Buy new information and expertise for your company with the Innovation voucher

Apply for the Innovation voucher when your company has a new product or service idea intended for international markets and:

• You want to evaluate the viability, usability and marketability of the idea with the help of demos, prototypes, testing and experiments, for example
• You need an external expert's input, expertise and competence an opinion, assessment, testing or measurement services, for example
• You need support for patents, design protection and trademarks studies, novelty examinations, examinations of patentability or freedom to operate examinations, for example, or help in applying for them
• You want to use scientific and research results to develop your business services related to assessing and using research results, for example

In which situations can the innovation voucher not be granted?

• Your company is not in the prepayment register.
• Your company's credit rating (Rating Alfa) according to Suomen Asiakastieto is below A.
• Your company has violated its obligation to notify or has tax debts for which a payment plan has not been agreed with the tax authorities, or the plan has not been followed.
• Your company is a large enterprise, sole trader, public or non-profit organization, foundation, association or a company based on the Åland Islands.
• You are a part-time entrepreneur, or your company does not have employees. To be eligible for the Innovation voucher, you must have worked as a full-time entrepreneur in your company for at least three months before applying for the Innovation voucher. We may also grant you the Innovation voucher if you are a part-time entrepreneur, but your company employs at least one full-time employee whose employment relationship has continued for at least three months before applying for the Innovation voucher.
• Your aim is to get information about new export markets.
  
  • For this purpose, you cannot apply for the Innovation voucher, but you can apply for Business Finland's Explorer funding.
• The content of external expertise funded by the Innovation voucher is not new compared to your company's own expertise.
• Your company has no plans for internationalization.
• Your company operates in an industry that is excluded from de minimis funding (primary agricultural production, fisheries and aquaculture).
• Your company's quota for de minimis funding is exceeded.
  
  • Please note that de minimis funding granted for companies belonging to the same group or controlled by the same party is added together.
• Your company has already been granted an Innovation voucher by Business Finland (or Tekes).
• Your company has received funding from Business Finland in the current or previous year, or a project funded by Business Finland is ongoing in your company, or another application sent by your company to Business Finland is yet to be processed.
  
  • Exception: Funding decisions, applications or ongoing projects in relation to emergency funding granted due to the coronavirus pandemic, energy aid, funding within the Explorer family and audiovisual production sector incentive do not prevent companies from applying for the Innovation voucher.
• Your project focuses on examining funding possibilities for your company, product or service or acquiring such funding, or the aim is to map the scene for sponsors, investors and shareholders.
• You want to use the Innovation voucher to purchase services from a company associated with your company through ownership, membership of the board of directors or a family relationship, for example.

The Innovation voucher is intended for purchasing expert services from an external service provider to support your company's innovation activities. Innovation activities refer to measures by which your company develops new products, services and processes, or acquires new knowledge and competences required for these activities as a service. The Innovation voucher can be used to acquire services from companies, universities, universities of applied sciences or research organizations.

Here are some examples for using the Innovation voucher:

• Services related to developing a product, service or design strategy
• Experiments and agile product and service development
• Measurement and testing services related to innovation activities
• Applicability surveys and expert statements related to innovation activities and IPR-related issues
• Services related to assessing and using research results

What can the funding not be used for?

The Innovation voucher is not intended for further developing, or renewing a product or service already existing on the market. It is intended for promoting a brand-new idea.

You cannot use the Innovation voucher to develop your company's overall business operations or to acquire consulting related to product or service development if the product or service is for your company only (not for sale).

The Innovation voucher cannot be used for the following:

• the company's internal salary costs, travel, materials, equipment, rents or equipment purchases
• development of industries and functions excluded from de minimis funding (primary agricultural production, fisheries and aquaculture)
• expert services unrelated to innovation activities
  • general business consulting services
  • basic operations in sales, marketing and communications
  • personnel training
  • consulting and development related to basic IT systems (e.g. consulting and development related to webpages, online sales, creating a mobile sales channel or ERP and financial management systems).

Get these financial things in order

We cannot grant your company funding if:

• Your company is not in the prepayment register.
• Your company's credit rating (Rating Alfa) is below A
• Your company has tax debts for which a payment plan has not been agreed with the tax authorities.
• Your company has arrears from previous Tekes or Business Finland loans, debt from recovery proceedings, payment defaults or other outstanding financial obligations.

Check de minimis funding

This funding is de minimis support. Your company can receive de minimis funding of up to EUR 200,000 in the current and two previous fiscal years. De minimis funding is granted by a range of public organizations such as Finnvera and the ELY Centers. At the application stage, your company must assess how much de minimis funding it has received during the analysis period. Please note that de minimis funding granted for companies belonging to the same group or controlled by the same party is added together.

Read more about de minimis funding

Find a suitable service provider

You can freely choose a service provider that suits your business. If the application has been submitted on or after January 1, 2022, Business Finland will not check the eligibility of the service providers.

Business Finland collects a list of innovation service providers for the Expert Search service. Business Finland will not comment on the quality of the service providers or the content of the services. Applicants for Innovation Voucher funding can choose their preferred service provider from the Expert Search service or elsewhere.

Find a service provider

Read more about the funding terms and conditions

The funding terms and conditions describe the costs that Business Finland can fund, how we monitor your project costs and how you should report on the progress of your project.

Read more about the funding terms and conditions

Send your application via our online service. Please note that the accountable project leader must be employed by the applicant company. You can also keep track of the processing of your application in the online service.

Go to the online service

Eligible costs

Business Finland can accept costs starting from the date the application was submitted, at the earliest.

Eligible costs within an Innovation voucher project can be:

• preparing for and creating a design strategy
• developing a product or service prototype
• establishing patent and protection matters, and filling in the applications
• promoting the technical implementation or intelligence of a project or service.

The following costs cannot be accepted as project costs

• your company's salary costs, travel, equipment and rents
• expert services unrelated to innovation activities such as:
  • general business consulting services
  • basic operations in sales, marketing and communications
  • personnel training
  • consulting and development related to basic IT systems such as creating webpages, online sales or a mobile sales channel, or consulting and development related to ERP and financial management systems.

If the application has been submitted on or after January 1, 2022, Business Finland will not check the eligibility of the service providers.

Invoicing instructions

Invoicing instructions for service providers when using the Innovation voucher can be found here:

Invoicing instructions when using the innovation voucher

Registration to the service provider list (optional)

If you are a service provider and wish to be added to the list from which companies interested in the Innovation voucher are searching for service providers, use the following link to register. You can use the same form to change or remove service descriptions.

For service providers: Register to the list

Please note that your company can have several service descriptions and contact persons for your current service. Going forward, it is possible for one person to be responsible for maintaining your service descriptions. We will create a separate maintenance link for each description, and this link can then be used to modify your details. One description includes a company-specific text and one section describing your overall services. You can still list several contact persons.