From the project idea all the way to innovation: Your key to success

Research and innovation funding

Bava­ria is a lea­ding cent­re of rese­arch and tech­no­lo­gy – not only wit­hin Ger­ma­ny, but also on a Euro­pean sca­le. It has achie­ved this sta­tus pri­ma­ri­ly due to the scores of highly-skilled uni­ver­si­ties, busi­nes­ses and orga­ni­sa­ti­ons who are stri­ving to break new ground in the field of rese­arch and inno­va­ti­on (R&I). In order to sus­tain and build on this lea­ding posi­ti­on, Bava­ria offers a num­ber of fun­ding and sup­port programmes.

The Bava­ri­an Rese­arch and Inno­va­ti­on Agency’s goal is to pro­vi­de the region’s key play­ers with the best pos­si­ble sup­port when it comes to tur­ning their ide­as into a rea­li­ty. To achie­ve this, we allo­ca­te fun­ding and pro­vi­de advice and sup­port regar­ding app­li­ca­ti­ons for natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal (pri­ma­ri­ly Euro­pean) programmes.

Identifying the ideal funding programme

Each R&I pro­ject is uni­que and has its own set of under­ly­ing cir­cum­s­tan­ces. For each plan­ned pro­ject, we seek out the ide­al fun­ding tool and advi­se app­li­cants on the rele­vant terms and con­di­ti­ons, pro­vi­ded that at least one of the par­ti­ci­pants is from Bavaria.

As a pro­ject admi­nis­tra­tor and fun­ding body, we are respon­si­ble for issuing funds from pro­gram­mes for uni­ver­si­ties and busi­nes­ses in Bava­ria. Orga­ni­sa­ti­ons from out­side of Bava­ria may also bene­fit from this fun­ding but the app­li­ca­ti­on must always be sub­mit­ted by an orga­ni­sa­ti­on wit­hin Bava­ria (e.g. for the BayIn­tAn fun­ding pro­gram­me).

We help sta­ke­hol­ders from sci­ence and busi­ness to access a ran­ge of fun­ding pro­gram­mes on a natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal sca­le. In Ger­ma­ny, this inclu­des pro­gram­mes offe­red by orga­ni­sa­ti­ons such as the Ger­man Rese­arch Foun­da­ti­on (Deut­sche For­schungs­ge­mein­schaft or DFG) and the Ger­man Federal Minis­try of Edu­ca­ti­on and Rese­arch (known as the BMBF), the WIPANO fun­ding cam­pai­gn by the Ger­man Federal Minis­try for Eco­no­mic Affairs and Climate Action (known as the BMWK) and its Cen­tral Inno­va­ti­on Pro­gram­me for SMEs (known as ZIM for short). To be eli­gi­ble for our sup­port with natio­nal pro­gram­mes, our “cli­ents” must have a regis­tered office in Germany.

On a Euro­pean level, we focus on Hori­zon Europe, the EU’s frame­work pro­gram­me for rese­arch and inno­va­ti­on. Howe­ver, we also work with smal­ler pro­gram­mes, such as calls under ERA-Net (a cam­pai­gn that aims to impro­ve coope­ra­ti­on bet­ween Euro­pean rese­arch orga­ni­sa­ti­ons) and calls in the EU’s COSME pro­gram­me for impro­ving the com­pe­ti­ti­ve­ness of small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses. Cross-border regio­nal pro­jects are sup­por­ted by pro­gram­mes such as INTERREG, a decen­tra­li­sed instru­ment wit­hin the EU’s struc­tu­ral and invest­ment policy.

We advi­se poten­ti­al app­li­cants on the oppor­tu­nities avail­ab­le under the­se pro­gram­mes and sup­port the app­li­ca­ti­on pro­cess if they wish to work with a part­ner from Bavaria.

Small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses (SMEs) are key pil­lars of tech­no­lo­gi­cal pro­gress. Howe­ver, they do not always have the finan­cial and orga­ni­sa­tio­nal resour­ces nee­ded to turn inno­va­ti­ve ide­as into rea­li­ty and ensu­re that their deve­lo­p­ments are legal­ly protected. Spe­cial fun­ding pro­gram­mes for SMEs help to impro­ve this situation. The EU has set up a num­ber of fun­ding pro­gram­mes that are tailor-made to the needs of SMEs:
  • Hori­zon Europe – SME Instru­ment: Gea­red towards highly-innovative small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses. We pro­vi­de Bava­ri­an SMEs with sup­port in pre­pa­ring their app­li­ca­ti­ons for the SME Instru­ment. If your pro­ject is suc­cess­ful in recei­ving fun­ding, your SME is also enti­t­led to recei­ve sup­port from Bay­FOR and Bay­ern Inno­va­tiv as key account mana­gers (KAMs). After a detail­ed need ana­ly­sis, the KAM gets in touch with a skil­led busi­ness coach, who pro­vi­des the SME with free advice. The KAM super­vi­ses the coope­ra­ti­on bet­ween the SME and the busi­ness coach, making sure that ever­ything runs professionally.
  • Other rele­vant fun­ding pro­gram­mes for SMEs inclu­de EUREKA Euro­starsCOSME and IraSME.
Fur­ther­mo­re, our part­ner Bay­ern Inno­va­tiv pro­vi­des Bava­ri­an SMEs with advice on inno­va­ti­on manage­ment and use the “IMP3rove” tool to ana­ly­se the company’s inno­va­ti­on strategy. As part of the WIPANO pro­gram­me (which stands for “know­ledge and tech­no­lo­gy trans­fer through patents and stan­dards” in Ger­man), the Baye­ri­sche Patent­al­li­anz GmbH offers advice to SMEs from or based in Bava­ria and hel­ps them to patent and mar­ket their inven­ti­ons.

Project initiation and application submission

Every fun­ding pro­gram­me has its own ent­ry requi­re­ments as well its own spe­ci­fic app­li­ca­ti­on process. Pro­vi­ded that a Bava­ri­an part­ner is invol­ved in the pro­ject, we offer the fol­lowing sup­port services: We sup­port app­li­cants in pre­pa­ring their grant app­li­ca­ti­ons, hel­ping both with admi­nis­tra­ti­on and content. Fur­ther­mo­re, we also employ our net­work to build up rese­arch con­sor­tia and pro­vi­de them with effec­ti­ve sup­port in sear­ching for pro­ject part­ners on a Bava­ri­an, natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal level. By crea­ting a net­work bet­ween sci­ence and indus­try, we can match rese­arch orga­ni­sa­ti­ons and uni­ver­si­ties with sui­ta­ble part­ners from the industry. When dealing with EU fun­ding pro­gram­mes, our ser­vices also inclu­de pre­pa­ring con­tracts bet­ween the Euro­pean Com­mis­si­on and the pro­ject part­ners, and pro­vi­ding inten­si­ve sup­port for pro­ject implementation.

Implementation of R&I projects

We sup­port busi­nes­ses and rese­arch orga­ni­sa­ti­ons with the imple­men­ta­ti­on of their R&I pro­jects (rese­arch & inno­va­ti­on) – pro­vi­ded that they are being coor­di­na­ted in Bava­ria. Our ser­vices ran­ge from pro­ject manage­ment through to the dis­se­mi­na­ti­on of rese­arch results and public rela­ti­ons activities. We are com­mit­ted to help mana­ge regio­nal, natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal fun­ded net­works made up of repre­sen­ta­ti­ves from sci­ence and business.

Your direct contact

You can contact the team of the Förderlotsen Bayern at Bayern Innovativ GmbH directly. They will advise you and put you in touch with suitable contacts in the BayFIA network. They will advise you and put you in touch with suitable contacts in the BayFIA network.

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