Submission of project proposals

Thematic priorities for R&D project funding are set by public funding announcements*. Project proposals deviating from these, whose level of innovation and unique selling points are of particular interest, can be submitted at any time as "Strategic stand-alone Projects".

Strategic stand-alone projects

Through strategically oriented individual projects, the BMWK wants to take up innovative technologies and solution approaches in the ICT sector at an early stage in order to test their practical applicability, to shed light on their market potential and to identify market obstacles and barriers. As a rule, these are collaborative R&D projects between industry and science with a duration of no more than 24 months and three to five funded partners. They must be of particular importance for Germany as a business location. Corresponding project proposals must be geared to these objectives. In addition, project proposals must be thematically subordinate to the funding spectrum of Department VIB3 "Development of Digital Technologies" and the political priorities set (http://bmwk.de/DE/Themen/Digitale-Welt/digitale-technologien.html). Project proposals with a strong proximity to current funding priorities in terms of content will not be considered as an stand-alone project. Please inform yourself in time about our funding priorities and the current calls for funding.

Project proposals for strategic stand-alone projects can be submitted to the project management agency at any time. In accordance with and subject to the available budget and the number of qualified outlines, selection dates will be fixed at which the consortia can present their proposals to the BMWK. These dates will be communicated in good time. The prerequisite is a previous positive evaluation result. The project description must be submitted in the form of the 10-page form SKIZZE via PT-Outline. According to the final evaluation by the BMWK and the available budget, the most promising projects will be invited to submit a formal application.

Please note that due to the expected strong competitive situation, only projects with a high innovation potential can be shortlisted. 

The following procedure shall apply:

Submission of formal project outlines (step 1):

The individual strategic project must be in the funding interest of the BMWK. If you are not sure whether this is the case with your project idea, you can optionally obtain an assessment from the project management organization via the two-step procedure (IDEE) below. Please send this form to Strategieprojekte-PT@dlr.de.

The following conditions apply to the submission of a formal project outline - in addition to the relevant provisions of the German Grant and Aid Law:

• The Strategic Individual Project consists of at least three, but no more than five project partners from industry and science (collaborative project).
• The project outline is submitted by the network coordinator.
• The duration of the planned projects should be 24 months.
• The sketch must be new. Project outlines that have previously been rejected as individual strategic projects or in a technology competition in the field of "Development of Digital Technologies" must expect to be rejected.
• The sketch must present the project in a meaningful way on a maximum of 10 pages (calculated without cover sheet). Applicants are requested to use the form below (SKIZZE). Sketches that deviate substantially from this form must be expected to be rejected.
• The sketch must be submitted via PT-Outline If the evaluation is positive, they will be invited to a selection meeting at the BMWK. We will then inform you of the date at short notice (approx. 14 days in advance).

Procedure for selecting strategic stand-alone projects (2nd step):

A committee consisting of representatives of the BMWK, the project management organization and independent external experts reviews the projects and determines their basic eligibility for funding. Outlines that do not meet the above criteria cannot be considered. In the positive case, the project consortium will receive an invitation to a (possibly virtual) selection meeting at the BMWKK in Berlin to present the collaborative project and answer the questions of the reviewers. The BMWK will decide on the final eligibility for funding.

Application procedure (step 3):

Once the BMWK has made its decision, all submitters will be informed immediately by the project management organization about the result. The winning consortia will be invited to submit their applications and at the same time be invited to attend the applicant consultation. Applications must be submitted electronically via easy-online by a deadline to be determined. For the duration of the project, the financial management of the funded projects must be carried out via Profi-Online.

Legal basis/eligibility conditions:

The legal basis for project funding is the Federal Budget Code (Bundeshaushaltsordnung - BHO) together with the General Administrative Provisions on the BHO and the relevant ancillary provisions of the BMWK (NKBF 98, ANBest-P or ANBest-GK and BNBest-BMBF 98 et al.)

A mandatory prerequisite for eligibility is compliance with the provisions of Chapter I in conjunction with Chapter III, Section 4, Article 25 of the General Block Exemption Regulation (EU(VO)651/2014).

No individual aid may be granted to an enterprise that has not complied with a recovery order based on an earlier decision of the EU Commission declaring an aid to be illegal and incompatible with the internal market.

Work on the project must not have been started yet.

The project must be carried out in the Federal Republic of Germany and the results of the funded project must be used primarily in the Federal Republic of Germany or the EEA.

A mandatory prerequisite for the granting of federal aid is proof that the overall financing of the project is secured. During the subsequent approval procedure, the applicant must, if necessary, prove that he/she is in a position to make his/her own contribution to the total project costs that is not covered by federal funds and that this does not exceed his/her economic possibilities (proof of creditworthiness).

We ask for your understanding that selection and funding can only take place subject to the available budget.

Appointment:

The submission deadline for projects that can still start in 2020 has now expired. All the outlines received will be evaluated this year, but if the decision is positive they will not be able to start until 2021. There is therefore no fixed deadline for submissions at this point.

* Public funding announcements (in German only)