The programme funds the institution, not the company
INNO-KOM is a grant programme of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, and the first thing to understand about it is what it does not do. It does not fund companies. It funds non-profit external industrial research institutions, and it funds them in structurally weak regions. The benefit to small and medium-sized enterprises is indirect by design: the research results have to be made available to them without discrimination. The programme is open on topic, on sector and on technology, which is unusual at this scale, and it is why the file is worth reading before the better-known programmes.
The predecessor programme ran from 2009 and covered the eastern states only. The nationwide version under the current name has existed since 1 January 2017, and the guideline in force was published in the Federal Gazette on 9 January 2023, effective the following day.
The eligibility line is geographic and legal
Two conditions do the work, and neither of them is about the technology. The applicant has to be a legally independent, non-profit industrial research institution: not a university, not a state-funded research body, not a company, and not more than 20 per cent funded from basic institutional grants. The seat, or a registered branch, has to sit inside the funding areas of the Joint Task for the Improvement of Regional Economic Structures as they stand on the day of application.
The programme is candid about who that ends up being. Of the projects approved in 2022, 89.2 per cent went to institutions in eastern Germany. Where the main seat falls outside the eligible area, a branch registered in the commercial or association register inside it can carry the application.
Three modules, published ceilings
The pre-competitive module, VF, funds work built on basic research that carries industrial application potential: up to 90 per cent of eligible costs, capped at EUR 550,000 per project over 30 months. The market-oriented module, MF, covers a detailed concept through to production readiness: up to 70 per cent, capped at EUR 400,000. The investment module, IZ, funds the scientific and technical infrastructure itself: up to 90 per cent, capped at EUR 250,000 for institutions with fewer than 50 employees and EUR 500,000 otherwise, per institution per budget year, which ends on 30 November. Joint projects between several institutions are a fourth route and require a cooperation agreement between them.
The application has no deadline and almost no paper
The procedural change of 3 June 2025 is the most practically valuable fact in the file. Applications can be submitted at any time and there are no cut-off dates. The whole process from application to project close can run digitally through the portal at enconnect.euronorm.de, run by EURONORM GmbH in Berlin as the project carrier, and a new application may refer to documents already filed in a previous one rather than resubmitting them.
The formal requirements have not disappeared. The application becomes legally binding only in signed form, either with a qualified electronic signature or signed and scanned. Original documents have to be retained for ten years from submission. An optional project sketch may be filed before the full application. The document centre holds 24 documents across three pages, and the versions move: the VF application form stood at v1.14 of 2 April 2026 at the last check, and the guidance notes for MF and VF at v1.18 of 15 September 2025.
The reporting duty is part of the price
A grant of this shape is an ongoing status rather than a one-time award. Annual indicator reporting runs for six years after the project closes, original paperwork is retained for ten, and material changes have to be notified immediately. Projects are also expected to align with the German Sustainable Development Strategy and the greenhouse gas neutrality target for 2045, which the guideline states directly and which maps to SDG 9. None of that is unusual for public funding. It is easier to price before the application than after the approval.
The money has a date on it
The 2026 budget puts INNO-KOM at EUR 71.5 million inside EUR 250 million for industrial research across this programme and the IGF. The 2027 draft sets it at EUR 65 million, a reduction of roughly EUR 6.5 million, and the industrial research alliance has criticised that publicly. The guideline itself runs only to 31 December 2026, and no continuation had been published as of 24 August 2026.
The scale of the programme is visible in its own history. In 2022 it approved 204 projects and paid out EUR 76 million, concentrated in mechanical engineering, data processing equipment and electronic and optical products, and textiles.
What the arithmetic means for a builder
Read the dates together and the window is the news. A programme whose guideline expires at the end of 2026, whose next budget is drafted downward, and whose application procedure has just been made both digital and deadline-free, rewards the applicant who files early with an institution that already has the right legal form and the right seat. The probability that a guideline with an expiry date is renewed on schedule is not one, and most applicants plan as though it is.
The reverse is also true. If the institutional shape has to be created first, the time is not spent on the research. It is spent on the entity, and the entity is the part the programme audits for ten years.