Apply for funding for the "KMU-innovativ: Electronics and autonomous driving" program

Source: BUS Rheinland-Pfalz

As a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME), you can apply for the funding program "Microelectronics. Trustworthy and sustainable. For Germany and Europe" funding program of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) if you are conducting research in the fields of electronics, autonomous driving or high-performance computing.

The funded part of the research project must be fully assigned to one or more of the following categories:

basic research
industrial research
experimental development

As an SME, you can apply for funding on your own or together with partners, for example a research institution or university. The research tasks and objectives must clearly exceed the state of the art and be characterized by a high scientific, technical and economic risk.

As an SME, you can generally receive funding of up to 50 percent.

Universities, research and scientific institutions as well as comparable institutions that do not fall into the area of scientific activities can receive individual funding of up to 100 percent.

Universities and university hospitals receive an additional project allowance of 20 percent for non-commercial research projects.

You can receive funding for

Personnel costs: Costs for researchers, technicians and other personnel, insofar as they are deployed for the project
Costs for instruments and equipment, insofar and as long as they are used for the project
Costs for contract research: knowledge and patents acquired directly or under license from third parties as well as costs for consulting and equivalent services used exclusively for the project
Additional overheads and other costs

The funding period is generally up to 3 years.

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

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

The application procedure for funding projects in the fields of electronics, autonomous and connected driving and high-performance computing has two stages:

Stage 1: Project outline

Submit the project outline in German to the project management organization VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH online via the submission assistant on the Internet portal for the funding guideline "KMU-innovativ: Elektronik und autonomes Fahren; Supercomputing". The information required for participation in the announcement is available there.
In the case of collaborative projects, you must submit project outlines in consultation with the intended collaborative coordinator and explain the need for collaboration within the consortium.
The project outline should not exceed 10 pages (Arial font, font size at least 10, line spacing at least 1.15 margins at least 2 centimeters). The cover sheet and any directories are not included.
If your project idea is selected, you will receive a positive written request to submit the application (stage 2).

Stage 2: Application

You submit your application for funding for a project in the research, development and use of artificial intelligence methods as follows:

The application is submitted electronically via the "easy-Online" portal.
Call up the "easy-Online" Internet portal. The portal will guide you through the application step by step.
Fill in the required fields, add a qualified electronic signature and submit the application online.
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.
You will receive a confirmation of receipt.
If you have any queries, the project management agency will contact you.
Applications are evaluated and checked according to the following criteria:
- Proof of SME status in the form of an SME declaration and of the significant proportion of research work carried out by the participating SME(s)
- Implementation of any conditions from the first stage and compliance with the financial framework recommended there for funding
- Quality of the detailed description of the solution concept, the work plan and the organization of the collaboration within the consortium
- informative value of the detailed description of the exploitation plan, also with regard to the funding policy objectives of this funding measure
- Eligibility of the requested funds
- Necessity and appropriateness of the requested funds
- Comprehensibility of the explanations of the financing plan, in the case of companies including the presentation of the own contribution
You will receive a decision
If the decision is positive, you will receive a grant notification by post.

Eligible applicants are

SMEs as defined by the European Commission
medium-sized enterprises (national requirement) if they do not exceed a size of 1,000 employees and an annual turnover of EUR 100 million at the time of application, including affiliated or partner companies
Universities and research institutions as part of collaborative projects with SMEs and/or medium-sized enterprises within the meaning of this directive
Local authorities and associations of local authorities in the Federal Republic of Germany

The research and development projects must focus on the field of "electronics". This includes, among others, the areas of

Mechanical and plant engineering,
automation technology,
electrical industry, ICT industry
medical technology,
energy technology,
automotive electronics including autonomous and networked driving as well as
High-performance and supercomputing.

At the time of payment: The permanent establishment or branch (company) or other institution that serves the non-economic activity of the grant recipient (university, research institution) is in Germany.

You must also meet the following special funding requirements:

The research tasks and objectives must clearly exceed the state of the art and be characterized by a high scientific, technical and economic risk.

They must be high-risk, industry-led research and pre-competitive development projects in the fields of electronics, autonomous and networked driving and high-performance computing with a clear application focus.

Stage 1: Project outline with the following information:

Cover sheet with project name, postal address, telephone number and e-mail address of the submitter as well as information on total costs, funding requirements and duration
Motivation, initial question, objectives and social need of the planned project
State of the art of research and technology, novelty of the solution approach, own preliminary work, data basis, differentiation from previous and ongoing national and international research work
Description of the cooperation partners, in the case of companies including the own contribution to be made
Description of your own solution approach, including the methods to be used
Time and labor planning with person months per partner
Work plan showing the contributions of all partners involved
tabular financing overview
Utilization plan with explanations of market potential, competitive situation, economic and scientific-technical prospects of success, connectivity, added value for Germany as a business location
- Proof of the status of all participating SMEs by means of an SME declaration

Apply for funding for the "KMU-innovativ: Electronics and autonomous driving" program

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