Glossary

Portuguese funding terms, explained in English

Every official page about business funding in Portugal is in Portuguese, and machine translation mangles the terms that matter most. Fundo perdido does not mean lost fund: it means a grant you do not pay back. An aviso is not a warning: it is a call for applications.

This glossary gives the English meaning of the Portuguese words and acronyms you will meet, in the order in which an investor usually meets them.

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Figures checked against the official sources between 18 and 19 September 2026. We never promise approvals.

Non-repayable grant (fundo perdido, incentivo não reembolsável)
Money the company receives and does not pay back, provided it carries out the project and meets the conditions it signed. Literally lost fund, which is how machine translation renders it. It lowers the cost of the investment directly, unlike a loan. See grant, loan or tax credit.
Repayable support (financiamento reembolsável, incentivo reembolsável)
Support that has to be paid back, usually without interest or at a reduced rate. It is a loan and it counts as debt. Some schemes convert part of it into a grant if the project meets its targets.
Call for applications (aviso, aviso de concurso, concurso)
The document that opens a funding round. It sets who can apply, which costs count, the rate, the budget, the scoring grid and the deadline. A project can only be funded while a call that fits it is open. See the open calls.
Application (candidatura)
The file the company submits in response to a call: the description of the project, the answers to the scoring criteria, the budget with quotes and the financial projections. It is written in Portuguese and filed online.
Eligible costs (despesas elegíveis)
The costs the programme accepts for the calculation of the grant. Each call has its list. Costs committed before the application, recoverable VAT, second-hand equipment and running costs are usually left out.
Support rate (taxa de apoio, taxa de incentivo)
The percentage of eligible costs that the grant covers. It depends on the call, the region, the size of the company and sometimes on uplifts.
Uplift (majoração)
An addition to the base rate or amount for a specific reason, such as a project in a low-density territory, a small company, or hiring a young person.
Budget of the call (dotação)
The total amount a call has to distribute. Applications are ranked and funded from the top until the budget runs out, so an eligible project can still be left without funding.
Merit score (mérito do projeto)
The score an application gets against the published criteria. It decides the ranking, and in many calls there is a minimum score below which a project is not funded at all.
Acceptance agreement (termo de aceitação)
The contract the company signs after approval. It fixes the approved costs, the rate, the timetable, the targets and the obligations.
Payment claim (pedido de pagamento)
The request the company files to receive the grant, with invoices and proof of payment for costs already paid. Grants are paid as refunds, claim by claim.
Project description (memória descritiva)
The narrative part of an application: what the project is, why it is needed, what is new in it and how it answers each scoring criterion. It is where most of the score is won or lost.
Initial investment (investimento inicial)
The kind of investment that regional aid can support: a new establishment, more capacity in an existing one, diversification into new products, or a fundamental change in the production process. Replacing equipment with similar equipment is not initial investment.
Incentive effect (efeito de incentivo)
The EU rule behind apply first, invest after. Aid has to change what the company does, so work on the project cannot start before the application is filed. A binding order for equipment counts as a start.
SME (PME, pequena e média empresa)
A company with fewer than 250 employees and turnover of no more than EUR 50 million or a balance sheet of no more than EUR 43 million, counting the groups it belongs to. In Portugal the status is proved with the electronic SME certificate issued by IAPMEI. See the SME trap. The guide is SME status when the parent is foreign.
Activity code (CAE, Classificação das Atividades Económicas)
The code that classifies what a company does, equivalent to NACE. Calls and tax credits list the codes they accept, so the codes registered for the company can decide whether it may apply.
Tax number (NIF, and NIPC for companies)
The Portuguese tax identification number. A company needs one to exist for the Tax Authority, to open an account and to register on any funding portal.
Funds portal (Balcão dos Fundos)
The single online portal where Portugal 2030 applications are filed and approved projects are managed.
Managing authority (autoridade de gestão)
The public body responsible for a programme: it publishes the calls, decides on applications and pays. COMPETE 2030 and each regional programme have their own. Bodies such as IAPMEI, AICEP and Turismo de Portugal analyse applications on their behalf.
IAPMEI (Agência para a Competitividade e Inovação)
The public agency for SMEs and innovation. It issues the SME certificate and analyses many of the Portugal 2030 applications from smaller companies.
AICEP (Agência para o Investimento e Comércio Externo de Portugal)
The trade and investment agency. It is the contact point for very large investment projects and for companies going international.
IEFP (Instituto do Emprego e Formação Profissional)
The public employment service. It runs the hiring incentives, the internship measures and the payment for people who move to the interior.
ANI (Agência Nacional de Inovação)
The national innovation agency. It certifies the R&D in SIFIDE II applications and works on the R&D calls.
Social support index (IAS, Indexante dos Apoios Sociais)
A reference amount set each year, used to calculate social benefits and several incentives. The IEFP hiring incentives are multiples of it, which is why their amounts change every January.
Corporate income tax (IRC)
The tax on company profits. The general rate is 19% for 2026. See corporate tax incentives. The rates are in the corporate tax rate guide.
Municipal and state surtax (derrama municipal, derrama estadual)
Two additions to corporate tax: a municipal surtax of up to 1.5% of taxable profit, set by each municipality, and a state surtax on large profits.
Tax due (coleta)
The corporate tax calculated for the year, before tax credits. RFAI and SIFIDE II are deducted from it, which is why they are described in Portuguese as deductions from the coleta.
Corporate tax return (Modelo 22)
The annual corporate income tax return. RFAI is claimed on it, without a prior application.
Certified accountant (contabilista certificado)
The licensed professional who keeps a company's accounts and signs its tax returns. Organised accounts kept by one are a condition of nearly every programme.
De minimis aid (auxílios de minimis)
Small amounts of public support that the EU exempts from its state aid controls, capped at EUR 300,000 per company over three years, adding up every public body that granted them. See the de minimis rule.
Low-density and interior territories (territórios de baixa densidade, territórios do interior)
Two official lists of inland areas that get better conditions: reserved grant budgets, a lower corporate tax rate for small companies, higher hiring incentives. See investing in the interior.
NUTS II region (NUTS II)
The EU statistical regions used to organise the regional programmes and the aid map. The region where the investment is located decides which programme and which rates apply. The regional programmes of Portugal 2030 are Norte, Centro, Lisboa, Alentejo, Algarve, Açores and Madeira.
PEPAC (Plano Estratégico da Política Agrícola Comum)
The national plan under the EU Common Agricultural Policy. It funds farming, forestry and rural development, and it is separate from Portugal 2030. See farm grants.
Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR, Plano de Recuperação e Resiliência)
The EU post-pandemic recovery programme. Its milestones had to be met by 31 August 2026, and it is no longer a source of new calls for companies.

Official sources

The official texts are in Portuguese. The figures on this page were checked against them.

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