New operating models to accelerate international growth

• Your company is a limited company.
• The company has a credible financial plan and the prerequisites for profitable business and growth.

Innovativeness and competitive advantage

• Your company’s business idea or operations stand out from its competitors and enable it to thrive in international markets.
• You know which customer needs your product or service idea will address.
• Your company’s goal is to achieve significant international growth.
• Your company has a realistic view of its competitive advantage in the markets and the required competences.
• You have identified a potential customer base and revenue model.
• You have estimated the size and business potential of the target markets.

Committed team

• A typical recipient of the funding is a company with more than 10 employees that is renewing its operating models to accelerate international growth.
• The key personnel works in Finland and is committed to the company and its growth strategy.
• The company employs a dedicated team in which at least one person has a full-time job developing the business, and the team has complementary expertise from members in other areas.

• The purpose of the funding is to accelerate the renewal of the working, organizational, and management practices of companies that are branching out to international markets. The funding may focus on competence management, corporate culture, improving recruitment capacity, and/or the employer image.
• All funded projects must promote the international growth of the company and the diverse use of talent.

Examples of development areas include

Development of international competence management

• Development of growth-enhancing management, practices and organization, e.g., new operating models sought in joint workshops
• Benchmarking of a global competence management model, in which the company visits other companies to become acquainted with their good practices and will create a new operating model based on these experiences
• Analysis and development of the current status of supervisory work, e.g. how to build a management model that supports versatile competencies, piloting a new model
• Evaluation and development of work processes, e.g., outlining the types of skills, cooperation and work organization needed in the international work community, piloting the model

A corporate culture that supports international recruitment

• Building an operating model that supports versatile talent, e.g., how to combine the expertise of people with different cultural backgrounds
• Current status assessments, plans and development
  • Versatile expertise needed in the work community
  • International experts in the work community
  • Supporting cultural change

E.g., how to build an operating model for an international work community; what could be the related experiments or piloting? How could new international experts promote the company’s access to new markets?

International recruitment capability and processes

• Creating a recruitment strategy for new talent
• Anticipating skills needs for the coming years
• Development of the recruitment process
• Planning the induction path

E.g. how can a company find suitable experts from the international labor market? What kind of expertise does the company need over the next 2-3 years? How are new employees introduced to the work community?

International employer image and communication

• Developing the employer image
  • Creating your own employer story
  • Developing the employer image and indicators
• Developing employer communications
  • Current status and development of employer communications and communications management
  • Developing communications that contributes to finding and attracting talent

E.g., building an internationally attractive employer story. How should the company develop its communications to create an attractive employer image, and what indicators could be used to measure the success of this?

Ensure sufficient self-financing

• Your company must have sufficient self-financing for the implementation of the project.
• We will pay the grant after the end of the project and the approval of the report on the basis of the costs incurred.

Secure self-financing for the project

The company must have secured sufficient funds to implement the project and carry out its other activities. Sufficient financing means that your company can cover the total costs of the project prior to receiving funding from Business Finland.

The total costs of a Talent project cannot exceed EUR 100,000, and the funding will cover 50% of the costs. The company will not be paid an advance, so it needs self-financing equal to the total cost of the project. We also take into account the financing needs of the other activities of the company that will continue alongside the project.

Business Finland assesses the company's financial situation on the basis of the balance sheet ledger attached to the application: an income statement dating back no more than two months, a balance sheet for the current financial year, and a cash flow statement.
(See section Apply for funding, Annex 2.)

Get the following financial matters in order

Business Finland cannot grant funding if

• your company has not submitted financial statements to the Finnish Patent and Registration Office, or the financial statements have not been audited in accordance with the Auditing Act
• your company has tax debts for which a payment plan has not been agreed on with the tax authorities
• your company has arrears, payment defaults or other outstanding financial obligations related to previous loans granted by Tekes or Business Finland.

Check de minimis funding

This funding is de minimis support. A company can receive de minimis support of up to a maximum of €200,000 in the current and two previous financial years. De minimis funding for companies belonging to the same group or controlled by the same party (e.g., by majority ownership or by contract) is added together.

Your company must assess, at the application stage, how much de minimis funding it has received in the previous years. Such aid is granted by a range of public organizations, including Finnvera and the ELY Centers.

Read more about the de minimis funding

Read more about the terms and conditions of the funding

The terms and conditions of the funding describe the costs that Business Finland can fund, how the project costs are monitored, and how the progress of the project is reported.

Read more about the funding terms and conditions

Send your application and attachments via our online service. In your application, describe the current state of your company’s business activities, your personnel and resources, your future growth vision, the work to be carried out during the project, and your project’s goals and costs. You can follow the processing of your application in our online service.

Funding can be applied for between January 16 and March 31, 2023. Applications will be processed after the end of the funding call.

Go to the online service

Set goals for you project

Set two to five measurable goals for your project in the application. The goals must be linked to concrete outcomes of the project and the development of your business. The project’s goals are recorded in the funding decision, and Business Finland will monitor their achievement. The achievement of the defined goals is a significant factor in deciding whether your company can receive possible further funding from Business Finland.

Examples of project goals:

• created a new operating model: talent management, a corporate culture that supports internationalization, international recruitment capability, or an international employer image,
• carried out x pilots of new operating models,
• drawn up or updated a strategy for combining versatile expertise;
• created and/or piloted a global operating model for its different locations,
• created/updated its recruitment strategy,
• attracted x number of international applicants and/or recruited x number of international employees,
• completed a development plan for its employer image.

ANNEX 1 Project plan

Attach a project plan with your application. Enter the plan either directly in the fields of the application form or attach it as a separate file to the application. If you do not have a completed project plan, you can use the project plan template.

• Talent funding project plan instruction and template (docx)

ANNEX 2 Information about your company's finances

Please submit an income statement that is no more than two months old, a balance sheet ledger for the current accounting period, and a cash flow statement with your Talent funding application.

A cash flow statement (xlsx)

Eligible costs

The minimum amount of acceptable costs is 40,000 euros and the maximum amount is 100,000 euros. Costs are accepted starting from the day on which the application was submitted. Eligible costs include:

Salaries
Of a person’s salary for his or her total working hours, the proportion that is allocated to the project.

Indirect personnel costs
Indirect personnel costs cannot exceed 30% of the paid salaries.

Purchased services
The services must be specified in the project plan: service, service provider, cost. The purchased services must be expert services. Services purchased from associated companies are not eligible. The services to be procured must be put out to tender in accordance with the Procurement Act if an individual procurement or the total sum of linked procurements is EUR 60,000 or more. Do not conclude a binding contract for the provision of services before submitting the application.

Other costs
Other costs are accepted up to 20% of the total sum of salaries and purchased services. These costs do not need to be specified.

The following costs are not eligible as project costs:

• expenses arising from the company’s routine operations
• expenses due to supporting exports or export marketing
• direct investments in the development of a distribution channel
• vocational training