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Dhe good news: it has been greatly improved. The Central Innovation Program for SMEs (ZIM) is the program of choice for manageable technical innovations from SMEs that are to be developed and brought to market in 1-2 years. Not well suited for software projects.

  • Maximum grant per company: EUR 168,000 – 336,000
  • Lump sum: On proof up to +100% of personnel costs for companies, 85% for research institutions
  • Subsidy: 25-60 % of the costs + lump sum
  • Funding body: Federal Government -> BMWK -> AiF/VDI VDE-IT#
  • Program budget: approx. 650 million euros per year
  • Funding topics: Development of innovative products, processes or technical services without restriction to specific technologies and sectors
  • Eligible to apply: SMEs and medium-sized companies with up to 1,000 employees
  • Formats: In-house (individual project), consortia (2 or more SMEs), networks (6 or more SMEs)
  • Application: single-stage, possible on an ongoing basis
  • Requirements: Innovation, technical risks, economic exploitation
  • Difficulty level: Easy

The ZIM program

ZIM is the largest technology and sector-open funding program of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK) for innovative SMEs in Germany. It supports research and development projects by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and cooperating research institutions.

Goals:

  • Strengthening the innovative power of SMEs

  • Bringing new products, processes and services to market faster

  • Promoting cooperation between business and science

Funding opportunities:

  • Individual projects: R&D projects of a single company

  • Cooperation projects: R&D projects involving several partners

  • Innovation networks: development and management of networks with common development goals

ZIM grants are non-repayable subsidies and can be combined individually – also with international partners.

Whiterock ZIM Projektformen en

In addition to individual projects, ZIM offers various forms of collaboration in cooperation projects (above) and innovation networks (below)

ZIM funding rates

The following table shows the subsidy rates (in yellow) for different company sizes. The classification is based on the number of employees and turnover/total assets. Higher funding rates apply for young companies and companies in structurally weak regions. There are also higher funding rates for cooperation partners with international participation.

Whiterrock ZIM Fördersätze en

Click on the table to enlarge it. Further information: www.zim.de

Whiterock

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