Call for Proposals: Germany–Singapore SME Funding Programme

Scope

• Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) intend to support joint German-Singapore research and development projects (R&D projects) in order to develop innovative products, processes or technical services from all technology and application areas.
• Funding will be available for R&D projects in which new products, services or processes with a high market potential are developed and subsequently transformed into marketable products.

Eligible Projects

• The project proposals have to comply with the following guidelines:
  • The partners must include at least one Singapore and one German SME, which are independent from each other and provide substantial R&D contributions to the project.
  • Research and Technology Organisations (RTO) and other companies are welcome as additional partners or subcontractors according to each country’s funding schemes.
  • Companies and/or RTOs from other countries may also participate. These partners’ participation is neither funded by EnterpriseSG nor ZIM.
  • The project must focus on the development of new products, technical services or processes which generate solutions with a high market and commercialisation potential.
  • The project should have an obvious advantage and differentiated value proposition resulting from the cooperation between the participants from the two countries (e.g. increased knowledge base, access to R&D infrastructure, new fields of application, etc.).
  • Project duration should in principal not exceed 2 years.

Eligibility Criteria

• Singapore: To be eligible for support, the applicant must fulfil all of the following:
  • Be a business entity that is registered and physically present in Singapore;
  • ≥ 30% local equity held directly or indirectly by Singaporean(s)/ Singapore PR(s), determined by the ultimate individual ownership;
  • Group annual sales turnover of no more than S$100 million or employment size of less than 200, and;
  • Be financially able to see a project through to completion.
• Germany:
  • Each German project partner submits an individual ZIM application to the responsible ZIM project management agency. 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 German SME (in accordance with EU regulations) whose project is funded. Research and technology organizations are eligible to apply as cooperation partners of eligible companies.

For more information, visit Enterprise Singapore.