{"id":20446,"date":"2026-05-20T12:13:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T09:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.key-bsi.gr\/%cf%87%cf%89%cf%81%ce%af%cf%82-%ce%ba%ce%b1%cf%84%ce%b7%ce%b3%ce%bf%cf%81%ce%af%ce%b1\/support-for-smes-in-strategic-technologies-for-europe-step-and-defense-security-defence-sectors\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T13:31:53","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T10:31:53","slug":"support-for-smes-in-strategic-technologies-for-europe-step-and-defense-security-defence-sectors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.key-bsi.gr\/en\/news\/support-for-smes-in-strategic-technologies-for-europe-step-and-defense-security-defence-sectors\/","title":{"rendered":"Support for SMEs in Strategic Technologies for Europe (STEP) and Defense &#038; Security (Defence) sectors"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"20446\" class=\"elementor elementor-20446 elementor-20192\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-4e400357 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"4e400357\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-c5c97f5\" data-id=\"c5c97f5\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-1d121c1b elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"1d121c1b\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>The new action <strong>&#8216;Support for SMEs in Strategic Technologies for Europe (STEP) and Defense &#038; Security (Defence)&#8217;<\/strong> of the &#8216;Competitiveness 2021-2027&#8217; Program has been pre-announced, with a total budget of <strong>\u20ac80,000,000.<\/strong> <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-87ae0e9 elementor-widget elementor-widget-ceaaccordion\" data-id=\"87ae0e9\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"ceaaccordion.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container cea-accordion-elementor-widget\" data-toggle=\"\">\r\n\t\t\t<div class=\"cea-accordions\" id=\"cea-accordion-1\"><div class=\"card cea-accordion\"><div class=\"card-header cea-accordion-header\"><a class=\"nav-item nav-link active\" href=\"#cea-accordion-1-1\"><span class=\"elementor-accordion-icon elementor-accordion-icon-right\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><span class=\"cea-accordion-icon-closed\"><i class=\"ti ti-arrow-circle-down\"><\/i><\/span><span class=\"cea-accordion-icon-opened\"><i class=\"ti ti-arrow-circle-up\"><\/i><\/span><\/span>Objective of the Action<\/a><\/div><!-- .card-header --><div class=\"cea-accordion-content active\" id=\"cea-accordion-1-1\"><div class=\"card-body\"><div class=\"cea-accordion-pane\"><p>This Call aims to support investment plans in businesses operating in critical technologies of the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) and in Defense technologies, with the purpose of supporting the development or production of critical technologies in the EU, ensuring and strengthening their respective value chains, and enhancing and promoting industrial\/dual-use defense capabilities, as well as creating employment.<\/p>\n<p> Specific objectives:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Digital technologies and innovation in the field of advanced technology<\/li>\n<li>Clean and resource-efficient technologies<\/li>\n<li>Biotechnologies<\/li>\n<li>Application of innovations and production of defense industry products by businesses<\/li>\n<li>Strengthening the domestic defense industry<\/li>\n<li>Development and production of dual-use systems\/technologies.<\/li>\n<li>Job Creation<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div><\/div><!-- .card-body --><\/div><!-- .cea-accordion-content --><\/div><!-- .card --><div class=\"card cea-accordion\"><div class=\"card-header cea-accordion-header\"><a class=\"nav-item nav-link\" href=\"#cea-accordion-1-2\"><span class=\"elementor-accordion-icon elementor-accordion-icon-right\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><span class=\"cea-accordion-icon-closed\"><i class=\"ti ti-arrow-circle-down\"><\/i><\/span><span class=\"cea-accordion-icon-opened\"><i class=\"ti ti-arrow-circle-up\"><\/i><\/span><\/span>Beneficiaries<\/a><\/div><!-- .card-header --><div class=\"cea-accordion-content\" id=\"cea-accordion-1-2\"><div class=\"card-body\"><div class=\"cea-accordion-pane\"><p>It concerns <strong>Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises<\/strong> which must meet the following basic conditions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To have at least one (1) complete closed financial year before the date of electronic submission of the funding application.<\/li>\n<li>To possess the eligible NACE code(s) before the date of electronic submission of the funding application.<\/li>\n<li>The investment must exclusively concern eligible NACE code(s).<\/li>\n<li>To have at least one (1) full-time equivalent employee during the calendar year preceding the submission of the funding application. This will be confirmed based on the declared data maintained for the business in the ERGANI information system. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div><!-- .card-body --><\/div><!-- .cea-accordion-content --><\/div><!-- .card --><div class=\"card cea-accordion\"><div class=\"card-header cea-accordion-header\"><a class=\"nav-item nav-link\" href=\"#cea-accordion-1-3\"><span class=\"elementor-accordion-icon elementor-accordion-icon-right\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><span class=\"cea-accordion-icon-closed\"><i class=\"ti ti-arrow-circle-down\"><\/i><\/span><span class=\"cea-accordion-icon-opened\"><i class=\"ti ti-arrow-circle-up\"><\/i><\/span><\/span>Budget & Project Duration<\/a><\/div><!-- .card-header --><div class=\"cea-accordion-content\" id=\"cea-accordion-1-3\"><div class=\"card-body\"><div class=\"cea-accordion-pane\"><p>The minimum budget for the Investment Plan in STEP\/Defense areas is <strong>\u20ac50,000<\/strong> and the maximum budget is <strong>\u20ac400,000<\/strong> for existing businesses and <strong>\u20ac300,000<\/strong> for new\/under establishment businesses.<\/p>\n<p>In any case, the amount of aid cannot exceed \u20ac200,000.<\/p>\n<p>The aid intensity ranges from 50% to 67%, and the maximum aid limit cannot exceed <strong>\u20ac200,000.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The maximum duration for the completion of the physical and financial scope of the business plan cannot exceed eighteen (18) months from the date of electronic notification of the final approval of the funding application.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The eligibility start date for expenses is defined as the publication date of the Call.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><!-- .card-body --><\/div><!-- .cea-accordion-content --><\/div><!-- .card --><div class=\"card cea-accordion\"><div class=\"card-header cea-accordion-header\"><a class=\"nav-item nav-link\" href=\"#cea-accordion-1-4\"><span class=\"elementor-accordion-icon elementor-accordion-icon-right\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><span class=\"cea-accordion-icon-closed\"><i class=\"ti ti-arrow-circle-down\"><\/i><\/span><span class=\"cea-accordion-icon-opened\"><i class=\"ti ti-arrow-circle-up\"><\/i><\/span><\/span>Eligible Expenses<\/a><\/div><!-- .card-header --><div class=\"cea-accordion-content\" id=\"cea-accordion-1-4\"><div class=\"card-body\"><div class=\"cea-accordion-pane\"><ul>\n<li>Salary costs for newly hired personnel<\/li>\n<li>Production & Mechanical Equipment<\/li>\n<li>Green Expenses<\/li>\n<li>Laboratory Equipment<\/li>\n<li>Electric Transport<\/li>\n<li>Building Works<\/li>\n<li>Service Provision Expenses<\/li>\n<li>Software Expenses<\/li>\n<li>Promotion, Marketing & Networking Expenses<\/li>\n<li>Indirect Expenses<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The submission deadline and method, required supporting documents, obligations of beneficiaries, application evaluation criteria, and other implementation terms will be described in the Detailed Call for the Action.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><!-- .card-body --><\/div><!-- .cea-accordion-content --><\/div><!-- .card --><\/div>\t\t\t\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-c318ee0 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"c318ee0\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-91df293\" data-id=\"91df293\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-d54a7cd elementor-widget elementor-widget-spacer\" data-id=\"d54a7cd\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"spacer.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-spacer\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-spacer-inner\"><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-fb9e923 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"fb9e923\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-6cae1d0\" data-id=\"6cae1d0\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The new action &#8216;Support for SMEs in Strategic Technologies for Europe (STEP) and Defense &#038; Security (Defence)&#8217; of the &#8216;Competitiveness 2021-2027&#8217; Program has been pre-announced, with a total budget of \u20ac80,000,000. Objective of the Action This Call aims to support investment plans in businesses operating in critical technologies of the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20448,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"'Support for SMEs in Strategic Technologies for Europe (STEP) and Defense & Security (Defence)' - KEY BSI","_seopress_titles_desc":"The new action 'Support for SMEs in Strategic Technologies for Europe (STEP) and Defense & Security (Defence)' of the 'Competitiveness 2021-2027' Program has been pre-announced, with a total budget of \u20ac80,000,000.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"both","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":301,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.key-bsi.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.key-bsi.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.key-bsi.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.key-bsi.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.key-bsi.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20446"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.key-bsi.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20449,"href":"https:\/\/www.key-bsi.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20446\/revisions\/20449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.key-bsi.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.key-bsi.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.key-bsi.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.key-bsi.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}