No more inventions by the middle class? The ministry has suspended the funding program for the time being.
(Photo: ddp / BO / Schoening)
Berlin There is a risk of an interruption of up to six months in the federal government’s most important innovation funding program for small and medium-sized enterprises. The Federal Ministry of Economics had surprisingly imposed a freeze on applications at the “Central Innovation Program for SMEs” (ZIM) at the beginning of October because, due to the great demand, it was foreseeable that the pot for 2021 would be exhausted. Applications that have already been submitted will be processed.
It is now evident that the ministry will only accept new applications again once the new Bundestag has launched the 2022 budget. The Ministry of Economic Affairs announced this on request. That means: In case of doubt, innovative medium-sized companies can only apply for funds for new projects again in March next year.
That would, however, “lead to a major backlog of applications”, fears Klaus Jansen, managing director of the Association of Innovative Enterprises (VIU) and head of the Zuse Association, in which the research institutes of medium-sized companies are organized. Therefore, the application freeze must “be lifted immediately – but no later than January 1, 2022”.
The interruption at ZIM is also causing an uproar in the central business associations: “The stop is a bitter disappointment for medium-sized research companies. Instead of promoting entrepreneurial innovation, politics leaves companies out in the rain, ”said Iris Plöger, member of the BDI management board, the Handelsblatt. Because the ZIM in particular is “essential for small and medium-sized companies”.
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They are “dependent on research funding with easy access and little bureaucracy”. This is the only way for companies without extensive research departments to implement innovations. Experts have long complained that SMEs in particular are falling further behind in terms of innovation.
Precisely because the research activity of smaller companies is currently so high, “the federal government must significantly increase research funding for small and medium-sized companies in order to strengthen the competitiveness of industrial medium-sized companies in Germany,” demands Plöger.
The federal government increased the ZIM funds in the pandemic as part of the support measures from 550 million euros in 2020 to around 620 million euros this year. In the medium-term planning, 550 million were again earmarked for 2022. Whether it will stay that way under the new government is completely open.
DIHK President Adrian: “Funding instruments must function reliably”
DIHK President Peter Adrian sees the stop at the ZIM as a “worrying signal”, he told the Handelsblatt. “It would be desirable if the new federal government would send a clear signal and ensure that funding instruments such as the ZIM, which are used to promote innovation processes in medium-sized companies, function reliably – and are adequately financed.”
The ZIM program has become a “victim of its own success”, complains VIU boss Jansen. Therefore, the funds would have to be increased significantly – “not only in the ZIM, but also in the other programs of project funding”.
The background is also the fear of the trade associations of a general restructuring of funding under a traffic light coalition. Not without reason: For example, the liberal innovation politician Thomas Sattelberger is calling for project funding to be restructured and “wants to focus much more on tax research funding,” he wrote in an article for the Handelsblatt. Germany did not introduce the tax bonus on spending on research and development, which had long been established in other OECD countries, until 2020, and since April 2021 it has also been possible to apply for it de facto.
More: Five adjusting screws for a doubling of the start-ups by 2030: This is how Germany could unleash the spirit of entrepreneurship