(a)

aid for R&D projects where the aided part of the research project falls within the categories of fundamental research and applied research, of which the latter can be divided into industrial research and experimental development (18). Such aid is mainly targeted at the market failure related to positive externalities (knowledge spill-overs), but may also address a market failure caused by imperfect and asymmetric information or (mainly in collaboration projects) a coordination failure;

(b)

aid for feasibility studies related to R&D projects, which helps overcoming a market failure primarily related to imperfect and asymmetric information;

(c)

aid for the construction and upgrade of research infrastructures , which mainly addresses the market failure stemming from coordination difficulties but also from imperfect and asymmetric information. High-quality research infrastructures are increasingly necessary for ground-breaking research, as they attract global talent and are essential for example for information and communication technologies and key enabling technologies (19). High up-front investment costs for acquiring state of the art scientific facilities and equipment used for early stage research activities, predominantly by the scientific community, make it often impossible to find the necessary financing on the market;

(d)

aid for the construction and upgrade of testing and experimentation infrastructures, mainly addresses the market failure stemming from imperfect and asymmetric information or a coordination failure. Constructing or upgrading a state of the art testing and experimentation infrastructure involves high up-front investment costs, which together with an uncertain client base can render access to financing difficult. Access to publicly funded testing and experimentation infrastructures must be granted on a transparent and non-discriminatory basis and on market terms to several users. To facilitate users’ access to testing and experimentation infrastructures, their user fees can be reduced in compliance with other provisions of this Framework or of Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 (20) or the de minimis Regulation (21);

(e)

aid for innovation activities , which is mainly targeted at market failures related to positive externalities (knowledge spill-overs), coordination difficulties and, to a lesser extent, asymmetric information. With respect to small and medium-sized enterprises (‘SMEs’), such innovation aid may be awarded for obtaining, validating and defending patents and other intangible assets, for the secondment of highly qualified personnel, and for acquiring innovation advisory and support services, for example those provided by research and knowledge dissemination organisations, research infrastructures, testing and experimentation infrastructures or innovation clusters;

(f)

aid for process and organisational innovation , which is mainly targeted at market failures related to positive externalities (knowledge spill-overs), coordination difficulties and, to a lesser extent, asymmetric information. These aid measures can be awarded predominantly to SMEs. Aid to large undertakings shall only be compatible if they effectively collaborate with at least one SME in the aided activity;

(g)

aid for innovation clusters , which aims at tackling market failures linked with coordination problems hampering the development of clusters, limiting the interactions and knowledge flows within and between clusters. State aid could contribute to resolving this problem, first by supporting the investment in open and shared infrastructures for innovation clusters, and second by supporting the operation of clusters with a view to enhancing collaboration, networking and learning. Operating aid for clusters would need to be duly justified by the Member State especially when it exceeds ten years. The fees charged for using the innovation cluster’s facilities and for participating in the innovation cluster’s activities shall correspond to the market price or reflect their costs (including a reasonable margin). To facilitate access to the innovation cluster’s facilities or participation in the innovation cluster’s activities, access can be offered at reduced prices in compliance with other provisions of this Framework or of Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 (22) or the de minimis Regulation (23) rules as applicable to the users of the services provided by the innovation cluster.

(a)

‘ ad hoc aid’ means aid not awarded on the basis of an aid scheme;

(b)

‘aid’ means any measure fulfilling the criteria laid down in Article 107(1) of the Treaty;

(c)

‘aid intensity’ means the gross aid amount expressed as a percentage of the eligible costs, before any deduction of tax or other charge. Where aid is awarded in a form other than a grant, the aid amount is the grant equivalent of the aid. Aid payable in several instalments is discounted to its value at the date of award. The interest rate to be used for this purpose is the discount rate (26) applicable at the date of award. The aid intensity is calculated per beneficiary;

(d)

‘aid scheme’ means any act on the basis of which, without further implementing measures being required, individual aid may be awarded to undertakings defined therein in a general and abstract manner and any act on the basis of which aid which is not linked to a specific project may be awarded to one or several undertakings;

(e)

‘applied research’ means industrial research, experimental development, or any combination of both;

(f)

‘’arm’s length’ means that the conditions of the transaction between the contracting parties do not differ from those which would be stipulated between independent enterprises and contain no element of collusion. Any transaction that results from an open, transparent and non-discriminatory procedure is considered as meeting the arm’s length principle;

(g)

‘date of award of the aid’ means the date on which the legal right to receive the aid is conferred on the beneficiary under the applicable national legal regime;

(h)

‘effective collaboration’ means collaboration between at least two independent parties to exchange knowledge or technology, or to achieve a common objective based on the division of labour where the parties jointly define the scope of the collaborative project, contribute to its implementation and share its risks, as well as its results. One or several parties may bear the full costs of the project and thus relieve other parties of its financial risks. Contract research and provision of research services are not considered forms of collaboration;

(i)

‘evaluation plan’ means a document covering one or more aid schemes and containing at least the following minimum aspects: the objectives to be evaluated, the evaluation questions, the result indicators, the envisaged method to conduct the evaluation, the data collection requirements, the proposed timing of the evaluation including the date of submission of the interim and the final evaluation reports, the description of the independent body that will carry out the evaluation or the criteria that will be used for its selection and the modalities for making the evaluation publicly available;

(j)

‘exclusive development’ means the public procurement of research and development services of which all benefits accrue exclusively to the contracting authority or contracting entity, and which it may use in the conduct of its own affairs on condition that it fully remunerates them;

(k)

‘experimental development’ means acquiring, combining, shaping and using existing scientific, technological, business and other relevant knowledge and skills with the aim of developing new or improved products, processes or services, including digital products, processes or services, in any area, technology, industry or sector (including, but not limited to, digital industries and technologies, such as for example super-computing, quantum technologies, block chain technologies, artificial intelligence, cyber security, big data and cloud or edge technologies). This may also encompass, for example, activities aiming at the conceptual definition, planning and documentation of new products, processes or services. Experimental development may comprise prototyping, demonstrating, piloting, testing and validation of new or improved products, processes or services in environments representative of real life operating conditions where the primary objective is to make further technical improvements on products, processes or services that are not substantially set. This may include the development of a commercially usable prototype or pilot which is necessarily the final commercial product and which is too expensive to produce for it to be used only for demonstration and validation purposes. Experimental development does not include routine or periodic changes made to existing products, production lines, manufacturing processes, services and other operations in progress, even if those changes may represent improvements;

(l)

‘feasibility study’ means the evaluation and analysis of the potential of a project, which aims at supporting the process of decision making by objectively and rationally uncovering its strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats, as well as identifying the resources required to carry it through and ultimately its prospects for success;

(m)

‘full allocation’ means that the research organisation, research infrastructure or public purchaser enjoys the full economic benefit of intellectual property rights by retaining the right to make unrestricted use of them, particularly the right of ownership and the right to license. This may also be the case where the research organisation or research infrastructure (respectively, public purchaser) decides to conclude further contracts concerning those rights, including licensing them to a collaboration partner (respectively, undertakings);

(n)

‘fundamental research’ means experimental or theoretical work undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundations of phenomena and observable facts, without any direct commercial application or use in view;

(o)

‘gross grant equivalent’ means the amount of the aid if it had been awarded in the form of a grant, before any deduction of tax or other charge;

(p)

‘highly qualified personnel’ means staff having a tertiary education degree and at least five years of relevant professional experience which may also include doctoral training;

(q)

‘individual aid’ means aid that is not awarded on the basis of an aid scheme and notifiable awards of aid on the basis of an aid scheme;

(r)

‘industrial research’ means the planned research or critical investigation aimed at the acquisition of new knowledge and skills for developing new products, processes or services or aimed at bringing about a significant improvement in existing products, processes or services, including digital products, processes or services, in any area, technology, industry or sector (including, but not limited to, digital industries and technologies, such as super-computing, quantum technologies, block chain technologies, artificial intelligence, cyber security, big data and cloud technologies). Industrial research comprises the creation of components parts of complex systems, and may include the construction of prototypes in a laboratory environment or in an environment with simulated interfaces to existing systems as well as of pilot lines, when necessary for the industrial research and notably for generic technology validation;

(s)

‘innovation advisory services’ means consultancy, assistance, or training in the fields of knowledge transfer, acquisition, protection or exploitation of intangible assets or the use of standards and regulations embedding them, as well as consultancy, assistance or training on the introduction or use of innovative technologies and solutions (including digital technologies and solutions);

(t)

‘innovation clusters’ means structures or organised groups of independent parties (such as innovative start-ups, small, medium and large enterprises, as well as research and knowledge dissemination organisations, research infrastructures, testing and experimentation infrastructures, Digital Innovation Hubs, non-for-profit organisations and other related economic actors), designed to stimulate innovative activity and new ways of collaboration, such as by digital means, by sharing and/or promoting the sharing of facilities and exchange of knowledge and expertise, and by contributing effectively to knowledge transfer, networking, information dissemination and collaboration among the undertakings and other organisations in the cluster (27);

(u)

‘innovation support services’ means the provision of office space, data banks, cloud and data storage services, libraries, market research, laboratories, quality labelling, testing, experimentation, and certification or other related services, including those services provided by research and knowledge dissemination organisations, research infrastructures, testing and experimentation infrastructures or innovation clusters, for the purpose of developing more effective or technologically advanced products, processes or services, including the implementation of innovative technologies and solutions (including digital technologies and solutions);

(v)

‘intangible assets’ means assets that do not have a physical or financial embodiment such as patents, licences, know-how or other intellectual property;

(w)

‘knowledge transfer’ means any process which has the aim of acquiring, collecting and sharing explicit and tacit knowledge, including skills and competence in both economic and non-economic activities such as research collaborations, consultancy, licensing, spin-off creation, publication and mobility of researchers and other personnel involved in those activities. Besides scientific and technological knowledge, it includes other kinds of knowledge such as knowledge on the use of standards and regulations embedding them and on conditions of real life operating environments and methods for organisational innovation, as well as management of knowledge related to identifying, acquiring, protecting, defending and exploiting intangible assets;

(x)

‘large enterprises’ means undertakings which do not fall within the definition of small and medium-sized enterprises;

(y)

‘net extra costs’ means the difference between the expected net present values of the aided project or activity and a viable counterfactual investment that the beneficiary would have carried out in the absence of aid;

(z)

‘organisational innovation (28)’ means the implementation of a new organisational method at the level of the undertaking (at group level in the given industry sector in the EEA), workplace organisation or external relations, including for instance by making use of novel or innovative digital technologies. Excluded from this definition are changes that are based on organisational methods already in use in the undertaking, changes in management strategy, mergers and acquisitions, ceasing to use a process, simple capital replacement or extension, changes resulting purely from changes in factor prices, customisation, localisation, regular, seasonal and other cyclical changes and trading of new or significantly improved products;

(aa)

‘personnel costs’ means the cost of researchers, technicians and other supporting staff to the extent employed on the relevant project or activity;

(bb)

‘pre-commercial procurement’ means the public procurement of research and development services where the contracting authority or contracting entity does not reserve all the results and benefits of the contract exclusively for itself for use in the conduct of its own affairs, but shares them with the providers under market conditions. The contract, the object of which falls within one or several categories of research and development defined in this framework, must be of limited duration and may include the development of prototypes or limited volumes of first products or services in the form of a test series. The purchase of commercial volumes of products or services must not be an object of the same contract;

(cc)

‘process innovation (29)’ means the implementation of a new or significantly improved production or delivery method (including significant changes in techniques, equipment or software) at the level of the undertaking (at group level in the given industry sector in the EEA), including for instance by making use of novel or innovative digital technologies or solutions. Excluded from this definition are minor changes or improvements, increases in production or service capabilities through the addition of manufacturing or logistical systems which are very similar to those already in use, ceasing to use a process, simple capital replacement or extension, changes resulting purely from changes in factor prices, customisation, localisation, regular, seasonal and other cyclical changes and trading of new or significantly improved products;

(dd)

‘R&D project’ means an operation that includes activities spanning over one or several categories of research and development defined in this framework, and that is intended to accomplish an indivisible task of a precise economic, scientific or technical nature with clearly pre-defined goals. A R&D project may consist of several work packages, activities or services, and includes clear objectives, activities to be carried out to achieve those objectives (including their expected costs), and concrete deliverables to identify the outcomes of those activities and compare them with the relevant objectives. When two or more R&D projects are not clearly separable from each other and in particular when they do not have independent probabilities of technological success, they are considered as a single project;

(ee)

‘repayable advance’ means a loan for a project which is paid in one or more instalments and the conditions for the reimbursement of which depend on the outcome of the project;

(ff)

‘research and knowledge dissemination organisation’ or ‘research organisation’ means an entity (such as universities or research institutes, technology transfer agencies, innovation intermediaries, research-oriented physical or virtual collaborative entities), irrespective of its legal status (organised under public or private law) or way of financing, whose primary goal is to independently conduct fundamental research, industrial research or experimental development or to widely disseminate the results of such activities by way of teaching, publication or knowledge transfer. Where such entity also pursues economic activities, the financing, the costs and the revenues of those economic activities must be accounted for separately. Undertakings that can exert a decisive influence upon such an entity, for example in the quality of shareholders or members, may not enjoy a preferential access to the results generated by it;

(gg)

‘research infrastructure’ means facilities, resources and related services that are used by the scientific community to conduct research in their respective fields and covers scientific equipment or set of instruments, knowledge-based resources such as collections, archives or structured scientific information, enabling information and communication technology-based infrastructures such as grid, computing, software and communication, or any other entity of a unique nature essential to conduct research. Such infrastructures may be ‘single-sited’ or ‘distributed’ (an organised network of resources) (30);

(hh)

‘secondment’ means temporary employment of staff by a beneficiary with the right for the staff to return to the previous employer;

(ii)

‘small and medium-sized enterprises’ or ‘SMEs’, ‘small enterprises’ and ‘medium-sized enterprises’ means undertakings fulfilling the criteria laid down in the Commission recommendation on the definition of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (31);

(jj)

‘start of works’ or ‘start of the project’ means either the start of R&D&I activities, or the first agreement between the beneficiary and the contractors to conduct the project, whichever comes first. Preparatory works such as obtaining permits and conducting feasibility studies are not considered as start of works;

(kk)

‘tangible assets’ means assets consisting of land, buildings and plants, machinery and equipment;

(ll)

‘testing and experimentation infrastructure (32)’ means facilities, equipment, capabilities and resources, such as test beds, pilot lines, demonstrators, testing facilities or living labs, and related support services that are used predominantly by undertakings, especially SMEs, which seek support for testing and experimentation, in order to develop new or improved products, processes and services, and to test and upscale technologies, to advance through industrial research and experimental development. Access to publicly funded testing and experimentation infrastructures is open to several users and must be granted on a transparent and non-discriminatory basis and on market terms.

(a)

primary activities of research organisations and research infrastructures, in particular:

(b)

knowledge transfer activities, where they are conducted either by the research organisation or research infrastructure (including their departments or subsidiaries) or jointly with, or on behalf of other such entities, and where all profits from those activities are reinvested in the primary activities of the research organisation or research infrastructure. The non-economic nature of those activities is not prejudiced by contracting the provision of corresponding services to third parties by way of open tenders.

(a)

both the public funding and any advantage acquired through such funding are quantifiable and demonstrable, and there is an appropriate mechanism which ensures that they are fully passed on to the final recipients, for example through reduced prices; and

(b)

no further advantage is awarded to the intermediary because it is either selected through an open tender procedure or the public funding is available to all entities which satisfy the necessary objective conditions, so that customers as final recipients are entitled to acquire equivalent services from any relevant intermediary.

(a)

the research organisation or research infrastructure provides its research service or contract research at market price (43); or

(b)

where there is no market price, the research organisation or research infrastructure provides its research service or contract research at a price which:

(a)

the participating undertakings bear the full cost of the project; or

(b)

the results of the collaboration which do not give rise to IPR may be widely disseminated and any IPR resulting from the activities of research organisations or research infrastructures are fully allocated to those entities; or

(c)

any IPR resulting from the project, as well as related access rights are allocated to the different collaboration partners in a manner which adequately reflects their work packages, contributions and respective interests; or

(d)

the research organisations or research infrastructures receive compensation equivalent to the market price for the IPR which result from their activities and are assigned to the participating undertakings, or to which participating undertakings are allocated access rights. The absolute amount of the value of any contribution, both financial and non-financial, of the participating undertakings to the costs of the research organisations or research infrastructures’ activities that resulted in the IPR concerned, may be deducted from that compensation.

(a)

the amount of the compensation has been established by means of an open, transparent and non-discriminatory competitive sale procedure; or

(b)

an independent expert valuation confirms that the amount of the compensation is at least equal to the market price; or

(c)

the research organisation or research infrastructure, as seller, can demonstrate that it effectively negotiated the compensation, at arm’s length conditions, in order to obtain the maximum economic benefit at the moment when the contract is concluded, while considering its statutory objectives; or

(d)

in cases where the collaboration agreement provides the collaborating undertaking with a right of first refusal as regards IPR generated by the collaborating research organisations or research infrastructures, where those entities exercise a reciprocal right to solicit more economically advantageous offers from third parties so that the collaborating undertaking has to match its offer accordingly.

(a)

the selection procedure is open, transparent and non-discriminatory, and is based on objective selection and award criteria specified in advance of the bidding procedure;

(b)

the envisaged contractual arrangements describing all rights and obligations of the parties, including with regard to IPR, are made available to all interested bidders in advance of the bidding procedure;

(c)

the procurement does not give any of the participant providers any preferential treatment in the supply of commercial volumes of the final products or services to a public purchaser in the Member State concerned (49); and

(d)

one of the following conditions is fulfilled:

(a)

First condition: R&D&I aid facilitates the development of an economic activity

(b)

Second condition: R&D&I aid does not unduly affect trading conditions to an extent contrary to the common interest

(a)

specification of intended change: the change in behaviour which is expected to result from State aid, that is to say whether a new project is triggered, or the size, scope or speed of a project is enhanced, has to be well specified;

(b)

counterfactual analysis: the change of behaviour has to be identified by comparing what the expected outcome and level of intended activity would be with and without aid. The difference between the two scenarios shows the impact of the aid measure and its incentive effect;

(c)

level of profitability: where a project or investment would not, in itself, be profitable to carry out for an undertaking, but would generate important benefits for society, it is more likely that the aid has an incentive effect;

(d)

amount of investment and timeframe of cash flows: a high start-up investment, a low level of appropriable cash flows and a significant fraction of the cash flow arising in the very far future or in a very uncertain manner, will be considered positive elements in assessing the incentive effect;

(e)

level of risk involved: the assessment of risk will in particular take into account the irreversibility of the investment, the probability of commercial failure, the risk that the project will be less productive than expected, the risk that the project undermines other activities of the aid beneficiary and the risk that the project costs undermine its financial viability.

(a)

positive externalities or knowledge spill-overs: R&D&I often generate benefits for society in the form of positive spill-over effects, for example knowledge spill-overs or enhanced opportunities for other economic actors to develop complementary products and services. However, if left to the market, a number of projects might have an unattractive rate of return from a private perspective, although they would be beneficial for society, because profit seeking undertakings cannot sufficiently appropriate the benefits of their actions when deciding about the amount of R&D&I they should carry out. State aid may therefore contribute to the implementation of projects which result in an overall societal or economic benefit and which would otherwise not be pursued.

However, neither are all benefits of R&D&I activities externalities, nor does the presence of externalities alone automatically mean that State aid is compatible with the internal market. In general, consumers are willing to pay for the direct benefit of new products and services while firms can appropriate the benefits from their investment through other existing instruments, such as IPR. In some cases, however, those means are imperfect and leave a residual market failure that may be corrected by State aid. For instance, as is often argued for fundamental research, it may be difficult to exclude others from gaining access to the results of some activities, which might therefore have a public good character. On the other hand, more specific knowledge related to production can often be well protected, for example through patents, allowing the inventor to reap a higher return on the invention;

(b)

imperfect and asymmetric information: R&D&I activities are characterised by a high degree of uncertainty. Under certain circumstances, due to imperfect and asymmetric information, private investors may be reluctant to finance valuable projects and highly-qualified personnel may be unaware of recruitment possibilities in innovative undertakings. As a result, the allocation of human and financial resources may not be adequate and projects which may be valuable for society or the economy may not be carried out.

In certain cases, imperfect and asymmetric information may also hamper access to finance. However, imperfect information and the presence of risk do not automatically justify the need for State aid. Projects with lower private returns on investments not being financed can very well be a sign of market efficiency. Moreover, risk is part of every business activity and is not a market failure in itself. However, in a context of asymmetric information, risk may exacerbate financing problems;

(c)

coordination and network failures: the ability of undertakings to coordinate with each other or to interact in order to deliver R&D&I may be impaired for various reasons, including difficulties in coordinating among a large number of collaboration partners where some of them have diverging interests, problems in designing contracts, and difficulties in coordinating collaboration due for example to sensitive information being shared.

(a)

knowledge spill-overs: level of knowledge dissemination envisaged; specificity of the knowledge created; availability of IPR protection; degree of complementarity with other products and services;

(b)

imperfect and asymmetric information: level of risk and complexity of R&D&I activities; need for external finance; characteristics of the aid beneficiary regarding access to external finance;

(c)

coordination failures: number of collaborating undertakings; intensity of collaboration; diverging interests among collaborating partners; problems in designing contracts; problems to coordinate collaboration.

(a)

in case of a successful outcome, the measure must provide that the advance is to be repaid with an interest rate not less than the discount rate resulting from the application of the Communication from the Commission on the revision of the method for setting the reference and discount rates (63);

(b)

in case of a success exceeding the outcome defined as successful, the Member State concerned should request payments beyond repayment of the advance amount including interest according to the applicable discount rate;

(c)

in case the project fails, the advance does not have to be fully repaid. In case of partial success, the repayment should be proportional to the degree of success achieved.

(a)

the full text of the individual aid granting decision or the approved aid scheme and its implementing provisions, or a link to it;

(b)

the following information on each individual aid award granted ad hoc or under an aid scheme approved on the basis of this framework and exceeding EUR 100 000:

(i)

Market growth: the more the market is expected to grow in the future, the less likely that the competitors’ incentives will be negatively affected by the aid, given that there remain ample opportunities to develop a profitable business;

(ii)

Aid amount: aid measures which involve significant amounts of aid are more likely to lead to significant crowding out effects. The significance of the aid amount will be measured mainly with reference to the amount spent by the main market players on projects of a similar kind;

(iii)

Closeness to the market / category of the aid: the more the aid measure is aimed at activities close to the market, the more it is liable to develop significant crowding out effects;

(iv)

Open selection process: where the aid is awarded on the basis of transparent, objective and non-discriminatory criteria, the Commission will take a more positive stance;

(v)

Exit barriers: competitors are more likely to maintain, or even to increase their investment plans when exit barriers to the innovation process are high. That may be the case when many of the competitors’ past investments are locked in to a particular R&D&I trajectory;

(vi)

Incentives to compete for a future market: R&D&I aid may lead to a situation where competitors of the aid beneficiary renounce competing for a future ‘winner takes all’ market, because the advantage provided by the aid, in terms of degree of technological advance, economies of scale, network effects or timing, reduces their possibility to potentially successfully enter that future market;

(vii)

Product differentiation and intensity of competition: where product innovation is rather about developing differentiated products, related for example to distinct brands, standards, technologies or consumer groups, competitors are less likely to be affected. The same situation arises where there are many effective competitors in the market.

(i)

Market power of the aid beneficiary and market structure: where the aid recipient is already dominant on a product market, the aid measure may reinforce that dominance by further weakening the competitive constraint that competitors can exert on the recipient undertaking. Similarly, State aid measures may have a significant impact in oligopolistic markets where only a few players are active;

(ii)

Level of entry barriers: in the field of R&D&I, there may be significant barriers to entry for new entrants. Those barriers include legal entry barriers (in particular in respect of IPR), economies of scale and scope, access barriers to networks and infrastructure, and other strategic barriers to entry or expansion;

(iii)

Buyer power: the market power of an undertaking may also be limited by the market position of the buyers. The presence of strong buyers can serve to counter a finding of a strong market position if it is likely that the buyers will seek to preserve sufficient competition in the market;

(iv)

Selection process: aid measures which allow undertakings with a strong market position to influence the selection process, for example by having the right to recommend undertakings in the selection process or influencing the research path in a way which disfavours alternative paths on unjustified grounds, are liable to raise concern by the Commission.

(a)

increase in project size: increase in the total project costs (without a decrease in spending by the aid beneficiary when compared to the situation without aid); increase in the number of people assigned to R&D&I activities;

(b)

increase in scope: increase in the number of the expected deliverables of the project; increase in the level of ambition of the project evidenced by a higher number of partners involved; increase in cross-border R&D&I activities; a higher probability of a scientific or technological break-through or a higher risk of failure (notably linked to the long-term nature of the project and uncertainty about its results);

(c)

increase in speed: the completion of the project requires less time when compared to the completion time necessary for the same project carried out without aid;

(d)

increase in total amount spent: increase in total R&D&I spending by the aid beneficiary, in absolute terms or as a proportion of turnover; changes in the committed budget for the project (without a corresponding decrease in the budget allocated to other projects).

(a)

together with the aid scheme, if the State aid budget of the scheme exceeds EUR 150 million in any given year or EUR 750 million over its total duration;

(b)

within 30 working days following a significant change that increases the budget of the scheme to over EUR 150 million in any given year or EUR 750 million over the total duration of the scheme;

(c)

within 30 working days following the recording in official accounts of expenditure under the scheme in excess of EUR 150 million in any year.