Aid to businesses for consultancy services – Provincial Law 6/1999

Aid granted, under an exemption scheme, upon submission of a single annual application, for the procurement of various consultancy services from external providers.

The consultancy services eligible for support relate to the following business activities:

• innovation;
• quality;
• pilotinitiatives in the environmental field;
• market research, marketing plans and e-commerce;
• specialist services forthe internationalisation of businesses;
• information and telecommunications technologies;
• strategic services;

Each business activity must possess specific characteristics, as set out in the criteria.

To submit an application for aid,the minimum expenditure must exceed €40,000. The maximumeligible expenditureis €100,000.

Eligible expenditure is assessed by the assessing body using specific adequacy parameters, such as the business’s turnover, the number of employees and the hourly cost of consultancy (click here to view details of the calculation parameters).

The aid, which is granted and paid in a single instalment, amounts to 50 per cent for small enterprises and 40 per cent for medium-sized enterprises.

The business activities to which the consultancy services relate must be commenced after the aid application has been submitted and completed by 31 December of the year following that in which the aid was granted (subject to any extension of the completion deadline), as specified in the criteria. 

In return for the aid received,the undertaking is required to comply with a series of obligations set out in the criteria.
There are also specific obligations for individual areas of support.

Small and medium-sized enterprises that meet the specific requirementsset out in the criteria.

Applications may be submitted by:

• The owner or the company’s legal representative
• An authorised representative

Each applicant company may submit only one application for aid per year,with effect from 1 January 2023, and in any event not before the final report on the last application submitted under these criteria has been submitted .

Applications for aid must be submitted exclusively via certified email (PEC).

The application for aid must be accompanied by the specific documentation required under the criteria.

The documentation must also include:

• a fact sheet containing a description, location and list of costs for the initiative;
• cost estimates for the planned services, specifying the total cost of the service in terms of hours worked and the planned schedule of activities (timesheet);
• a profile of the consultancy service provider.

It is no longer possible to submit an application