OAR 123-089-0040: Eligibility and Criteria for Funding

(1) To be eligible for funding, projects must involve an innovation-based company in a traded-sector industry. Traded sector is defined in Oregon statute as industries in which member firms sell their goods or services into markets for which national or international competition exists. (2) To be eligible for funding, organizations must be Oregon-based, which is defined as having more than 50% of the organization’s employees based in Oregon. Exceptions can be made on a case-by-case basis and require approval by the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Manager (I&E Manager). Any exception will be documented in the project files with a description of the reason for the exception. (3) Other, program-specific eligibility requirements will be developed by the Department and/or Oregon InC that will be included in each program’s guidelines and requests for funding applications or proposals. (4) The Department and/or Oregon InC will establish criteria for each funding program and opportunity. Examples of the criteria that could be used to evaluate projects include, but are not limited to: (a) Leverage – This includes funding and other resources from the private sector, project collaborators or other sources. It also includes the use of non-financial leverage, such as supporting university research, other economic development activities and/or legislative initiatives. Financial and in-kind leverage must be specified. (b) Uniquely attributable links to Oregon – This includes geographic advantages or other attributes unique to Oregon, as well as any link to one of Oregon InC’s focus areas or Business Oregon’s target industries. (c) Level of impact derived from Oregon InC’s investment – The potential for the use of a relatively small amount of Oregon InC funding to have significant returns for the project and the State. (d) Ability to scale into significant jobs and/or revenue – The potential for a project to have job and/or revenue impacts in the medium- to long-term. (e) Broad impacts – This includes the project’s geographic scope, impacts on multiple income levels and other impacts.