IDB supports program to increase investment in research and innovation in Uruguay

Program will increase the supply of applied knowledge to face productive and social challenges and financing for business innovation

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved a loan of $30 million to finance a program that will contribute to increasing public and private investment in research and innovation in Uruguay.

This is the second individual operation within the framework of a Credit Line for Investment Projects approved by the IDB in October 2017, to foster innovation, entrepreneurship, human capital development and research in the country.

The program will finance specific activities to increase the generation of new scientific-technological knowledge and its application to the productive sector and society, including projects of applied scientific-technological research and sector projects, acquisition and updating of complex scientific-technological equipment , training of technicians for its operation, scholarships for post-doctorates in the country, and the valuation of knowledge through instruments of intellectual property protection.

Similarly, it will increase the availability of financing for business innovation projects, and joint projects or initiatives between companies, entrepreneurs and institutions and scientific and technological centers for innovation.

Additionally, the institutional capacities of the National Research and Innovation Agency, the executing agency for this program, will be strengthened, particularly in the evaluation of tools to promote innovation in companies.

Among the beneficiaries of the program are an estimated 450 researchers from public and private scientific-technological institutions, and 300 companies that will develop innovation activities.

The IDB loan of $30 million has a repayment term of 25 years, a grace period of five and a half years, and an interest rate based on LIBOR.