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Co-financing of partnerships in foreign markets

The subject of the public call is the co-financing of partnerships for the implementation of activities aimed at strengthening international competitiveness and/or the possibility of introducing products/services to foreign markets and/or increasing the possibilities of business cooperation between SMEs and foreign partners. The partnerships will carry out activities that are aligned with specified results and indicators and will include:

  • Entering new foreign markets with the aim of expanding business, acquiring local agents, and creating and presenting a joint offer based on the combined products, services, and processes of all partners in the partnership for selected markets.
  • Acquiring relevant competencies through training, mentoring, and other forms of education, which will strengthen knowledge and skills in the field of exports.
  • Implementing marketing campaigns, including advertising and other promotional activities of the partnerships, which will increase visibility and accessibility in foreign markets. As part of these activities, the partnership must also represent a joint offer that includes the combined products, services, and processes of all partners in the partnership.
  • Physical presentation of products and services at international fairs, conferences, and other business events abroad, where the partnership will also have to present its joint offer as a group, which will enable the promotion of brands and the strengthening of business cooperation with international partners.
  • Establishing new business collaborations with foreign companies and business associations in selected target foreign markets, which will contribute to increasing the export activities of the partnerships.

Target groups/beneficiaries

The target group/final recipients are SMEs:

  • that join a partnership which, including them, comprises at least three (3) and at most five (5) SMEs and that wish to diversify their business into foreign markets and/or expand existing activities in foreign markets and/or present their products and/or services to potential foreign partners.

An SME is defined as a micro, small, or medium-sized legal or natural person. The size of an SME is determined in accordance with the provisions of Annex I of Regulation 651/2014/EU.

The SME must be engaged in economic activity in the Republic of Slovenia and be organized as:

  • a business entity or sole proprietor in accordance with the Companies Act (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 65/09 – official consolidated text, 33/11, 91/11, 32/12, 57/12, 44/13 – Constitutional Court decision, 82/13, 55/15, 15/17, 22-19 – ZPos S, 158/20 – ZintPK-C, 18/21, 18/23 – ZDU-1O, 75/23 and 102/24; hereinafter: ZGD-1),
  • a cooperative with limited liability or a cooperative with unlimited liability in accordance with the Cooperatives Act (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 97/09 – official consolidated text and 121/21).

Beneficiaries are applicants who meet all the conditions and other provisions of the public tender and tender documentation, for whom a selection decision is issued and with whom a co-financing agreement is signed.

General conditions for the operation

  • The operation (Partnerships) must consist of at least three (3) and at most five (5) partners (SMEs).
  • The operation must be included in one of the priority areas of the Smart Specialization Strategy ‘S5’.
  • The operation must not begin implementation before the selection decision is issued and must not last longer than eighteen (18) months. The start of the implementation of the operation is considered the moment when the first legally binding commitment for ordering services or performing activities of the operation is concluded, or any other commitment by which the implementation of the operation begins and/or the first eligible costs are incurred.
  • A maximum of three partnerships can be supported in an individual target market (country), across all public tender openings combined. In the event that more partnerships apply for an individual target market (country) in a single opening, the partnership(s) that receive a higher score during the evaluation process will be supported, in accordance with the criteria and conditions for application evaluation. If three applicants have already been selected for the same target market (country) in a previous deadline or deadlines, it will no longer be possible to obtain support in any subsequent deadlines for the same foreign target market. 
  • The selected target market (country) of an individual partnership must have realized exports from the Republic of Slovenia in the calendar year prior to submitting the application for the public tender in the amount of at least EUR 213,300.00, in accordance with official international trade in goods statistics data.

You can find more about the conditions here.

General conditions for the lead partner (applicant) and partner companies

  • The applicant/partner company is an entity as defined in the second and third paragraphs of Chapter 6 of this public tender.
  • The applicant/partner company has not obtained and will not obtain funds from other public sources (European, state, or local budget funds) for the same eligible costs that are the subject of co-financing under this public tender, including de minimis aid (prohibition of double financing).
  • On the day of submitting the application, the applicant/partner company has its registered office in the program area, which it must not change after submitting the application.
  • Companies defined as linked enterprises in accordance with Article 3 of Annex I of Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 are considered as a single undertaking; therefore, only one of them may participate in a partnership. Furthermore, a linked enterprise may participate in only one application per opening deadline, either as an applicant or as a partner. If multiple applications in the same deadline include linked enterprises, only the first submitted application will be considered, and the others will be rejected. If it cannot be determined which application was submitted first, all applications involving linked enterprises will be rejected.
  • The lead partner (applicant) and the partner enterprise may apply to a single call opening only once, regardless of their status (applicant/partner enterprise) in the partnership. If they are not selected in a specific opening deadline, they may reapply in subsequent deadlines. Within the scope of the entire call (regardless of the number of opening deadlines), only one application may be approved for an individual company. If multiple applications in the same deadline include the same companies, only the first submitted application will be considered, and the others will be rejected. If it cannot be determined which application was submitted first, all applications involving the same companies will be rejected.
  • Within the scope of the entire call (regardless of the number of opening deadlines), only one application may be approved in which a company defined as a linked enterprise in accordance with Article 3 of Annex I of Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 participates. 

You can find more about the conditions here.

Special conditions for lead partners/applicants

  1. The lead partner/applicant employed at least ten (10) persons on the last day of the month preceding the date of application for this public tender. Persons employed full-time are considered, whereby for the purposes of this condition, the following are also considered as employed persons: the holder of a sole proprietorship (s.p.) if this is their only basis for insurance (insurance basis code 005), as well as a partner or shareholder of a business entity and founder of a cooperative – a manager who has no other basis for insurance (insured partners – managers based on Article 16 of the Pension and Disability Insurance Act (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 48/22 – official consolidated text, 40/23 – ZČMIS-1, 78/23 – ZORR, 84/23 – ZDOsk-1, 125/23 – Constitutional Court decision and 133/23, hereinafter: ZPIZ-2).
  2. The company of the lead partner/applicant (SME) must have been established and operational for at least 5 years prior to the date of application (the date of entry in the court or other appropriate register is taken into account). The condition applies to both domestic and foreign company headquarters, but does not apply to branches of a foreign company.
  3. The company of the lead partner/applicant (SME) must demonstrate sales in foreign markets amounting to 10% of total sales in the last closed financial year relative to the date of application.

Special conditions for partner companies

  1. The partner company employed at least three (3) persons on the last day of the month preceding the date of application for this public tender. Persons employed full-time are considered, whereby for the purposes of this condition, the following are also considered as employed persons: the holder of a sole proprietorship (s.p.) if this is their only basis for insurance (insurance basis code 005), as well as a partner or shareholder of a business entity and founder of a cooperative – a manager who has no other basis for insurance (insured partners – managers based on Article 16 of the ZPIZ-2).
  2. The partner company (SME) must be established and operational for at least 2 years before the application submission date (the date of entry in the court or other relevant register is taken into account). This condition applies to the headquarters of both domestic and foreign companies, but does not apply to branches of foreign companies.

Indicative available funds for the public call

The indicative total amount of funds available for the implementation of the public call is up to 6,750,000.00 EUR. For the Cohesion Region Eastern Slovenia program area, 3,000,000.00 EUR is allocated, and for the Cohesion Region Western Slovenia program area, 3,750,000.00 EUR is allocated. Funds are not transferable between the two program areas.

Amount of co-financing – lump sum

The value of the lump sum awarded to beneficiaries for the implementation of an individual operation is 213,300.00 EUR. Upon reaching each milestone, one-third of the lump sum is awarded to the partnership, which is distributed equally among each of the partners in the partnership. The calculation of the lump sum distribution among partners in the partnership by milestone is automatically calculated by partially filling in the table: 18. Partnership 25-28, in Form 1 (application form) of the tender documentation.

Deadlines for submission of applications

Period during which the application can be submitted:

  1. deadline: from the date of publication of the public call until 26 November 2025, at 12:00:00
  2. deadline: from 27 March 2026 until 15 June 2026, at 12:00:00

Public call web application

The application must be completed and submitted electronically via the JRP web application, which is accessible at the web address: https://jrp.spiritslovenia.si. A registered user of the JRP web application can only access the applicant’s application if they have been authorized to do so by the applicant. Authorization is arranged within the JRP web application. Upon first use, it is necessary to register in the JRP web application in accordance with the instructions provided in the application itself.

The web application for the public tender for the preparation and submission of applications is expected to be open within 30 working days after the publication of the public tender. The exact opening date of the web application will be publicly announced in advance on this agency website.

Additional information

Additional information regarding the preparation of the application and clarifications on the public tender and tender documentation are available to the applicant upon written request sent to the email address: partnerstva25do28@spiritslovenia.si.

Questions must be received at the email address stated in the previous paragraph no later than five (5) working days before the expiry date of each individual application submission deadline (the expiry date of the application submission deadline is not included in this five-day period). In the period from four working days before the expiry date of an individual application submission deadline up to and including the expiry date of that deadline, the agency will not accept any new questions. The agency will publish answers to the questions no later than one (1) working day before the expiry of each individual application submission deadline, provided that the questions for that submission deadline were submitted on time. The agency reserves the right to answer identical questions once. Untimely questions will not be processed. Published answers to questions become an integral part of the tender documentation. Questions and answers will be publicly published at the website: www.spiritslovenia.si.

The agency does not provide clarifications, answers, or explanations regarding the selection criteria for applications specified in the tender documentation of the public tender.

Questions and answers will be published on the website, so applicants must be careful when asking questions not to disclose any personal data, business secrets, or other information that must not be publicly disclosed.

Potential applicants will be notified of any changes on the website: www.spiritslovenia.si.