Inno-watt

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The INNO vative WA chs T ums T räger funding program (INNO-WATT) was one of the programs to increase the competitiveness of the new federal states. The project sponsor was EuroNorm GmbH, which acted on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) . The aim of the program was to support research and development projects in the disadvantaged regions (new federal states and Berlin) and thus to strengthen the technical and economic performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) . The funding was granted in the form of non-repayable grants to cover the development costs. In addition to the program part for SMEs, there was also a module specially tailored to the conditions in non-profit, external industrial research institutions in Eastern Germany. The program ran from January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2008.

From January 1, 2009, the program was merged into the ZIM program (Central Innovation Program for SMEs) in ZIM solo and ZIM EP (individual projects).

history

INNO-WATT was introduced in 2004 by the federal government to support economically disadvantaged regions. The project executing agency had around 100 million euros at its disposal each year, which was distributed to private companies after the feasibility of the innovation projects had been checked. INNO-WATT launched more than 350 innovation projects into the market each year, thereby safeguarding and creating new jobs. The program was therefore one of the other federal funding programs to support research and development, with the special feature that the non-profit, external industrial research institutions also received specific funding.

In contrast to the PRO INNO II program, which has been running since August 2004 , it was possible at INNO-WATT to carry out an innovation without a cooperation partner. Due to the higher workload, a higher maximum funding of up to € 375,000 was granted. PRO INNO II, INNO-WATT, NEMO and InnoNet have been combined in the ZIM (Central Innovation Program for SMEs) since July 2009. Since January 2010, individual project funding (SME part in INNO-WATT) has been extended to all of Germany. NEMO funding has been possible nationwide since the start of the ZIM.

Type and amount of funding

The funding was granted as a non-repayable grant to the total cost of the project.

The differentiation of the support rates for companies (in the SME part) was based on the size of the company:

  • Up to 45% (with fewer than 50 employees)
  • Up to 35% for medium-sized companies (with at least 50 but fewer than 250 employees)
  • Up to 45% for medium-sized companies whose projects demonstrably contain parts of industrial research according to the EU definition.

Funding limit: € 375,000

The funding quota related to the total costs attributable to the project. These are made up of:

  • Personnel costs
  • External services

(project-related R&D contracts to third parties, costs for securing the R&D results under protective law, costs for approvals and tests)

  • Depreciation on project-specific systems and equipment

(from a single value of € 2,500)

  • other costs caused by the project (90% of direct personnel costs)
  • as well as expenses for technology transfer at non-profit research institutions.

requirements

In order to be able to claim funding from this program, companies had to meet several criteria. They had to be independent commercial enterprises and external industrial research institutions,

  • which have their headquarters or a branch in the new federal states including East Berlin
  • who are not involved in agriculture / forestry, fishing or transport
  • with a maximum of 250 employees, whose annual turnover does not exceed € 50 million or annual balance sheet total € 43 million, who are less than 25% owned by companies that do not meet these criteria.

In exceptional cases, companies with an annual turnover of max. € 125 million approved if they were able to prove that the development exceeds the state of the art, involves a high level of risk and the results have clear market opportunities.

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