The Minister of Business and Made in Italy, Senator Adolfo Urso, announced the approval of a significant decree for the sustainable future of Italy. The decree, which allocates 497.8 million eurosfits into the broader “National Research, Innovation and Competitiveness Program for the green and digital transition 2021-2027“. The main objective is to actively support the development and production of technologies essential for the green and digital transitionswith a particular focus on resilience and strengthening their respective value chains.
This massive funding is intended to incentivize development and production programs for the technologies covered by the STEP Regulation, a European Union regulation that emphasizes advanced digital technologies, energy efficiency solutions, biotechnology and other clean technologies. In particular, through Development Contracts, the decree provides for the distribution of financial resources as follows:
335,283,898.46 eurosthey will be used for programs that aim to satisfy the objectives of the PN RIC and the specific ones of the STEP Regulation, reserved exclusively for SMEs.
162,541,101.54 euros they will instead be allocated to initiatives that exclusively concern the areas of the STEP Regulation, open to both SMEs and large companies.
To be eligible for these incentives, productive investment and/or research and development projects must be carried out in production units located in the less developed regions of Southern Italy, such as Molise, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Puglia, Sicily and Sardinia. Furthermore, it will be essential that the projects respect the DNSH principle, avoiding significant damage to environmental objectives, and focus on sectors such as digital and deeptech technologies, net-zero emissions technologies, and biotechnology, thus contributing to reducing the European Union’s strategic dependencies.
The decree also specifies that eligible expenditure must comply with the eligibility criteria applicable to programs co-financed by the European Structural Funds for the period 2021 – 2027. This measure will be managed by Invitalia, which will carry out the investigation for admission to the benefits on behalf of the Ministry.
With this initiative, the Italian government deploys significant resources to direct and accelerate the transition towards a greener and digital economy, not only promoting technological innovation but also ensuring a positive impact on less developed regional economies. This decree represents an important step forward to achieve the sustainability and technological innovation objectives of Italy and the entire European Union.
