Public call for proposals to promote partnerships for entry into foreign markets 2025-2028

Subject of the public tender

The subject of the public tender is the co-financing of partnerships for the implementation of activities with the aim of strengthening international competitiveness and/or the possibility of introducing products/services on foreign markets and/or increasing the possibilities of business cooperation of SMEs with foreign partners.

Target groups/beneficiaries

The target group/final recipients are SMEs:

• who join a partnership that includes at least three (3) and at most five (5) SMEs and who 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.

General conditions for the operation

• The Operation (Partnership) must consist of a minimum of three (3) and a maximum of five (5) partners (SMEs).
• The operation must be classified in one of the priority areas of the Smart Specialization Strategy "S5".
• The operation may not start before the selection decision is issued and may not last longer than eighteen (18) months. The start of the operation shall be considered to be the moment when the first legally binding commitment to procure services or carry out the activities of the operation is concluded, or any other commitment which starts the implementation of the operation and/or incurs the first eligible costs.
• A maximum of three partnerships can be supported in a single target market (country) across all call openings combined. In the event that more than one partnership applies for a single target market (country) in a single call opening, the partnership(s) that receives the highest number of points in the evaluation will be supported, in accordance with the criteria and conditions for evaluating applications. In the event that three applicants have already been selected in the previous deadline(s) in the same target market (country), it will no longer be possible to obtain support in any other deadlines in the same target foreign market.
• The selected target market (country) of an individual partnership must have realized exports from the Republic of Slovenia worth at least EUR 213,300.00 in the previous calendar year prior to submitting the application for the public tender, in accordance with data from official statistics on international trade in goods.

Indicative available funds for the public tender

The approximate total amount of funds available for the implementation of the public tender is up to EUR 6,750,000.00 . EUR 3,000,000.00 is allocated for the Cohesion Region of Eastern Slovenia programme area and EUR 3,750,000.00 for the Cohesion Region of Western Slovenia programme area. The funds are not transferable between the programme areas.

Co-financing amount - lump sum

The value of the lump sum allocated to beneficiaries for the implementation of an individual operation is EUR 213,300.00 . At each milestone reached, the partnership is allocated one third of the lump sum, which is divided equally between each of the partners in the partnership.

Application deadlines

1st deadline: extended from 26. 11. 2025 to 29. 12. 2025

2nd deadline: postponed from 15. 6. 2026 to 15. 7. 2026

More information about the call: JR Partnerships 25-28