Neue Werkstoffe und Materialien; Beantragung einer Förderung

The Free State of Bavaria supports cooperation projects in the field of new materials, provided they can be assigned to industrial research or experimental development.

Purpose

To support the research, development and testing of modern materials and new process technologies. In particular, this measure is intended to tap into the technical and innovative potential of companies that manufacture and process materials, especially SMEs, in order to solve the problems they face. According to the priorities of the Federal Government and the EU, new materials represent an essential key technology for a growth and technology-oriented economy in Bavaria.

Object

The funding covers the following topics and issues in particular:

• Materials for energy technology, in particular for storage technology and energy-saving applications,
• Lightweight construction materials,
• composite materials and material composites,
• Substitution of resource-limited materials and recycling processes,
• Modeling and simulation of material and material properties as well as manufacturing processes,
• functionalized surfaces and functional materials,
• innovative material-related process technologies for the production of chemical base materials, for the production, processing and functionalization of materials and for the production of semi-finished products, components and parts.

Recipients of funding

Eligible applicants are

• Companies based or established in the Free State of Bavaria,
• non-university research institutions as well as state universities and institutions of state universities in Bavaria,
• other applicants based or established in the Free State of Bavaria that have the technical qualifications and sufficient capacity to successfully complete the tasks described in the project.

The research, development and innovation (R&D&I) projects must be carried out in close cooperation between several companies from the commercial sector or between such companies and research institutions. Several partners along the value chain should cooperate. Preference will be given to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Eligible costs

The following can be funded

• Personnel costs (lump sums),
• Costs for instruments and equipment,
• Costs for contract research, technical knowledge and patents acquired directly or under license from third parties as well as costs for consulting and equivalent services used exclusively for the research and development project,
• other operating expenses (materials, consumables, etc.) incurred directly as a result of research and development activities.

Type and scope

The grant is provided as partial funding in the form of subsidies as part of project funding.

The aid intensity is

• up to 50% of the eligible costs of the project or the feasibility study in the case of industrial research,
• up to 25 percent of the eligible costs of the project or feasibility study in the case of experimental development.

In the case of collaborative projects, the aid intensity is determined for each individual beneficiary; the maximum aid intensity for the collaborative project is 50 percent. In addition, up to 15 percentage points can be granted for industrial project partners if the requirements of Art. 25 (6) (b) GBER are met.

If different project activities can be assigned to both industrial research and experimental development, the funding rate will be determined on a pro rata basis.

• Project outlines and project description

  In the first stage, project outlines (in accordance with the call for proposals) must be submitted to the project management organization in full and on time. After a comparative project selection, an application including a detailed project description, including an exploitation plan and proof of funding, must be submitted for selected projects for each network participant. Projects that are not selected will not be considered further.

• The implementation of the project must be associated with a considerable technical and economic risk.
• The project must be characterized by a high degree of innovation, i.e. the technologies, products and services to be developed must go beyond the state of the art in science and technology.
• The essential parts of the project must be carried out in Bavaria.
• Funding will not be provided for projects that have already been started before the project management organization receives a verifiable application or that are essentially carried out on behalf of third parties not involved in the collaborative project.
• At least one of the partners significantly involved in the project must already have specific research and development capacities and relevant technical experience at the time of application, in the case of companies also in the area of production.
• Applicants or project participants must demonstrably use an appropriate amount of their own or external funds to finance the project, which are not financed by other public funding or subsidized.
• Cumulation with European Union funds or other state aid is only possible under the conditions of Art. 8 of the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER).
• Companies in difficulty pursuant to Art. 1 (4) lit. c) in conjunction with Art. 2 No. 18 GBER are not eligible for funding. This applies in particular to applicants for whom insolvency proceedings have been applied for or opened. The same applies to applicants and, if the applicant is a legal entity, to its legal representatives who have made an affidavit in accordance with Section 807 of the German Code of Civil Procedure (ZPO) or Section 284 of the German Fiscal Code (AO) or are obliged to do so.
• Aid may not be granted under these funding principles to a company that has not complied with a recovery order based on an earlier Commission decision declaring aid to be unlawful and incompatible with the common market.
• The publication of the approval of projects is carried out in accordance with Art. 9 para. 1 lit. c) GBER in conjunction with Annex III GBER.

• Outlines and applications for grants must be submitted to the project management organization.
• Applications must be submitted in a specific form and must be submitted electronically. The access data for this can be obtained from the project management organization. Further information is available on the Internet platform for electronic applications (ELAN) of the State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy (see "Online procedure").
• The project management organization will review the outlines and applications in the name of and on behalf of the Free State of Bavaria, will make a recommendation for the funding decision, if necessary with the involvement of experts, and will process the funding, process the payment requests, review the interim reports, the proof of use and the utilization reports and handle the correspondence with the applicants. The project management organization is entitled to obtain explanations from the applicants regarding the applications and the processing of the funding. The project management organization is obliged to maintain confidentiality.
• The granting authority is the Bavarian State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy. The approval authority issues the grant notification and disburses the funding. The calls for funds and the proof of use must be submitted to the project sponsor, who forwards them to the granting authority.
• The Bavarian Supreme Audit Office is authorized to conduct additional audits of the grant recipients in accordance with Art. 91 BayHO.

• Calls for funding are issued.
• Early contact with the project sponsor is recommended.
• Funding is provided without legal entitlement within the scope of available budget funds.