Romania's Govt. to replace Start-Up Nation with grants for students, diaspora

Romania’s Start-Up Nation program of state grants for entrepreneurs who start new businesses will be temporarily replaced with grants for students and Romanians returning from Diaspora, acting minister of European funds Marcel Bolos announced in an interview for Starupcafe.ro.

The students will receive EUR 50,000 and Romanians returning home from abroad will get EUR 100,000 under the two grants programs, in order to “build small businesses,” he said. Both programs will have a combined budget of EUR 50 million, four times smaller than the EUR 200 mln budget announced for the Start-Up Nation program - which will be launched at an uncertain date this year since the interim Government is acting in a limited capacity.

The financing line "Innotech Repatriot - Romania is waiting for you " will be dedicated to Romanians from abroad who return to Romania and want to open small businesses here.

“We are talking about a rebranding of the Diaspora Start-Up financing scheme, which provided up to EUR 40,000 for small businesses,” minister Bolos said.

The Innotech Repatriot applicant's guide will be launched in public consultation in mid-March (probably March 16-20) for 30 days. Then, the project submission session will open at the beginning of May (probably between May 4 and May 8) and will close at the beginning of August (probably between August 3 and August 7).

The other entrepreneurship program, Innotech Student, will grant up to EUR 50,000 to students who want to open small businesses in Romania. This financing scheme will have a total budget of EUR 20 mln. The Innotech Student applicant's guide would be released for consultation in early April (probably April 6-10) for a month. Then, the project submission session should start at the beginning of June 2020 (June 1-4, probably) and end at the beginning of September 2020.

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