For whom?

  1. for joint projects between companies and research institutions

    Business-driven combined projects with a common goal, which may be accompanied by parallel projects involving several companies. A project by a research organisation can be run in parallel with enterprise projects if it supports the enterprises' research topics and its results are applicable on a broad basis. Read more about general research funding criteria, terms and conditions here.

  2. for research organisations

    Interdisciplinary research projects by research organisations, involving the creation of new competencies and solutions meeting the identified research and innovation needs of companies. The aim is to conduct public-sector research projects whose results broadly benefit the private sector.

What kind of research will we fund?

We fund research projects that create significant new, global business advantage in the bioenergy, circular economy, energy and cleantech sectors. The projects must be based on recognised business models, promote renewal in the area in question and create innovations.

Projects must be planned in close cooperation with businesses, taking account of the research needs they have recognised. The research question must address the following aspects in particular:

  • What academic, innovation-based, market-led or procedure-related challenges identified by the applicant will the research renew radically?

  • How will societal changes be taken into account in the research (e.g. climate agreements, demand for material and resource efficiency, demographic changes, the opportunities presented by big data)?

The call for applications has three main themes:

  • Energy revolution
  • Digital revolution in clean-tech
  • Solutions renewing bioeconomy and circular economy business

Application period: Mon 03.10.2016 - Thu 16.02.2017

More information here