In order to provide companies in NRW with even more targeted support for digitization and resource efficiency, the Ministry of Economics has adapted and expanded the Mittelstand Innovativ & Digital funding program.
After more than 4,000 successfully funded projects since 2020, the state is realigning its Mittelstand Innovativ & Digital (MID) funding program. In order to provide even more targeted support for small and medium-sized enterprises in North Rhine-Westphalia in projects for digitization and for greater resource efficiency, the Ministry of Economics has adapted the three program modules MID Assistant, MID Digital Security and MID Digitization, and in some cases expanded them to include new funding offers. Companies can now submit applications for the revised subprograms.
Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Protection Mona Neubaur: “In order to remain competitive, it is important for small and medium-sized enterprises to equally take advantage of the opportunities of digitalization, strengthen their cyber security and use energy and resources sustainably. With comprehensive support offers, we are helping companies in North Rhine-Westphalia to implement investments in the future more quickly. To this end, we are further developing our well-demanded Mittelstand Innovativ & Digital funding program and are responding even more specifically to companies’ current requirements with adjusted terms and conditions.”
MID assistant
Small companies now also receive funding for hiring university graduates who increase resource and energy efficiency in the company on a project basis and promote the use of climate-friendly technologies. Funded projects can, for example, increase the longevity of products and strengthen circular value chains. In addition, the funding amount is increased by 3,000 euros.
MID digital security
Small and medium-sized enterprises will be given the opportunity to shorten the project duration to three months and thus implement their projects even faster. In addition, the subprogram now also supports hardware and software for firewalls and patch management software.
MID digitization
In an additional funding priority, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises can now also receive support for the digitization of processes. The state supports the acquisition of industry-specific hardware and software such as CAD programs, as well as document management software and enterprise resource planning software. This means that the most important funding opportunities of the MID-Invest subprogram, which ended at the end of 2022, will be transferred to the MID-Digitalization module.
The funding rates remain unchanged at 80 percent for micro and small enterprises and 60 percent for medium-sized enterprises in all subprograms.
Further information