The conditions with regard to the subsidy amount are laid down in the general ICON conditions. The general ICON conditions apply to all ICON programmes. Additional or specific conditions may apply for specific programmes or specific calls in these programmes.

General conditions

Subsidy amounts are determined by the eligible budgets of the research component and the company component, as well as by the required balance between the two.

Research component

The proposed annual project budget for the research component must be at least EUR 185,000 and may not exceed EUR 500,000. Where the research component is carried out by a consortium, the maximum annual project budget may be increased to EUR 500,000, multiplied by the number of legal entities applying for the subsidy, provided that each participant accounts for at least 15% of the total research budget. Approved research budgets are funded at 100%.

Company component

The approved budget for the company component is funded at a rate between 25% and 60%, depending on the nature of the activities (industrial research is funded at a base rate of 50%, while experimental development is funded at 25%), the size of the company (small companies receive an additional 20% and medium-sized companies an additional 10%), and the level of cooperation (a 10% increase for genuine cooperation within the company component). Funding for the company component is capped at EUR 3 million.

Project amount

At project level, specific balance requirements apply between the budgets of the research component and the company component (the ICON balance). In practice, the budgets of most ICON projects remain well below the theoretical maximum.

Further details are provided in the ICON manual.