Skip to content

Research funding

shutterstock_1268263639

Companies in the mechanical and plant engineering sector have a wide range of options for promoting their research and development activities at various levels – such as NRW, the federal government, Europe or the VDMA.

Research Funding – NRW

  • Advice to companies on securing skilled workers / advice on potential
    This program promotes participation-oriented consulting for companies in NRW. The consulting must address one of the following topics: 1) Work organization, 2) Demographic change, 3) Health. 4) Digitalization or 5) Competence development and qualification consulting. Funding is provided for 50 percent of the expenses (excluding VAT) for a maximum of ten consulting days and 500 euros per consulting day.
  • Employee transfer (promotion of transfer companies)
    The program supports the transfer of people threatened with unemployment into new employment through counseling and accompanying activities. In order to be eligible, one of the following criteria must apply to the company:
    1. A company that is to be classified as a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) according to EU criteria. The SME property is to be declared by the company.
    2. A company that is threatened with insolvency or is insolvent. Evidence must be provided, for example, in the form of a ruling by the local court.
    3. A company which is demonstrably in economic difficulties and is of particular importance to the region in terms of labor market policy. Proof must be provided.
    4. Employees in the company must be at risk of unemployment due to a reduction in staff. The funding amount is a lump sum of 80 percent of the standard unit costs per month and per job, and the funding period is 12 months.
  • Advice to companies on securing skilled workers / advice on potential
    This program promotes participation-oriented consulting for companies in NRW. The consulting must address one of the following topics: work organization, demographic change, health, digitization or skills development and qualification consulting. Funding is provided for 50 percent of the expenses (excluding VAT) for a maximum of ten consulting days and 500 euros per consulting day.
  • Employee transfer (promotion of transfer companies)
    The program supports the transfer of people threatened with unemployment into new employment through counseling and accompanying activities. In order to be eligible, one of the following criteria must apply to the company:
    1. A company that is to be classified as a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) according to EU criteria. The SME status must be declared by the company.
    2. A company that is threatened with insolvency or is insolvent. Evidence must be provided, for example, in the form of a ruling by the local court.
    3. A company which is demonstrably in economic difficulties and is of particular importance to the region in terms of labor market policy. Proof must be provided.
    4. Employees in the company must be at risk of unemployment due to a reduction in staff. The funding amount is a lump sum of 80 percent of the standard unit costs per month and per job, and the funding period is 12 months.
  • Education voucher NRW
    Within the framework of the Bildungsscheck NRW, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with the support of the European Social Fund (ESF), promotes participation in continuing vocational training. These can serve to provide professional qualifications or to teach technical skills or key qualifications. New forms of continuing education such as online-based training (for example, online events and e-learning) are also supported. In-company seminars are also funded. Eligibility is granted to individuals as well as companies. In company access, SMEs with more than 250 employees with their registered office or place of work in North Rhine-Westphalia are eligible for funding. In individual access, taxable annual income must be between EUR 20,000 and EUR 40,000 (between EUR 40,000 and EUR 80,000 for jointly assessed persons). If the annual income is lower, the federal government’s education premium can be used. On the other hand, there is no upper income limit for company-based access. The maximum amount of funding is 50 percent of the course costs, up to a maximum of EUR 500. A maximum of ten education vouchers can be applied for in the case of company access, and one education voucher per calendar year in the case of individual access.
  • Promotion of in-company training in combination
    In this program, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with the support of the European Social Fund (ESF), promotes the provision of in-company training places in a training alliance between companies and an educational service provider. The aim is to improve the supply of initial in-company training, especially in small and medium-sized enterprises. As a rule, the company concluding the training contract must have fewer than 250 employees and the company must not be able to provide training on its own. Both must be confirmed by the chamber. The training in the network must be designed in such a way that the training period is at least six months for the partners in the network and at least 12 months for the company concluding the training contract. The amount of the grant is €4,500 per training place. Applications must be submitted to the relevant district government.

The NeueWege.IN.NRW innovation competition is aimed in particular at projects focusing on the following topics:

  • New, networked multi- and intermodal mobility and logistics solutions
  • Testing new climate-friendly technologies and prototypes of automated and networked mobility
  • Digitalization of mobility data for mobility as a service and for logistics applications
  • New approaches to intelligent traffic management systems and integrated projects

The “NeueWege.IN.NRW” innovation competition is being implemented as part of European regional funding (ERDF/JTF program NRW 2021-2027) under the leadership of the Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Transport (MUNV) in cooperation with the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (MWIKE).

The Energy.IN.NRW innovation competition is aimed in particular at projects with the following three main topics- Cross-sector energy system of the future- Climate-neutral energy solutions and processes for industry- Climate-friendly buildings, circular building materials and decentralized sector couplingAs part of the Energy.IN.NRW innovation competition, projects are funded in line with political objective 1 (Innovative NRW) and specific objective 1 “Development and expansion of research and innovation capacities and the introduction of advanced technologies”.

Research Funding – Federal government

  • The Federal Funding Advisory Service for Research and Innovation is the first point of contact for all questions relating to research and innovation funding. It informs potential applicants about the federal research structure, the funding programs and their contacts as well as current funding priorities and initiatives.
  • The federal funding database offers a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of all German and European funding programs for your own research. Interested parties such as entrepreneurs, universities or start-ups can use filter functions and detailed searches to display suitable programs at regional, national and EU level with just a few clicks.
  • Within the framework of specialist programs, the German government promotes innovations that contribute to overcoming social challenges. The focus is on issues relating to climate, energy, health, nutrition, mobility, security and communication.
  • Specialized programs BMBF
    The current BMBF framework program “Innovations for production, Service and work of tomorrow” aims to find applicable solutions to maintain and expand value creation and jobs in Germany. This program runs until 2020 and the funding budget amounts to around 1 billion euros during this period.
  • KMU-innovativ
    The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) supports industrial research and pre-competitive development projects for cutting-edge research in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with KMU-innovativ. With “KMU-innovativ”, the BMBF aims to simplify the application and approval of funding for SMEs. Funding is available for research and development projects in the following technology fields and subject areas
  • Bioeconomy
  • Biomedicine
  • Electronics and autonomous driving; High Performance Computing
  • Energy efficiency, climate protection and climate adaptation
  • Information and communication technologies
  • Interactive technologies for health and quality of life
  • Materials research
  • Medical technology
  • Photonics and quantum technologies
  • Resource efficiency and climate protection
  • Future of value creation

The details of the funding are regulated in the respective funding announcement. Evaluation deadlines are April 15 and October 15. Each KMU-innovativ technology field is presented on its own website.

  • Contact

Federal funding advisory service “Research and Innovation”
Mail: lotse@kmu-innovativ.de
Phone: 0800 2623-009

  • Central Innovation Program for SMEs
    The Central Innovation Program for SMEs (ZIM) The Central Innovation Program for SMEs – ZIM for short – SMEs and the business-related research institutions working with them are funded in freely selectable project forms:
  • Individual R&D projects
    Individual R&D projects of companies.
  • R&D cooperation projects
    R&D projects involving at least two companies or at least one company and one research institution, cooperation with partners from all over the world (partners not eligible to apply) or as contractors are possible. Agreements exist with various countries to simplify and synchronize funding procedures, e.g. within the framework of IraSME, bilateral calls for proposals and EUREKA.

Kontakt

EURONORM GmbH
ZIM-Einzelprojekte
Stralauer Platz 34
10243 Berlin
Tel.: 030 97003-222
Tel.: 030 97003-044

AiF Projekt GmbH
ZIM-Kooperationsprojekte Tschaikowskistraße 49
13156 Berlin
Tel.: 030 481 63 3
Tel.: 030 481 63 402

  • Industrial Cooperative Research (IGF)
    The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection supports pre-competitive research projects with the open-topic and cross-sector funding program Industrial Collective Research. The aim is to strengthen the competitiveness and innovative power of German SMEs. The IGF is intended to provide small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular with easier access to practice-oriented research. SMEs, research institutes (FE) or research associations (FV) can provide ideas for the research projects. Independent research associations are eligible to apply. These associations must and should pursue exclusively and directly non-profit purposes. In addition to general funding under the IGF (standard procedure), there are special forms of funding such as lead technologies for SMEs (particularly important, system-relevant projects), PLUS (several thematically closely related research projects) and CORNET (transnational research projects).
  • Contact
    German Aerospace Center (DLR), DLR Project Management Agency
    IGF Service Desk
    Heinrich-Konen-Straße 1
    53227 Bonn
    Tel.: 0228 3821-22 75
  • Industrial research facilities
    The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK) has set itself the goal of sustainably strengthening the innovative power of the German economy through industrial research. As part of this, the BMWK supports the research and development activities of non-profit external industrial research institutions that make their fundamental results available to the general public, and thus primarily to SMEs, in a non-discriminatory manner. There are the INNO-KOM funding programs and the networking platform for SMEs and research with its innovation catalog.

    Eligible for funding are
  • Preliminary research projects
    Implementation of preliminary research projects insofar as they deal with the results and findings of basic research with regard to industrial or commercial areas of application.
  • Market-oriented research and development projects
    Support from detailed conception to production maturity and transfer of application-ready research results.
  • Investment grant
    Expenditure for investment measures to improve the scientific and technical infrastructure.

    Contact
    EuroNorm GmbH
    Stralauer Platz 34
    10243 Berlin
    Phone: 030 97 003-043
  • BMWi innovation vouchers (go-Inno)
    In the search for new products and processes, SMEs in particular often reach the limits of their capacity. In order to still be able to make investments in the right place, it can make sense to make use of consulting services. With go-inno, the BMWi’s innovation vouchers, SMEs can cover 50 percent of their expenses for external consulting services. These service providers advise companies on innovations in the areas of technology, organization and management. The providers are selected by the BMWi according to strict quality criteria. An application procedure is not required.
  • Innovation competence INNO-KOM
    The INNO-KOM Innovation Competence funding program supports the performance of non-profit external industrial research institutions in order to sustainably strengthen the innovative power of SMEs in structurally weak regions of Germany.
  • Germany Trade and Invest (GTAI)
    Germany Trade and Invest (GTAI) is the economic development agency of the Federal Republic of Germany. Investors from Germany as well as from abroad can be supported by Germany Trade and Invest (GTAI) in the selection of funding programs. GTAI advises before the start of the project regarding suitable programs as well as the appropriate financing models.
  • Research Grants Act
    On January 1, 2020, the Act on Tax Subsidies for Research and Development (Research Subsidy Act) came into force. Under this law, R&D projects that are classified as basic research, industrial research or experimental development are subsidized. All companies subject to income or corporation tax in Germany are entitled to the subsidy, irrespective of the size of the company (group perspective). The basis of assessment is the personnel expenses subject to payroll tax for personnel carrying out favored R&D activities. The subsidy rate is 25 percent. For R&D activities up to June 30, 2020, the maximum annual subsidy amount is €0.5 million per company. For R&D expenditures made in the period after June 30, 2020, and before July 1, 2026, the cap on the assessment base is four million euros instead of two million euros. This means that a maximum funding amount of one million euros per year is achievable in the years 2020 to 2026.

Research Funding – Europe

Horizon Europe is structured in three program pillars (Scientific Excellence, European Industrial Competitiveness, Innovative Europe) as well as the funding area Increasing Participation and Strengthening the European Research Area.

Horizon Europe offers interesting funding topics for SMEs, particularly under the umbrella of the European Innovation Council (EIC) and the program pillar “Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness”. With the EIC Pathfinder, the EIC Transitions, the EIC Accelerator and the EIC Prizes, the EIC brings together important EU instruments for promoting innovation. The EIC Pathfinder aims to implement radically new technologies that have the potential to create entirely new markets. EIC Transitions aims to further develop promising results from the EIC Pathfinder and the European Research Council (ERC) Proof of Concept. The EIC Transitions aim to mature both the technology and the business idea. At European level, the EIC Accelerator is aimed specifically at small and medium-sized enterprises that develop disruptive, high-risk innovations with great market potential. It is primarily aimed at companies that have high growth potential and operate on a European or international scale. The EIC awards are intended to help develop innovative, pioneering solutions to global challenges, involve new players and build new communities.

Advice on Horizon Europe is provided by the national contact points.

Contact
EU Office of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research
German Aerospace Center (DLR), DLR Project Management Agency
Visitor address
Joseph-Schumpeter-Allee 1
53227 Bonn
Tel.: 0228 3821 1630
Phone: 0228 3821 1649

National Contact Point EIC Accelerator
German Aerospace Center (DLR), DLR Project Management Agency
Heinrich-Konen-Straße 1
53227 Bonn
Tel.: 0228 3821 1643
Phone: 0228 3821 1649

On behalf of the BMBF and in cooperation with the European Commission, the National Contact Point (NCP) supports German interested parties with information and intensive advice for successful participation.

Eurostars is a funding program for innovative SMEs and is aimed specifically at research-intensive SMEs that invest at least 10% of their turnover in research and development or employ 10% of their staff in research and development. Funding is provided for the market-oriented development of an innovative product, process or service. The basic requirement is the involvement of cooperation partners from at least two participating countries. The consortium leader is a research-driven SME from a Eurostars country. SMEs that are not involved in research, research institutes and large companies can also participate as additional project partners. With a maximum project duration of three years, the project results should reach the market no later than two years after project completion.

Eureka is the world’s largest intergovernmental network for international and European cooperation in research and innovation. It accompanies and supports companies and scientific institutions in cross-border cooperation in market-oriented projects. The contact for German interested parties and applicants is the EUREKA office at the DLR Project Management Agency.

Eurostars applications can be submitted centrally to the EUREKA Secretariat in Brussels at any time.

There are two deadlines per year (spring/autumn) on which all applications received by then will be reviewed. It is advisable to contact the national EUREKA office in Germany directly in good time before submitting an application.

Contact
German Aerospace Center (DLR), DLR Project Management Agency
EUREKA Office
Nadja Rohrbach
Heinrich-Konen-Str. 1
53227 Bonn
Tel.: 0228 3821 1346
Phone: 0228 3821 1353

    Research Promotion – VDMA

    • The VDMA has been successful in organizing and handling research cooperations for many years. VDMA Services GmbH has a wide range of contacts with the research networks and, above all, with the funding bodies. The VFI provides support in arranging research cooperations, advice on research funding, project management of research projects and rapid knowledge transfer of research results.
    • The Forschungskuratorium Maschinenbau e.V. (FKM), with its 8 independent research associations and a further 21 research-active trade associations within the VDMA, offers efficient and beneficial cooperation platforms for pre-competitive joint industrial research (IGF).

    News Research funding

    mehr News