Scope

The German Institute in Taipei and the Taipei Representative Office in the Federal Republic of Germany are announcing a call for proposal for joint R&D projects.
Applicants are expected to develop ready-to-market solutions for products, technology-based services or methods in all technological and application areas, which have strong market potential.

The Taipei Representative Office in the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Institute in Taipei will respectively provide access to public funding for joint projects.
The Taipei Representative Office in the Federal Republic of Germany (Coordinator: Project Office of A+ Industrial Innovative R&D Program, AIIP PO) and the German Institute in Taipei (Coordinator: AiF Projekt GmbH) will provide all necessary assistance to project partners during all the project proposal, evaluation and monitoring phases.
AIIP PO and AiF Projekt GmbH will evaluate the submitted proposals independently and communicate the results within about 5 months after receiving the proposal.

Requirements

Project results will have to contribute to the development of innovative products, processes and/or technical services. The project proposals have to comply with the following guidelines:

• Partners must include at least one Taiwanese and one German commercial
  company.
• Participation of further research organizations and 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 not be funded by the Taiwanese or the German side.
• The project should have an obvious advantage and added value resulting from the
  cooperation between/among the participants from the two countries (e.g. increased
  knowledge base, commercial needs, access to R&D infrastructure, new fields of
  application, etc.).
• Project duration should not exceed 3 years.
• The project should demonstrate an equal contribution by the participants from both
  sides, and the project must be equally significant to all participants. In a project with two cooperating partners, one partner is not allowed to hold more than 70 percent of all person months combined in the project. In projects with more than two partners, no partner may contribute more than 50 percent of the work. In case one or more research organisations are involved in the consortium, they are altogether not allowed to hold more than 50 percent of the person months.

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.

Deadline / Timeline

Submission deadline is 29 September 2023.

Specific Conditions

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 being funded. Research and Technology Organizations are eligible to apply as cooperation partners of eligible companies.
Detailed criteria for submitting applications and the application form can be found on the ZIM website (www.zim.de/en); you may also contact AiF Projekt GmbH directly as described below. The application must comply with the regulations of the ZIM guideline and be written in German.

Please be aware that there is the possibility that elements of the German ZIM evaluation criteria may differ from the Taiwanese regulations.

Taiwan

Innovative projects of companies based in Taiwan are eligible for applying to this funding program. Every Taiwanese company should submit a full application for funding in traditional Chinese language. Project funding is comprised of government contribution and civilian dues. A participant in a project is expected to carry out their project using the government contributions allocated to it, and for-profit organisations are expected to individually bear the cash portion of civilian dues. More detailed criteria can be found on the AIIP website (https://aiip.tdp.org.tw – in Chinese only).