Enterprise Ireland Innovation Voucher

The Innovation Voucher is worth a fixed quote and is spent with a registered knowledge provider — an Irish or Northern Irish university, institute of technology or approved research body — to answer a specific technical or innovation question. It is open to small and medium companies, not only Enterprise Ireland clients, which makes it one of the most accessible innovation supports in the country. SMEs with a defined technical question a research body can answer.

What this scheme funds

a fixed quote voucher to buy research time from a university or approved knowledge provider.

  • New product or process development questions
  • Prototype and proof-of-concept work with a knowledge provider
  • Technical feasibility and testing
  • Innovation and business-model questions within the provider's expertise

What it does not fund

These costs are routinely ruled ineligible under this scheme.

  • Work with private consultancies that are not registered knowledge providers
  • Routine testing or certification
  • Costs outside the voucher's scope

Who is eligible

Eligibility is decided by Enterprise Ireland, not by Digital Bridge.

  • Small or medium limited company registered in Ireland
  • A specific innovation question, written down
  • A registered knowledge provider willing to take the project

How to apply

Typical end-to-end timeline: Calls open periodically, so timing matters more than processing speed. Allow a few weeks after the call closes for a decision, then the provider's own project schedule.

  • Define the question precisely
  • Approach a registered knowledge provider and agree the scope
  • Apply during an open call — the scheme runs in call windows
  • If approved, the provider carries out the work and redeems the voucher

Evidence you will need

Applications are usually delayed by missing paperwork rather than by weak projects.

  • Written innovation question
  • Knowledge provider agreement
  • Company registration details

Why applications get rejected

The recurring reasons assessors give under this scheme.

  • Question is commercial delivery rather than innovation
  • No knowledge provider engaged
  • Applied outside an open call

What Digital Bridge delivers under this scheme

Illustrative net cost applies the published rate (100% of the voucher value toward a registered knowledge provider) to our published engagement bands. It is arithmetic, not an offer of funding.

  • Prototype or technical feasibility work delivered with a registered knowledge provider — list from €5,000, illustrative net cost The a fixed quote voucher is payable only to a registered knowledge provider — Digital Bridge is not one, so we scope and build alongside it rather than draw the voucher

Who decides this grant, and what we are responsible for

Enterprise Ireland decides eligibility, approval and payment under this scheme. Digital Bridge supplies the work and the documentation an assessor asks for from the supplier side.

  • Digital Bridge does not administer, assess, approve, pay or appeal any grant. Every decision is made by the funding body named on the scheme, under its own published rules.
  • This section is general information, not financial, tax, legal or grant-writing advice. It is not an application, a pre-approval, or any form of assurance that you will be funded.
  • Scheme rates, ceilings and eligibility change without notice and several supports are administered locally, so your Local Enterprise Office or agency may apply different rules to the ones published here. Confirm everything with the funder in writing before you commit.
  • Our questionnaire is a deterministic guide based only on the answers you give. It cannot see your accounts, your sector classification, your state-aid position or your previous awards, so it can suggest a scheme you are ultimately found ineligible for.
  • If an application is refused, delayed, reduced or clawed back, our fees for work you have instructed remain payable. We recommend you do not instruct chargeable work until your funder confirms in writing what it will support.
  • Costs incurred before a funder receives your application are almost always ineligible. Timing is your responsibility, and we will always tell you when we think you should wait.

How the Innovation Voucher works in practice

The Innovation Voucher is a fixed-value voucher that a small company exchanges with a registered knowledge provider — a university, institute of technology or other approved body — to answer a specific innovation question. The registered-provider requirement is absolute: a voucher cannot be spent with an ordinary commercial supplier, however capable. It is the most accessible entry point into Ireland's research system, and for a company with a technical question and no research relationships it is a sensible first move. Projects run to a short defined scope and produce a report. Fixed value means the question has to be sized to the voucher rather than the voucher stretched over a large project.

What we do as the supplier on the quote

We are not a registered knowledge provider and cannot redeem a voucher, which we would rather state on this page than in an awkward conversation later. Where we are useful is on either side of it: helping frame the technical question so the academic scope is answerable, and then productionising whatever comes out. Research output is frequently a notebook and a report rather than something that can run in a business. Turning that into a maintained, monitored system with real data flowing through it is normal engineering work, and it is a separate commercial engagement from the voucher.

Can I spend it with Digital Bridge?

No, and we will not pretend otherwise. The voucher must be spent with a registered knowledge provider. Where a research body validates an approach, we are frequently the team that then builds it under a different scheme.

Do I need to be an Enterprise Ireland client?

No. This is one of the few Enterprise Ireland instruments open to SMEs generally, which is why it is often the first innovation support a company uses.

Can we use an Innovation Voucher with our existing development agency?

Only if that agency is a registered knowledge provider under the scheme, which most are not. Check the current register before planning the project — the eligible provider list is the binding constraint, not the quality of the supplier.

Source and last review

Scheme parameters checked against Enterprise Ireland — Innovation Voucher (https://www.enterprise-ireland.com/en/supports/innovation-vouchers) on 2026-08-21. Reviewed quarterly. Next scheduled review: November 2026. Digital Bridge is a supplier, not the awarding body. Eligibility, approval and payment are decided solely by the funding body named on each scheme. Figures below are the published scheme parameters as at the review date shown, and net costs are arithmetic illustrations of the published rate applied to our published prices. Always confirm current rules with the funder before you commit to any spend, because expenditure incurred before an application is received is almost always ineligible.

Who is the Innovation Voucher actually for?

The a fixed quote Innovation Voucher suits a small or medium company with one specific technical or innovation question it cannot answer in-house, and a willingness to work with a university, institute of technology or other registered knowledge provider to answer it. It is not aimed at companies who already know what to build and just want it built cheaply. Businesses testing whether an idea is technically sound, whether a material behaves as expected, or whether a data approach is feasible fit the scheme well. Because it is open to SMEs generally rather than only Enterprise Ireland clients, it is often the first innovation support a company ever uses. Applications stall most often because the question submitted reads as commercial delivery rather than genuine innovation, or because no knowledge provider has yet agreed to take the project. Have the provider and the written question settled before you apply, and apply inside an open call, since the scheme runs in call windows rather than on rolling demand. Decisions on grant funding rest entirely with Enterprise Ireland; nothing here is a guarantee of an award.

How does a Digital Bridge project fit around this voucher?

The voucher itself cannot be spent with Digital Bridge, because it must go to a registered knowledge provider, and we are not one. Where we come in is either side of that engagement. Before applying, a company sometimes needs a plain description of a proposed system or data approach to hand to the knowledge provider so the research question is precisely scoped rather than vague. After the provider's work concludes, if it validates an approach, we are frequently the team that then builds it under a separate quote and, where relevant, a separate funding route such as the Digital Transition Fund. Keep the voucher-funded research and any Digital Bridge build as two clearly separate pieces of paper: one proposal for the knowledge provider covering the innovation question, and one quote from us for implementation once the answer is known. Mixing the two invites questions from an assessor about what the voucher was actually paying for. Prepare the written question, the provider's agreement and your company registration details before applying, and remember the decision sits with Enterprise Ireland, not with any supplier.

How we decide what to quote for Ei Innovation Voucher

Digital Bridge delivers this work from Gorey Business Park in County Wexford on a fixed written scope — one price, one delivery date — and the client owns the finished work outright. The Innovation Voucher is worth a fixed quote and is spent with a registered knowledge provider — an Irish or Northern Irish university, institute of technology Before a figure is given, four questions are answered in order, and a named person signs the scope off — it is never generated automatically.

  1. Is this the right job at all? We look at what you already have online, whether the domain and Google Business Profile are in your own name, and what Ei Innovation Voucher customers currently ask you for. If a repair or a single page would solve it, we quote that instead.
  2. What does the work have to achieve first? The scope is written around one outcome — enquiries, bookings, orders or credibility — and anything else is listed as optional so it can be dropped without renegotiating.
  3. What will it cost and when will it be live? Page count, content readiness, integrations and whether photography or copy still has to be produced set the price and the date, both fixed in writing before work starts.
  4. How will people in Ei Innovation Voucher find it afterwards? Local search setup is included in a build; ongoing SEO is a separate optional retainer you can start or stop with notice.

Checkable facts behind this Ei Innovation Voucher page

Author and reviewer: Joey Bray, founder of Digital Bridge, building and maintaining Irish business websites since 2016. Studio address: Gorey Business Park, Gorey, Co. Wexford. Phone: 085 224 1848. Every claim below can be checked before you speak to us.

  • Published starting prices, not estimates released after a sales call — see the pricing page for the full ladder.
  • Live client sites you can open and test yourself are listed in the work section.
  • One contact from first call to launch, rather than an account handler relaying messages.
  • A plain-text mirror of this page is published for AI assistants at the same path with a .md extension.