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4 Incentives Attracting R&D Investments in Greece

By Endeavor Greece Apr 1, 2021

Christos Dimas, Deputy Minister of Development and Investment, shares with us 4 incentives introduced by the Greek Government aiming to effectively link research with innovation and entrepreneurship.  Over the last couple of years, we have seen an increase in the interest of foreign technology companies in creating R&D and Innovation centers in Greece. The launch of Pfizer’s Digital & Technology hub and Cisco’s International Digital Transformation & Digital Skills Center in Thessaloniki stand as great examples. After a record-breaking year for the Greek tech, the future looks bright for Greece. Big technology companies will continue to establish innovation and development hubs in the country and Greek tech startups will continue to attract more capital and to close new M&A deals, at an accelerated pace.

With the goal to capitalize on the great opportunity that arises, at Endeavor we launched WorkInTech, a platform that aims to build and promote Greece’s new tech narrative and success stories worldwide and attract talented professionals, entrepreneurs and investors to join the Greek tech movement. With WorkInTech, anyone who wants to work for the most innovative Greek tech companies can apply to join the Greek tech community. 

WorkInTech.gr is not the only initiative within the Greek tech ecosystem to attract global investment, entrepreneurial and professional interest. The Greek government is working into the same direction, by introducing incentives that aim to reverse brain drain and attract R&D investments in the country.  “The launch of this centralized registry of international executives in tech looking to move to Greece comes at an opportune time for the country’s fastest-growing startups…” has stated Alex Patelis, Chief Economic Adviser to the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis. 

We asked Christos Dimas, Deputy Minister of Development and Investment, to point out the main incentives the Greek Government has taken, in order to link much more effectively research with innovation and entrepreneurship. “We are making efforts to increase R&D spending in the country and connect the fragmented ecosystem.” he says, while pointing out the 5 major measures introduced by the Greek Government in the past 18 months to this direction:

1) The creation of an innovation district in Piraeus, Attica, that is a natural matchmaking ground for companies that invest in R&D, startuppers, spin offs and innovators, in order to create synergies that will produce innovative products or services. Also, the creation of Thess INTECH, the 4th generation technological park in Thessaloniki, with the aim to attract R&D centres and build an innovative ecosystem around them.

“We truly believe that the innovation district in Attica will become a reference point for innovation, not only for Greece, but for the Balkans, Southeastern Europe and the wider area…It’s proceeding quite quickly and we’re very proud of these two emblematic investments.” 

2) The increase of the super deduction tax rate from 130% to 200%, with the aim to make Greece extremely attractive for R&D investments, therefore increase R&D spending in the country.

“We already have messages that a lot of companies are taking that into account. Some of them have already expressed interest to invest in the country and create R&D centres, and, therefore, important job openings.”

3) The legislation of an important tax incentive for angel investors, with the aim to make Greek startups more attractive for investments from angel investors. 

4) The creation of Elevate Greece, the entry point to the Greek innovation ecosystem, which acts as the National startup registry and attempts to network more effectively the factors of the ecosystem ranging from startups, spin offs, angel investors, VC funds, accelerators and incubators centres. 

“We now have specific data about our ecosystem. We know how many startups we have in each sector, in each region of the country and it acts as a very useful tool for the state but also for private actors to give specific benefits to our startup ecosystem.”