First Factory Call (Appel à projets Première Usine)

First Factory — December Round (Première Usine, relève décembre)

Funds first-factory scale-up for innovative manufacturers moving toward production readiness.

Première Usine is a France 2030 program operated by Bpifrance that supports first-time industrialization by innovative startups and PMEs or ETIs. The program targets projects consisting of the installation of pilot and/or industrial production sites designed to commercialize innovative products, or the creation of mutualized pre-industrial capacity for the benefit of startups. Unlike i-Démo, which excludes commercialization costs, Première Usine is specifically designed for the industrialization and commercialization investment phase — making it the appropriate France 2030 instrument once a product's R&D phase is complete. Total eligible project expenditure must exceed €5,000,000.

Aid is structured as 60% grant and 40% recoverable advance. The recoverable advance portion is repayable over time and is not traditional co-funding. In general, the project must be led by a single PME. By exception, an ETI may lead the project if it demonstrates innovation and hypergrowth characteristics. A special-purpose ad hoc structure may also carry a project if it is developing mutualized industrial capacity for one or more startups and PMEs. The program operates on three relay deadlines per year — April, September, and December — with the final 2026 relay in December 2026. Applications are submitted via Picxel (picxel.bpifrance.fr).

The detailed aid intensity rules, scoring rubric, and specific project eligibility conditions are governed by the cahier des charges, which was not extracted and must be obtained from the Bpifrance platform before submission. Innovative PMEs that have completed product R&D and now need to fund a first production facility — particularly in advanced manufacturing, energy transition, biotech, or transport — should assess whether their capital expenditure plan exceeds the €5,000,000 threshold and contact Bpifrance's regional office early in the process, as the program involves significant upfront technical and financial documentation.