KMU-innovativ: Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie (IKT) Bewilligung

If you are a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) and want to strengthen your competitiveness and innovative capacity in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT), you can receive funding under certain conditions.

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) funds projects to strengthen innovative capacity in the field of information and communication technologies. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can carry out these projects with partners from science and industry.

As an SME, you can receive funding for eligible project-related costs for high-risk projects, either alone or together with partners, if the planned research and development projects go well beyond the state of the art. The project should be assigned to at least one of the following subject areas:

• Methods of software development
• Validation, reliability of software systems
• Usability of software
• Targeted changeability of software
• Efficiency and performance of software
• Encapsulation of software complexity

The projects should be implemented in one or more of the following domains in particular:

• Automotive and mobility
• Energy and environment
• Health and medical technology
• ICT industry
• Logistics and services
• Mechanical engineering and automation

As an SME, you can generally receive funding of up to 50% of the eligible project-related costs.

Universities, research and scientific institutions or comparable institutions in the non-commercial sector can receive individual funding of up to 100 percent of the project-related costs or expenses as a joint partner of an SME.

Universities and university hospitals can receive a project lump sum of 20 percent for non-commercial research projects in addition to the eligible expenditure financed by the BMBF.

The results of the funded project may only be used in Germany or in the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland.

There is no entitlement to the grant. Rather, the granting authority decides on the basis of its discretionary powers within the framework of the available budget funds.

For the 1st stage of the procedure: Project outline with the following information:

• Topic and objective of the project
• State of the art in science and technology, novelty of the solution approach, differentiation from projects funded in the past or at the time of application at national or EU level, patent situation
• Necessity of the grant: scientific-technical and economic risk with justification of the need for state funding
• Market potential, market environment, economic and scientific competitive situation, added value for Germany as a business location
• Brief description of the applying institutions and companies, description of the own contribution to be made
• Work plan, if applicable, network structure with work packages of all partners involved
• Financing plan: rough financial quantity structure with tabular financing overview (indication of cost types, own funds/third-party funds and man-months)
• Exploitation plan (economic and scientific/technical prospects of success, potential uses and connectivity, especially in Germany, concrete presentation of business models and market prospects with time horizon and target figures)

Eligible applicants are:

• Small and medium-sized enterprises. This means,
  • They employ fewer than 250 employees,
  • have an annual turnover of no more than EUR 50 million or
  • had an annual balance sheet total of no more than EUR 43 million in the previous financial year.
  • In addition, you must have a permanent establishment or branch in Germany at the time the grant is paid out.
• Companies that are not SMEs
• Universities
• University and non-university research institutions
• associations
• associations
• Other organizations with an interest in research and development (R&D)

In general:

• You are carrying out a research and development project with partners from science or industry that meets the following requirements:
  • The protection of personal data and privacy must be ensured and the social and cultural participation of individuals must be taken into account.
  • The projects must be driven by SMEs and their results must benefit Germany as a business location beyond the network.

It is imperative that European and German data protection guidelines are taken into account. The new or further development of hardware is not eligible for funding.

The application procedure for funding to strengthen the innovative capacity of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has 2 stages.

Stage 1: Project outline

• For collaborative projects, the collaborative coordinator submits the project outline agreed between the partners.
• The project outline should not exceed 10 A4 pages including cover sheet and attachments (Arial font, font size at least 10, single line spacing, margins at least 2 centimeters).
• The project outline must be submitted in digital form via the online outline tool PT-Outline.
• The project outline will be evaluated in a competitive process with the involvement of external experts, if necessary, according to the following criteria:
  • Technical relevance to the funding measure and the objectives of the funding program
  • Importance of the research objective, social need and relevance of the planned research and development
  • level of innovation of the research and development approach compared to the state of the art in science and technology
  • Scientific and technical quality of the solution concept and the work plan
  • Qualification of the partners, collaborative structure and project management, if applicable
  • Financial viability of the project
  • Quality and feasibility of the exploitation plan: Commercialization perspective, market potential, contribution of the project to the future positioning of the participating companies on the market, social need
  • Assessment of the social, economic and ecological consequences, opportunities and risks associated with the scientific and technical innovations.
• If your project idea is selected, you will receive a positive written request to submit the application (stage 2).

Stage 2: Submission of the application

You submit your application for funding for a project to strengthen the innovative capacity of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as follows:

• The application is submitted electronically via the "easy-Online" portal.
• Call up the "easy-Online" Internet portal. There you will be guided step by step through the application process.
• Fill in all the fields required for the application and send it with a qualified electronic online signature.
• If you do not have a qualified electronic signature, you must print out the application in addition to submitting it electronically, sign it and send it to the project management organization together with the other application documents in the next step.
• Once the project management organization has received the application, you will receive a confirmation of receipt.
• The responsible project manager will contact you during the processing of your application to clarify any queries.
• Applications are evaluated and checked according to the following criteria:
  • Proof of SME status by means of an SME declaration and a significant proportion of the research work by the participating SME(s)
  • Compliance with the requirements from the first stage of the procedure
  • Quality of the detailed description of the solution concept, the work plan and the organization of the collaboration in the network
  • Quality of the detailed description of the exploitation plan
  • Eligibility of the requested funds
  • Necessity and appropriateness of the requested funds
  • Comprehensibility of the explanations of the financing plan
• You will receive a decision on your application.
• In the event of a positive decision, you will receive a grant notification by post.

You can submit your project outline to the BMBF's project management organization (DLR-PT) at any time. The annual deadlines are 15.04. and 15.10. The last deadline is 15.10.2025. The submission deadline is not a cut-off deadline. However, project outlines received late may not be considered until the next deadline.

• Administrative court action

• SME-innovative: Information and communication technology (ICT) Approval
• Support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that develop new solutions and methods in the field of information and communication technology (ICT)
• Objectives:
  • Accelerated technology transfer into practical application
  • Strengthening cooperation between SMEs and science
• should be promoted:
  • high-risk industrial research and pre-competitive development projects that are important for the positioning of an SME on the market. These projects must be assigned to the ICT subject area
• Applications for funding can be submitted by
  • SMEs alone or together with partners from science and/or industry
• Amount of funding:
  • for SMEs: generally up to 50 percent of the eligible project costs
  • up to 100 percent possible for partners from the scientific community
  • Universities and university hospitals receive an additional project allowance of 20 percent for non-commercial research projects
• Information via the service number of the project management organization: German Aerospace Center, Department of Data Sciences / Software-intensive Systems (GI-DWS / SIS)
• Application via 2-stage procedure:
  • Submit project outline to the project management organization (German Aerospace Center)
  • if project outline has been positively reviewed: electronic application to the Federal Ministry of Education and Research via "easy-Online"
• responsible: German Aerospace Center (DLR), DLR Project Management Agency (DLR-PT), Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

Forms available: No

Written form required: Yes

Informal application possible: No

Personal appearance necessary: No