of between 750,000 euros and 5 million euros and must be started only after the application is submitted.
Regarding support, it is stipulated that SMEs can obtain support of up to 75% of the investment in the form of:
- Outright grant equal to 35% of the eligible amount;
- Subsidized financing equal to 40% of the eligible amount, with repayment in 7 years without interest.
Beware that a 25% share of the resources is reserved exclusively for micro and small enterprises.
The following conditions are also stipulated for the measure: enterprises receiving the facility must:
- Maintain investments for at least three years after the grant of the last tranche of contributions,
- Ensure traceability of payments and compliance with environmental and safety obligations,
- Avoid relocation for at least two years after the completion of the investment.
and failure to comply with these constraints could result in revocation of the facilities and the obligation to return the funds received.
3) Transition 4.0: SME aid applications from May 20.
By Decree March 31, MIMIT published the rules for applying from the website of the managing entity Invitalia, for the facility in question.
Pay attention to the fact that the application process for facilitations is divided into the following stages:
- filling out the application, starting at 10 a.m. on April 30, 2025;
- submission of the application for access to the facilities, starting at 10 a.m. on May 20, 2025.
Pursuant to Article 9, paragraph 3, of the November 22, 2024 Ministerial Decree, each proposing enterprise may submit only one application for facilitation, without prejudice to the possibility of submitting a new application if the application is rejected as a result of the relevant investigation.
Facilitation applications received are admitted to the processing stage based on the daily chronological order of submission, those submitted on the same day are considered as received at the same time, regardless of the hour and minute of submission.
If the remaining available resources do not allow the full acceptance of applications submitted on the same day, the applications themselves are admitted for processing according to their position in a specific merit list until the budget is exhausted.
Access to the computer procedure:
- provides for the identification and authentication of the proposing enterprise through SPID or National Service Card or Electronic Identity Card;
- is reserved for the legal representative of the proposing company, as shown in the relevant chamber of commerce certificate. It is possible to give other delegated parties the power of representation for the submission of applications for access to facilities.
Companies that are not resident in the Italian territory, because they do not have a registered office or secondary office, or are administered by one or more legal persons or entities other than natural persons, can access the IT procedure in the manner communicated, including within the same IT procedure, by the Invitalia Agency.
For more info go to https://www.invitalia.it/per-le-imprese or contact us