MIMIT closes the Sustainable Investments 4.0 window due to exhaustion of funds

The Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy has ordered the closure, starting from October 7, 2026, of the portal for submitting applications for access to the benefits of the 2026 Call for Sustainable Investments 4.0. The decision is contained in the decree of the Director General for Business Incentives dated October 6, 2026, communicated in the Official Gazette of the Italian Republic, General Series no. 239 of October 14, 2026, with the official reference 26A05382. The stated reason is the exhaustion of the financial resources allocated to the intervention.

The announcement refers to Art. 3, paragraph 1, of the ministerial decree of March 18, 2026, previously communicated in the Official Gazette of the Italian Republic no. 122 of May 28, 2026: it is this allocation that has been exhausted, making the early closure of the deadlines necessary. The full text of the directorial decree has been available since October 6, 2026, on the website of the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy, at www.mimit.gov.it, pursuant to Art. 22, paragraph 3, of the legislative decree of November 27, 2025, no. 184.

What the measure provides

The decree intervenes on an incentive already in operation and effectively suspends the application collection phase. The essential points of the announcement are as follows:

• Date of the measure: decree of the Director General for Business Incentives of October 6, 2026.
• Effective date of closure: from October 7, 2026.
• Subject: closure of the portal for submitting applications for access to benefits.
• Purpose of the incentive: support for innovative, sustainable investments with high technological content, consistent with the National Transition 4.0 Plan.
• Recipients: micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises in the less developed regions of the Mezzogiorno (Southern Italy).
• Cause: exhaustion of the financial resources referred to in Art. 3, paragraph 1, of the ministerial decree of March 18, 2026.
• Publication: Official Gazette of the Italian Republic, General Series no. 239 of October 14, 2026, page 44, reference 26A05382.

The announcement does not indicate the total amount of the exhausted resources nor the number of applications already submitted, and it does not provide for the reopening of the deadlines.

A cycle of portals closing in a few weeks

The closure of Sustainable Investments 4.0 is part of a sequence of measures through which the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy has reduced or suspended the operation of several incentive portals within the same period:

• Entrepreneurial Discovery II: by directorial decree of October 8, 2026, the suspension of deadlines and the closure of the application window were ordered from 10:00 AM on October 8, 2026, for research and development projects in less developed regions (Official Gazette of the Italian Republic no. 238 of October 13, 2026).
• Critical and Emerging Technologies (STEP): by decree of August 3, 2026, the suspension of deadlines for the submission of applications was ordered (Official Gazette of the Italian Republic no. 183 of August 8, 2026).
• Development contracts for the automotive supply chain: by decree of August 5, 2026, the temporary closure of deadlines was ordered starting from 12:00 PM on August 6, 2026 (Official Gazette of the Italian Republic no. 186 of August 12, 2026).

The common thread is the temporary or definitive nature of the closure, always motivated by the ratio between applications submitted and available resources.

The impact on businesses in the Mezzogiorno

For micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises in the less developed regions of the Mezzogiorno, the measure closes a window that was already open: those who did not submit their application by October 6, 2026, can no longer access the 2026 Call for Sustainable Investments 4.0. The effect is all the more significant because the incentive was built upon a restricted territorial audience and a purpose — innovative and sustainable investments consistent with the National Transition 4.0 Plan — which remains among the declared priorities of industrial policy.

The press release refers to the website of the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy for the full text of the decree: it is there that operators can verify any detailed provisions, while the Official Gazette of the Italian Republic remains the reference for the legal publication of the act.

Official Gazette of the Italian Republic, General Series no. 239 of October 14, 2026, page 44 — Press release relating to the decree of October 6, 2026, Sustainable Investments 4.0 – 2026 Call, Closure of the incentive window (26A05382).