New stage of start-up selection process to begin

/By Azernews/

By Nigar Abbasova

The fourth stage of the State Fund for Development of Information Technologies grants competition will be launched on July 1. The fund’s supervisory board has already discussed technical details of the competition.

The Fund will continue to receive proposals for start-up projects till September 2016.

Projects which are aimed at creating a network infrastructure, based on the use of brand-new technologies and the expansion of IT-services based on the internet are eligible to claim for a grant.

The maximum amount of the grant is 300.000 manats ($ 196, 8). The grants will be presented for a term of 36 months. The amount of small grants will range from 10.000 to 100.000 manats ($6.5 - 65.6) while the sum of the middle grants will amount to 100.000 – 200.000 manats ($65.6 - 131.2). Major grant which is envisaged by the fund totals 200.000 – 300.000 manats ($131.2 - 196.8).

The fund has introduced a remote log-in function in the E-Qrant section of its website ictfund.gov.az. The function is introduced with the view of automation of the start-ups’ entry submission process.

The number of projects which have been submitted for the competition in October 2015 amounted to 138. As many as 14 projects became the winners of the competition.

Being established in March 2012 the State Fund for Information Technologies Development operates under the Ministry of Communications and High Technologies.

The main objective of the fund is to carry out state policy on the development and support of small enterprises in science and technology, providing them with direct financial assistance and training which, in its turn, will contribute to the creation of new jobs.