State aid assessment of the projects. Article 61(1) of the EEA Agreement states that: Thus, in order for a measure to be considered state aid, it must constitute a selective advantage in favour of certain undertakings, be granted through state resources, distort competition and affect trade between the Contracting Parties to the EEA Agreement. Firstly, the measure must confer on certain undertakings an advantage that reduces the costs they normally bear in the course of business and relieves them of charges that are normally borne from their budgets. By paying grants to support certain R&D projects, the RCN confers an economic advantage only on the promoters of the selected R&D projects. Secondly, the advantage must be granted by the State or through state resources. The RCN develops and implements the country's national research strategy and specially acts as a funding agency for research. In particular, for the development of the Maritime research programme, the RCN managed funds received from the Ministries of Trade and Industry and of Finance. Thus, the public funds channelled through the RCN and which were obtained from the above-mentioned ministries constitute state resources within the meaning of Article 61(1) of the EEA Agreement. Thirdly, the measure must distort competition. Since there are other Norwegian undertakings which compete with the promoters of the selected R&D projects that may not receive support from the RCN to carry out their R&D projects, the granting of aid has the effect of distorting competition. Moreover, the beneficiaries of the financing are active in sectors open to competition within the EEA. Therefore, the funds granted by the RCN for the development of R&D projects affect trade between the Contracting Parties to the EEA Agreement. For these reasons, the grants given by the RCN to the projects related to the development of the software programme Turborouter constitute state aid within the meaning of Article 61(1) of the EEA Agreement. Whether the four projects fall within the existing aid scheme will be assessed under a). Under b), the Authority will assess whether the aid grants, if outside the existing aid scheme, nevertheless are in compliance with the state aid rules.
