Spark 4.0 - edycja Rethink

Applicant types

SME, Startup

Purpose

Research and innovation

R&D relevance

3 of 3

Poland eligible

Yes

Country limit

Poland

Region

Any

Consortium

Single applicant

Readiness level (TRL)

5-9

Per project

€81.4K

Topics

• Circular economy
• Technology acceleration
• Technology testing
• Pilot deployment

Machine-classified from the call text; check eligibility at the source. 23 Oct 2026

Typed facts extracted from the source documents by Scindu's grant-data review. Each value keeps its own conditions. Unknown means unstated, not zero or unlimited.

Applicant restriction

Applicants must not have direct or indirect capital or personal links with ŁSSE or the technology recipient selected for the application, under the regulation’s listed relationship tests.

Applicant type

Applicants must be micro or small enterprises, unlisted, operating no longer than five years from registration, not yet distributing profits, not formed by a merger or takeover, and organized as a Polish capital company entered in the National Court Register; the call also requires rights to the submitted idea.

Application restriction

The regulation states recruitment is planned across at least four rounds through 30 December 2027; ŁSSE may suspend or extend it, and exact dates are announced on the project website. This is the overall programme recruitment horizon, not the deadline for any one of these rounds.

Application restriction

PARP rendered schedule row lists this Rethink round from 2027-08-01 through 2027-09-30; its normalized status is forthcoming as of the retained snapshot.

This is the fourth Spark 4.0 Rethink round; dates and status are from the normalized PARP schedule row snapshot, not a retained original PARP HTTP page. It is forthcoming as of 2026-10-23.

Eligible project scope

The operator page describes an individualized acceleration path, tests and pilots with a technology recipient, mentoring, workshops, matchmaking, business and technology support, alongside a grant up to PLN 350,000 for product/service development and testing. The service package has no separately stated monetary value in the reviewed source.

Eligible project scope

Rethink focuses on circular-economy solutions (KIS 7) and projects responding to listed technology-recipient needs. Applicants must demonstrate technology readiness at least TRL 5 and the IPA is intended to develop a product toward validation/pilot deployment with a technology recipient.

Other condition

The Spark 4.0 model grant agreement states an advance may be up to 30% on a justified request for one selected milestone. The general Scale Up Green grant-settlement annex states a first advance may not exceed 40%, and later advances require settlement of at least 70% of previous advances. These documents state different first-advance ceilings; the packet does not resolve precedence for an executed grant agreement.

Other condition

The grant is de minimis aid. The same project expenditure or services cannot be financed twice from public funds; the de minimis limit and eligibility are checked at grant-agreement signature.

Other condition

The Rethink-specific regulation and model agreement cap an individual startup grant at PLN 350,000; the shared Scale Up Green grant-settlement annex states a general PLN 400,000-per-startup ceiling. This review uses the Rethink-specific cap and does not treat the shared annex figure as additional funding.

Other condition

Personnel and other budget items are planned individually using a unit, quantity and unit rate, with rationale and market research. For employment, the full employer cost is included; for employment/B2B collaboration, the budget explains duties and supports the estimated rate with three offers or salary reports. The guide gives no standard salary figures or fixed role-specific rates.

Project duration, maximum

6 month

Maximum duration of the acceleration/IPA is six months, described as generally 180 days. This is the project’s acceleration phase, not the application window.

Staff restriction

The regulation and grant-settlement rules exclude remuneration for board members and owners/co-owners who are not startup employees under the Labour Code. The IPA-instructions Q&A is internally contradictory on this point: it says such non-employees cannot be remunerated in any form, then says the only permitted financing form is an employment or mandate contract. The exception’s intended scope is unresolved.

Catalogue budget

up to PLN 350,000

Figure as listed by the provider. Whether it is the total allocation or a per-project cap is unverified unless a reviewed condition says so.

Funding per beneficiary, maximum

PLN 350,000

PLN 350,000 is the cash-grant ceiling for each selected startup in this Spark 4.0 Rethink acceleration. The template agreement states the grant excludes VAT. The grant is set from necessary, reasonable eligible costs in the individually approved IPA budget; this is not a per-round programme allocation.

Eligible cost

Cash grant reimburses actually incurred and documented eligible costs in the approved Individual Acceleration Plan; the award amount is set from necessary and reasonable costs supported by market data.

Eligible cost

Eligible costs may include remuneration for startup employees participating in the Individual Acceleration Plan, including people engaged under employment or civil-law contracts; the IPA guide also lists hiring employees/experts for the project.

Eligible cost

Necessary specialist services may be purchased when needed to achieve acceleration milestones; supplier service expenditure is separate from employment or personnel costs.

Eligible cost

The rules also list fixed assets, intangible assets, information and promotion activities, and necessary business travel. Promotion costs are normally limited to 10% and business travel to 5% of the acceleration budget, with increases possible on a reasoned request and accelerator/technology-recipient approval.

Eligible cost limit

10 percent of acceleration budget

Information and promotion activity cost share; the rule permits an increase on a reasoned request after accelerator and technology-recipient approval.

Eligible cost limit

5 percent of acceleration budget

Necessary business travel for project tasks; the rule permits an increase on a reasoned request after accelerator and technology-recipient approval.

Ineligible cost

Ordinary operating costs needed to run the business, including accounting, are excluded. Regulation and accounting rules exclude remuneration for board members and owners/co-owners who are not startup employees under the Labour Code.

• Other role

  Staff cost the grant can fund

  The source permits personnel remuneration only for people participating in the Individual Acceleration Plan, with the expense included in the approved IPA budget and verified as actually incurred. No occupation, qualification, staffing minimum, FTE, or per-person pay rate is prescribed in the reviewed rules.

• Other role

  Service the grant can fund

  Only services necessary to acceleration milestones qualify; no named service occupation, supplier headcount, individual pay rate or contract term is prescribed. The expense must be justified and market-researched in the IPA budget.

• ŁSSE Spark 4.0 Rethink operator page

  startupspark.sse.lodz.pl

• Spark 4.0 grant settlement rules

  startupspark.sse.lodz.pl

Opens

1 Aug 2027

Provider

Fundusze Europejskie dla Nowoczesnej Gospodarki

Source

parp.gov.pl

Checked

23 Oct 2026

Review status

Partial review

Reviewed

23 Oct 2026