Programm zur Foerderung von nichttechnischen Innovationen (ProNTI) in KMU

Funding is available to innovative SMEs and SMEs in the social economy that meet the following criteria:

• The project must be implemented in the Federal State of Berlin.
• The applicant company’s secure financing must be presented in a comprehensible manner using suitable documents, and proof must also be provided upon request during the project term.
• The adequacy of the project work, time and expenditure planning must be demonstrated in an appropriate form.
• Combining with other funding for the same eligible expenditure is excluded (no double funding).
• The planned results of the project must provide a plausible basis for improving company-related or regional net output and employment or generate social added value.
• Without funding, the project would be impossible or could only be implemented at a later point in time and on a significantly smaller scale.
• The project must be risky in a positive sense and innovative at the same time.
• The company and/or its products and/or services have a specific unique selling proposition.
• Applications require a registration number as evidence of registration in the transparency database of the Federal State of Berlin with all mandatory information.
• The project and its results must be economically, ecologically and socially sustainable.

Innovation activities in the form of individual projects in Berlin involving at least one non-technical innovation.

Validation project phase

• Testing the functionality of the NTI to be (further) developed in a practical, quasi-experimental context with the aim of proving the basic applicability of the idea or the feasibility of the NTI.
• During the validation phase, innovation projects are funded to test the basic applicability of the idea, its further development and concretisation in a practical, quasi-experimental context, with the aim of proving the basic applicability of the idea or its feasibility.

Pioneering project phase

• Testing the transferability to new contexts and scalability of the NTI to be further developed with the involvement of pioneer users.
• In the pioneering phase, innovation projects are funded to mature innovations, including, for instance, involvement of pioneer users and potential customers, market tests on their applicability and usefulness in the market, and the development of a first application and/or market transition. At least initial positive evidence of feasibility should already have been provided by the applicant companies or otherwise, and as a result the foundations should be laid to further develop the innovation into a marketable product or service.

Commercialisation project phase

• Transfer of the NTI to commercial implementation; combination with coaching is possible in principle.
• During the commercialisation phase, funding is provided for innovation projects that aim to further develop a robustly functioning and cost-covering product or service. Applicability and repeatability on the market is a prime factor here.
• Funding is provided for projects that can each be assigned to one of the project phases mentioned here and it should be possible to apply for a follow-up project after successful project completion for the further development of the project results in a subsequent innovation phase. Projects that span two phases are also possible.

Funding is provided in the form of partial financing and as a non-repayable grant.

Funding through grants is limited to:

• EUR 60,000 max. per project in the validation phase,
• EUR 120,000 max. per project in the pioneering phase,
• EUR 120,000 max. per project in the commercialisation phase,
• EUR 140,000 max. per project for projects that span two phases.

Each applicant company must generally contribute their own reasonable share. This means that the maximum basic funding rate for SMEs that have been in existence for less than five years is 75% of total eligible expenditure. On the other hand, SMEs older than five years can receive funding of up to no more than 50% of total eligible expenditure.

Companies must submit their applications online to IBB Business Team GmbH. Access to the electronic application and administration system is only possible at www.ibb-business-team.de.

Applicants must enter all the necessary identification and authentication data in the electronic application and administration system, as well as a description of the project or measure in terms of content, and support this information with meaningful documentation.