Decree-order 103-A/2023, published on 12^th April 2023, adopts the Specific Regulation for the Thematic Area of Innovation and Digital Transition, regarding Portugal 2030 Incentive Schemes.

To this end, Incentive Schemes are created for the following areas:

• Enterprise Competitiveness
• Research and Development
• Territorial
• Climate and Energy Transition
• Human Resources Training

Operations inserted in all economic activities are eligible, apart from defence, financial and insurance economic activities, as well as gambling and betting activities.

Applications for support are submitted under the scope of notices to submit applications (according to Decree-Law 20-A/2023), and the application to the pre-qualification notice under the modality of aid request must correspond to a written request, formulated by the applicant, to signal the investment intention and its starting date.

The regulation establishes several requirements for potential beneficiaries, namely, not being a company in difficulty, presenting a balanced economic and financial situation and stating that there are no outstanding wages.

Additionally, the respective operations cannot be financed by any other type of instrument. In case they include activities supported by other instruments, it is necessary to emphasize the non-existence of overlapping funding, to identify the segregation of costs.

A list of non-eligible expenses is also provided, which includes, namely, costs related to direct investments abroad, purchase of real estate (including land) and acquisition of second-hand or used goods.

In the scope of climate and environmental targets, the diploma reinforces the applicability of the "Do No Significant Harm" principle (DNSH) which aims to ensure the compliance with European standards regarding the environmental impact generated by economic activity and by products and services throughout their life cycle.

The beneficiaries are subject to a set of obligations, among which the following stand out:

• Goods and services acquired within the scope of the supported operations cannot be used for other purposes, leased, disposed or in any other way encumbered, without prior authorization from the competent entity.
• Public procurement regulations on the implementation of operations must be complied with, whenever applicable. 
• Implementation of the operation must start within 90 working days from the communication of the financing decision (except for a duly justified reason accepted by the managing authority).

In the selection of operations, factors such as adequacy to the strategy, the quality and impact of the operation, and the implementation capacity shall be weighed, respecting the criteria approved by the monitoring committees of the funding programmes.

The Specific Regulation came into force on 13^th April 2023, the day following the publication of Decree-order 103-A/2023.