A client of mine received a COMET grant in a previous cycle. The article gives a poor impression of what the COMET scheme was designed to do - allow small busi

A client of mine received a COMET grant in a previous cycle. The article gives a poor impression of what the COMET scheme was designed to do - allow small businesses with little capital to commercialise their technology so as to be able to bring it to market effectively. Grantees are required to match twenty percent of the grant they spend. There are guidelines to how the money may be spent, but as long as it's towards commercialising your technology, they are satisfied (i.e., you have a programmer as an employee, but you can contract out a programmer to complete the work required). I've heard most businesses in the scheme don't end up profitable, but this is no different from your typical VC fund. While some of the businesses listed may not appear innovative, there are plenty striving to serve a niche, my client being one of them. The technology platform isn't particularly innovative, but the research behind it is solid and the implementation is getting fantastic results. If there is but a single success from this scheme, then it will have all been worth it.