Apply for funding for the program "Research for civil security - innovations in action - practical lighthouses of civil security"

Source: BUS Rheinland-Pfalz

With this funding measure, the BMBF supports industrial research and pre-competitive experimental development projects in order to further strengthen the innovative power and practical transfer in the framework program "Research for Civil Security".

Particularly suitable projects with considerable practical relevance that have already been funded under the "Research for Civil Security" framework programme will be given the opportunity to further develop their results and specifically address newly identified research and development needs. This enables them to raise their research results to the necessary level of maturity to enable scientific validation under operational conditions in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the research approaches.

Funding is available for innovation projects that meet the following requirements:

The innovation project must build significantly on a research project that has received funding under the "Research for Civil Security" framework programme and is characterized by particularly successful, structured and efficient implementation.
In the course of the previous research project, new and significant research needs must have been identified or emerged that could not have been foreseen at the start of the project and which are absolutely necessary in order to actually be able to transfer the originally intended research result into practice. The work regularly required after the end of the project to further develop research results into a marketable product as part of the exploitation plan is not taken into account.
The results of the preceding research project must demonstrate a particularly high degree of innovation and very high practical relevance. This is the case, for example, if a new solution significantly expands a user's range of capabilities or enables them to efficiently master challenges for which no practicable solution was previously available.
There must be a considerable need and a clear interest on the part of the user in using the research results, which must be documented individually at least by concrete, detailed and meaningful expressions of interest. In addition, the transferability of the research results to as large a group of users as possible and the involvement of the relevant stakeholders is expressly desired.
The need for intensive testing and scientific validation of the targeted solutions, such as an application demonstrator, new systems, processes or concepts, must be evident. This is particularly the case if the user is given completely new capabilities or working methods are made possible, or if compatibility and interaction with existing equipment and established operational tactics pose decisive challenges.
The further developed, tested and scientifically validated solutions must have realistic marketing prospects. To this end, the potential system provider or comparable service provider must present a well-founded economic concept that can be expected to be implemented quickly.

As a rule, commercial enterprises can 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 a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME).

Colleges and universities receive a project allowance of 20 percent for non-commercial research projects in addition to the eligible expenditure financed by the BMBF.

The results of the funded project should preferably be exploited in Germany, the European Economic Area (EEA) or 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 consists of 2 stages.

Stage 1: Project outline

Before submitting an outline, you must contact the Project Management Agency for Security Research (VDI TZ).
The project participants, represented by the coordinator, submit a project outline that is suitable for review, easy to understand and comprehensible without further aids, which should not exceed 15 A4 pages (font size 12).
If associated project participants are to be involved, their informal confirmation of participation must be attached to the outline as a special appendix (in addition to the 15 A4 pages).
In addition to the electronic submission, a printed version signed by the coordinator must be sent to the VDI TC project management organization. This must be submitted to the project management organization by post immediately after the electronic submission.
The project outline will be evaluated in the competitive procedure according to the following criteria:
- The research project on which the innovation project is based fulfills the requirements defined in point 2 "Object of funding"
- Importance and impact of the intended innovative research result on civil security, need and relevance on the part of users
- Scientific and technical quality of the solution approach, also with regard to the implementation of the tests and scientific validations,
- Structure of the consortium, in particular the role of users and involvement of SMEs, complementarity and expertise of the project participants, involvement of a suitable system provider
- Quality, effectiveness and efficiency of the project structure,
- Quality and feasibility of the utilization plan, contribution of the project result to increasing the user's ability to work, market potential,
- comprehensible, realistic presentation of the overall financing.
Suitable project outlines will be selected for funding on the basis of the evaluation. The BMBF reserves the right to seek advice from independent experts when evaluating the project outlines submitted. The network coordinator will be informed of the selection result in writing.

Stage 2: Application

You submit your application for funding as part of the practical lighthouses as follows:

The application is submitted electronically via the internet portal.
Go to the Internet portal. There you will be guided step by step through the application process.
Complete all the fields required for the application and submit it with a qualified electronic 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 administrator at the project management organization will contact you during the processing of your application to clarify any queries.

Applications are evaluated and checked according to the following criteria:

Organization of cooperation within the network, project management,
Definition of a milestone target with quantitative or verifiable criteria, definition of further handover points,
Eligibility of the requested funds,
Necessity and appropriateness of the requested funds to carry out the activities listed in the work plan,
Comprehensibility of the explanations of the financing plan,
Quality and informative value of the utilization plan, also with regard to the funding policy objectives of this funding measure,
Implementation of any conditions from the first stage and compliance with the financial framework recommended there for funding.
You will receive a decision on your application.
In the event of a positive decision, you will receive a grant notification by post.

Eligible applicants are:

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). 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
- 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)

Also eligible to apply are

University hospitals,
scientific institutions,
authorities and their research facilities as well as
comparable institutions and
the respective users: for example, local authorities, security and emergency services such as the police and fire department, operators of critical infrastructure or companies in the private security sector

Further requirements for start-ups:

They have completed the start-up phase, commenced productive business activities and can demonstrate economic performance on the market through corresponding customer projects or orders.
You have permanent employees with proven specialist knowledge in IT and proven expertise in the AI specialist areas to the required extent.
They are in a position to raise the own contribution to be provided as part of the partial financing of the project from ongoing business operations.

Further requirements for funding:

Funding is available for collaborative projects between companies and research institutions together with relevant users.
Only those partners from the original research project who are necessary to close the newly identified research need and for testing and scientific validation are to be included in the innovation project. It is possible to include new partners in the consortium if they are necessary for the successful transfer into practice. This applies in particular to users or networks of users as well as system providers or comparable service providers.

Project outline with the following structure:
- Initial situation, problem description and solution approach
- Application perspective, market potential and utilization plan
- Need for funding
- Brief description of the network structure, as well as new network partners and associated partners
- Outlined work plan, bar chart
- Rough financing plan (individually according to partners)

Apply for funding for the program "Research for civil security - innovations in action - practical lighthouses of civil security"

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