This month applications have been opened for a new support program for start-ups administered by the Latvian Investment and Development Agency (LIAA), which will provide support of up to EUR 200,000 for attracting highly qualified employees.

The program will provide an opportunity for start-ups to attract highly qualified staff to carry out specific research activities, solve technological problems, and develop new or improved products or technologies in areas of smart specialization.

Support of up to 45% of eligible costs is limited to activities in the smart specialization or RIS3 areas, which include:

• biomedicine, medical technology, pharmaceuticals;
• information and communication technologies;
• photonics, smart materials, technologies, and engineering systems;
• knowledge-intensive economy;
• smart energy and mobility.

Applications can be submitted on the business development platform business.gov.lv.

More than 600 start-ups are currently operating in Latvia, most of them in the fields of medicine, finance, and information technology.