Scope

Germany and Singapore are announcing a call for proposals for joint research and development (“R&D”) projects, focused on the development of innovative products and solutions in all technological and application areas. Applicants are expected to develop ready-to-market solutions for products, technology-based services, or processes with strong market potential.

Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) will provide financial support for joint projects (that fulfil the necessary criteria) through EnterpriseSG’s Enterprise Development Grant Co-Innovation Programme (“EDG CIP”) and BMWK's Central Innovation Programme for SMEs (“ZIM”).

EnterpriseSG and BMWK’s coordinator AiF Projekt GmbH intend to provide support to project partners during the project proposal, evaluation, and monitoring phases. EnterpriseSG and AiF Projekt GmbH will evaluate submitted proposals and work towards communicating the results within 4 to 5 months after the final proposal submission.

Timeline

Submission deadline is 20 September 2023. Approved projects will be notified 4-5 months after submission.

Conditions

Project partners must meet the following qualifications:

• The consortium must involve at least one Singapore and one German small and medium-sized Enterprise (SME), independent from each other.
• Research institutes and additional companies are welcomed as additional cooperation partners or subcontractors according to each country’s funding regulations. However, academic/research institutions cannot work alone.
• Companies and/or research organisations from other countries may also participate. However, EnterpriseSG or BMWK will not fund these partners in this call.

The project proposals must comply with the following guidelines:

• The project should focus on the development of new products, services or processes of industrial application, which are based on the international state of the art, leading to commercialisation in the domestic and/or global markets.
• The project should have an obvious advantage and differentiated value proposition resulting from the cooperation between participants from the two countries (e.g. increased knowledge base, commercial needs, access to R&D infrastructure, new fields of application, etc.).
• The maximum duration of the project should ideally not exceed 2 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 the scenario where one or more research organisations are involved in the
    consortium, they may not contribute more than 50% of total person months combined.

Any partners whose joint R&D project is consistent with the aforesaid criteria can apply to the present announcement in accordance with the national laws, rules, regulations and procedures in effect.