KMU-innovativ

KMU-innovativ is the German federal research ministry programme for industrial research and pre-competitive development in small and medium enterprises, organised into technology lines spanning bioeconomy, biomedicine, electronics and autonomous driving, energy efficiency and climate protection, ICT, medical technology, photonics and quantum technologies, materials research, resource efficiency and circular economy, and the future of value creation. Support is a non-repayable grant covering up to 50 percent of eligible project costs for SMEs, with large enterprises capped at 25 percent where they join a collaborative project; no per-project ceiling is published. Eligibility is restricted to companies meeting the EU SME definition, though several lines extend to Mittelstand firms up to 1,000 employees and EUR 100M turnover, and collaboration between SMEs and universities or research institutes is explicitly encouraged. The process is two-stage and runs on fixed twice-yearly cut-off dates: project outlines of at most twelve pages go into the PT-Outline portal by 15 April and 15 October each year, and invited applicants then file a full application.