SME Innovative: Resource Efficiency
Drivers and developers of innovative efficiency technologies are often small and medium sized enterprises (SME). Therefore, the BMBF supports SME in top-level research as forerunners to increase resource efficiency and raw material productivity.
Important raw materials for the German industry, for example strategic metals, will become scarce in the foreseeable future. Even though other raw materials are available for quite some time, they need a lot of energy and cause environmental impacts during production, use and disposal. For a sustainable development, we have to save resources and use them more efficiently through innovative technologies and services. Thereby, the objective of the German government, to double the raw material productivity until the year 2020 compared to 1994, is supported. For this purpose, procedures to improve the raw material and materials efficiency, to increase the recycling and the substitution of limited raw materials through renewable raw materials or secondary raw materials offer approaches.
The topic raw materials efficiency in SME-innovative focuses on:
- Increasing the resource efficiency, especially in resource intensive production processes (e.g. processing of metallic and mineral raw materials, production of chemical precursors)
- Efficient supply and utilization of raw materials of strategic economic importance according to the BMBF R&D program "Raw materials of strategic economic importance for high-tech made in Germany"
- Improvement of the resource productivity through optimization of value chains
- Innovative recycling and recovery processes
- Resource efficient product design
With the funding initiative "SME-Innovative", which started in 2007, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research aims to strengthen the innovation potential of small and medium sized enterprises in the top level research sector and thereby also their economic power permanently. Therefore, the BMBF has facilitated and accelerated the application and approval procedures and extended the advisory services for SMEs. A pilotage at the federal "research and Innovation" funding advisory service advises interested companies on all matters and sends them reliable to the correct service for application. Two regularly key dates in spring and autumn and the binding and short processing times allow planning security.
Addressed are innovative SMEs, which plan to establish in the sector of land management resp. plan to expand their position. The funding is open topic: More important than the exact thematic classification into a specific subject area are excellence and the degree of innovation of the funded project as well as high implementation chances.
In the funding catalogue you will find an overview about all projects.
Further information about the funding initiative SME innovative you will find on the BMBF-Website: www.kmu-innovativ.de
Submission deadlines:
Annually: 15. April/15. October
Last updated on