Deadline for proposal submission: 30th September 2024

Evaluation of projects will be done on a rolling basis

1. 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.

2. Call Structure

The call invites partners to present joint proposals for industrial R&D projects until 30th September 2024 according to the following procedures.

2.1. Financing

Eligible project participants from Germany and Taiwan will finance their costs from the national funding schemes and complementarily from their own resources. The public funding will be provided by AIIP (A+ Industrial Innovative R&D Program) on the Taiwanese side and by ZIM (Central Innovation Programme for SMEs) on the German side.

2.2. Minimum requirements

Project results will have to contribute to the development of innovative 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:

• 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.
• Projects should have a balanced contribution of the total eligible project costs among the partners from Germany and Taiwan. No more than 70% of the total project costs can be claimed by a single partner or by all partners from either Germany or Taiwan.

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.

2.3. Submission

Between the opening of the call on 1st February 2024 and the call deadline on 30th September 2024, all participants are expected to file one short common proposal in English, legally signed by all organizations participating in the project, and a draft consortium agreement (not yet signed and in English) that regulates the terms of cooperation between all partners.

The minimum requirements for the agreement are:

• Naming of all project partners
• Description of the project aims and differentiation of the subprojects of the partners including their working plans with person months (for this, the common 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)
• Basic regulation of joint commercialisation and apportioning of benefits
• If research organizations from Germany or Taiwan are involved, a passage has to be included that allows them to publish their own results without duty to obtain consent from the other partners.

The common proposal form is available on: www.zim.de/taiwan.
The common proposal and the draft consortium agreement have to be sent electronically to tw_de_cfp@itri.org.tw and zim-international@aif-projekt-gmbh.de.

At the same time, project partners that want to apply for funding within this call must file 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 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.

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.

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).

It is highly recommended to consult with the coordinators (contact information as below) at an early stage.

Contact
Germany
AiF Projekt GmbH
ZIM Project Management Agency on
behalf of BMWK
Mr. Christian Fichtner
Tschaikowskistraße 49
13156 Berlin, Germany
Phone: +49 30 48163-590
Fax: +49 30 497907-93
c.fichtner@aif-projekt-gmbh.de
www.zim.de/international

Taiwan
AIIP PO c/o
Industry, Science and Technology International
Strategy Center, Industrial Technology
Research Institute
Mr. Sam Kuo
Rm. 812, Bldg. 51, No. 195, Sec. 4, Chung
Hsing Rd., Chutung, Hsinchu, 31040, Taiwan,
R.O.C.
Phone: +886 3 5914877
kuovincent@itri.org.tw
http://aiip.tdp.org.tw
For partnering support please refer to:
ITRI Europe Office
Mr. Moustafa Elgendy
Hohenzollerndamm 187, 7. OG,
10713 Berlin, Germany
Phone: +49 30 8609 3614
mou.elgendy@itri.org.tw