EUREKA - Joint Danish-German Cooperation on SME Innovation

Date de clôture : 30 nov. 2016  
APPEL À PROJET CLÔTURÉ

Call description

Innovation Fund Denmark and ZIM invite Danish and German SME’s to apply for joint projects under EUREKA.

Eligibility criteria

To qualify in the call you need to complete a joint EUREKA application form, which includes the activities of all partners in the project. You also need to submit national funding applications:

• If you are a Danish SME you have to submit applications to the InnoBooster programme.
• If you are a German SME or a research organisation cooperating with an eligible German SME you have to submit your application to the ZIM programme.

In both cases the national rules for the corresponding programmes apply.

Expected project results should contribute to the development of commercial products, applications and / or technology-based services according to national programme requirements. The project proposals have to comply with the following guidelines:

• The consortium should include at least one Danish and one German SME. Other companies, research institutes/universities are welcome as subcontractors or partners according to the national funding regulations.
• The project should have obvious benefit and added value for both partners resulting from the cooperation between the participants from the two countries (e.g. increased knowledge base, commercial leads, access to R&D infrastructure, new fields of application, etc.).
• The proposal should demonstrate clear technical contribution of the participants from both countries
• The proposal should comply with the requirements for InnoBooster, ZIM and EUREKA.

Funding details

Germany - ZIM

The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) in Germany will provide access to public funding for joint selected projects. BMWi (supported by the EUREKA Office and the AiF Projekt GmbH) will provide all necessary assistance to project partners during the project proposal, evaluation and monitoring phases. In addition, the EUREKA Office will facilitate the EUREKA application process and acquisition of the EUREKA label for accepted proposals and will accompany the progress of the respective EUREKA projects.

German SMEs with up to 500 employees (or consortia of such enterprises) which perform R&D to develop an innovative product, process or technological service – also in cooperation with research institutions/ universities – have the right to apply. There are no restrictions to specific technologies or branches. More detailed criteria can be found on the ZIM website (http://www.zim-bmwi.de/kooperationsprojekte - in German).

The application has to be in line with the ZIM regulations, e.g. it has to be in German language. The support is in the form of a conditional grant amounting up to 55% of the project costs, which are restricted to €380,000 per industrial partner and 100 % of €190,000 for research organisations.

It is possible to begin a research project at your own risk after receiving a confirmation of receipt of the funding application from AiF Projekt GmbH. We recommend contacting the AiF Projekt GmbH before the application to clarify open questions and to hand in a project sketch max. 6 weeks before the deadline. German research institutes/universities are accepted as additional partners according to the rules available on the ZIM website. Deadline for the submission of the ZIM-application forms is 30 November 2016. All documents for the ZIM application have to be in German with working translations for English documents.

The proposal form is available at:

www.zim-bmwi.de/kooperationsprojekte/download-kooperationsprojekte-zim-ab-2015

Denmark – InnoBooster

InnoBooster invests in knowledge-based innovative projects from small and medium sized companies (EU definition: up to 250 employee), start-ups and scientists. When investing in your company we do not want shares in your company nor do we want you to pay back the investment - but we do expect that your idea has potential and that the project is well thought through.

An InnoBooster project could be an idea for a new product, a new service or improvement of a process to increase your company’s competitiveness. You can include other partners in your project such as knowledge institutions, private companies or employ a new member of staff with specific competences.

Depending on your need and perspective we can invest up to €670.000 (DKK 5 mio.). We aim to evaluate you application within a month and might invite you for a sales pitch to a panel of professionals if the project has a certain size.  InnoBooster assesses the applications as they are submitted, so you can submit your application whenever it fits with the company’s development plans.

You can submit your InnoBooster application in English – this will be a help when you fill in the EUREKA application form.

You can download the InnoBooster application form and read more about InnoBooster here:http://innovationsfonden.dk/en/investment/innobooster

Joint EUREKA application

In the joint EUREKA application form you should describe how the cooperation will take place and what the expected benefit of the cooperation will be. You can download the EUREKA Project Application Form here: http://www.eurekanetwork.org/eureka-project-application-form

The application should be submitted electronically by the applicants to their national EUREKA Offices (see contacts at the end of this document).

The EUREKA application form has to be signed in a legally binding way by all partners. The signatures must be scanned and sent electronically together with the EUREKA form. The EUREKA status is only granted when the financing of all project partners has been secured or is on-going by national authorities. Proposals can be submitted until the submission deadline on 30 November 2016.

Consultation with the national funding organisations prior to official application is strongly advised. (See national contact information at the end of the document).