L 137/52
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
25.5.2023
89.
Testing and experimentation infrastructures co-funded by Union funding, agencies, joint undertakings or other bodies of the Union, could benefit from public support up to 100 % of eligible investment costs, provided that the necessary amount of total public funding (i.e. State aid and other sources of public funding) for the project is demonstrated on the basis of a credible funding gap assessment to ensure that the total amount of public funding does not lead to overcompensation (63).
90.
Where the expenditure eligible for R&D&I aid is also potentialy eligible in whole or in part for aid for other purposes, the overlapping portion will be subject to the most favourable ceiling under any of the relevant rules.
91.
Aid for R&D&I may not be cumulated with de minimis support in respect of the same eligible costs if that would result in an aid intensity exceeding those laid down in this framework.
3.2.3.2.
Ad di t i on a l c o nd i t io n s for in d i v i du al a i d
92.
For notifiable individual aid, mere compliance with a set of predefined maximum aid intensities is not sufficient to ensure proportionality.
93.
As a general rule, and in order to establish whether the aid is proportional, the Commission will verify that its amount does not exceed the minimum necessary for the aided project to be sufficiently profitable, for example by making possible to achieve an IRR corresponding to the sector or firm specific benchmark or hurdle rate.
Normal rates of return required by the beneficiary in other R&D&I projects, its cost of capital as a whole or returns commonly observed in the industry concerned may also be used for this purpose.
All relevant expected costs and benefits must be considered over the lifetime of the project, including the costs and revenues stemming from the results of R&D&I activities.
94.
Where it is shown, for example by means of internal company documents, that the aid beneficiary faces a clear choice between carrying out either an aided project or an alternative one without aid, the aid will be considered to be limited to the minimum necessary only if its amount does not exceed the net extra costs of implementing the activities concerned, compared to the counterfactual project that would be carried out in the absence of aid.
In order to establish the net extra costs, the Commission will compare the expected net present values of the investment in the aided project and the counterfactual project, account being taken of the probabilities of different business scenarios occurring (64).
95.
Where aid is awarded for R&D projects or for the construction or upgrade of research infrastructures or for the construction or upgrade of testing and experimentation infrastructures and the Commission can establish, on the basis of the methodology laid down in points 93 or 94, that the aid is strictly limited to the minimum necessary, higher maximum aid intensities than those laid down in Annex II may be allowed, up to the levels set out in the following table: Small enterprise
Mediumsized enterprise
Large enterprise
Fundamental research
100 %
100 %
100 %
Applied research
80 %
70 %
60 %
Aid for R&D projects
(63) A claw back mechanism may be implemented as a safeguard.
(64) In the particular case where aid merely allows for an increase in the speed of completion of the project, the comparison should mostly reflect the different timelines in terms of cash flows and delayed entry in the market.