1. Scope

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of Korea (MOTIE) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Clima Action (BMWK) intend to support joint German-Korean research and development projects (R&D projects) in order to develop innovative products, processes or technical services from all technology and application areas. Funding will be available for R&D projects in which new products, services or processes with a high market potential are developed and subsequently transformed into marketable products.

In Germany, funding is provided through the Central Innovation Programme for SMEs (ZIM). MOTIE (Coordinator: Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology - KIAT) and AiF Projekt GmbH (ZIM project management agency on behalf of the BMWK) support the applicants in the phase of submission of project proposals, in the evaluation and in the implementation phase. KIAT and AiF Projekt GmbH will evaluate the submitted proposals and communicate the results within 4 to 5 months after the call deadline.

2. Call Structure

The call invites partners to present joint proposals for industrial R&D projects until 25th April 2024 (4 p.m. Korea / 9 a.m. Germany), according to the following procedures.

2.1 Financing

Eligible project participants from Germany and Korea will finance their costs from the national funding schemes and complementarily from their own resources. Provision of funding from one national scheme neither will indicate that funding from the other national scheme will be provided, nor bind the other national scheme in its provision of funds to the eligible project participants.

2.2 Minimum requirements

• Project results will have to contribute to the development of commercial products, processes and / or technical services, which are based on the international state of the art. The project proposals have to comply with the following guidelines:
• The consortium must include at least one Korean and one German commercial company.
• Participation of research organizations and further companies is welcome as additional
  participants or subcontractors according to each country’s funding regulations.
• Companies and/or research organizations from other countries may also participate.
• However, these partners will neither be funded by MOTIE nor BMWK. Instead, they follow the financing rules including procedures and the funding regulations of these partners’ countries of origin.
• The project should have an obvious advantage and added value resulting from the
  cooperation between the participants from the two countries (e.g. increased knowledge base, commercial lead, access to R&D infrastructure, new fields of application, etc.).
• Project duration should not exceed 3 years.
• The project should demonstrate a balanced technological contribution by the participants from both countries, and must be equally significant to all participants.
• In a project with two cooperating partners, no partner may contribute more than 70% of total person months in the project.
• In a project with more than two cooperating partners, no partner may contribute more than 50% of the person months.
• In case one or more research organizations are involved in the consortium, they may altogether not contribute more than 50% of total person months combined.
• Any partner whose cooperative R&D project is consistent with the aforesaid criteria may apply to the present announcement in accordance with the national laws, rules, regulations and procedures in effect.

3. Submission

Between the opening of the call on 8th January 2024 and the call deadline on 25th April 2024 all participants file one short common proposal in English, legally signed by all organizations participating in the project, and a draft consortium agreement (not yet signed) that regulates the terms of cooperation between all partners in English.

The minimum requirements for the consortium agreement are:

• Naming of all project partners
• Description of the project aims and differentiation of the subprojects of the partners including their work plans using person months (for this purpose the common application proposal can be declared as part of the agreement)
• Identifying and naming of any 3rd party contractors required in the project
• Regulation of intellectual property rights (background and arising)
• All partners commit to preparing and signing a joint record of the project achievements. 2024-01 3
• Basic regulation of joint commercialization and apportioning of benefits. If research organizations from Germany or Korea are involved in the project, a passage has to be included that allows them to publish their own results without duty to obtain consent from the other partners.

The proposal form is available on www.zim.de/suedkorea.
The common proposal and the draft consortium agreement must be sent electronically to lee.ej@kiat.or.kr and zim-international@aif-projekt-gmbh.de. All Korean participants are also required to upload all documents via a dedicated online system (https://k-pass.kr). In addition to the common proposal, project partners who want to apply for funding within this call must submit a national application according to the respective rules (see below).

Germany

Each German project partner submits an individual ZIM application to AiF Projekt GmbH. Every German SME, in accordance with the relevant EU regulations, as well as medium-sized companies with less than 500 employees (full-time equivalents), which carry out R&D for the development of innovative products, processes or technical services, are eligible to apply. Other medium-sized companies with less than 1,000 employees are eligible to apply for funding if
they cooperate with at least one SME (in accordance with EU regulations) whose project is funded. Research and technology organizations are eligible to apply as cooperation partners of eligible companies.
Detailed criteria for submitting applications and the ZIM application form can be found on the ZIM website (www.zim.de); you may also contact AiF Projekt GmbH directly as described below. The application must be written in German and comply with the regulations of the ZIM guideline.

Current notice:

The federal budget for 2024 has not yet been adopted at the time of publication of this call for proposals. The approval of positively evaluated project applications is therefore subject to the German Bundestag's decision on the 2024 budget.

Korea

Innovative projects of companies based in Korea are eligible for applying for this funding programme. Every Korean company should submit a full application for funding in Korean language when they file all documents.
Project funding is comprised of government contributions and civilian dues (cash and in-kind). The amount of government contributions will vary depending on the type of executing organizations and project in accordance with Article 24 (funding criteria) and Article 25 (civilian dues) of the Common Operational Regulations for the Industrial Technology Innovation Programmes.

A party that participates in a project shall carry out its project using the government
contribution allocated to it, and for-profit organizations shall individually bear the cash portion of civilian dues.