Innovation funding FAQ: costs, timelines and eligibility
The questions companies ask us most often before starting a funding application. Questions about a single programme sit on that programme page.
General questions about working with BeFunded
Most companies developing something technically new qualify for at least one programme. That covers startups, SMEs, larger companies and self-employed innovators in software, manufacturing, biotech, energy, health and far beyond. What counts is genuine technical risk in the project, not your industry. The free funding estimate on this page gives you a first read in about three minutes.
We cover the German and EU programmes that actually pay out for R&D and innovation: the Forschungszulage (research allowance), ZIM, KMU-innovativ, EXIST, GRW, BAFA EEW and KfW innovation loans in Germany, plus Horizon Europe, the EIC Accelerator, Eurostars and the EU Innovation Fund at European level. If a different programme suits your project better, we will say so.
Nothing upfront. Our fee is success-based, a percentage of the funding you actually receive, invoiced only after the money reaches you. If nothing is approved, you pay nothing.
That depends on the programme. The Forschungszulage takes roughly six months from the first call to the BSFZ certificate, with the cash following your tax return. Competitive grants such as ZIM, EIC or Horizon Europe run on fixed deadlines and usually take six to twelve months from application to decision.
Usually six to twelve hours in total across the whole application. We write the technical documentation, build the cost plan and deal with the authorities. Your engineers are only needed for the technical substance, in a few short interviews.
Book a free 30-minute call or run the funding estimate on this page. You get a clear answer on which programmes fit, what they could be worth and what the next step is. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
It costs you nothing with us — our fee is success-based. And a rejection is rarely the end: the review usually names the reason, and many programmes allow a fresh submission in a later round. Often another programme turns out to be the better route for the same project. What you need for that is time in the project plan, which is why a competitive programme should never be your only funding assumption.
For the Forschungszulage, yes: it is claimed for financial years that have already ended, for up to four years — counted from the end of the year in which the return for that year was filed. For grant programmes, no: there the opposite applies, the application has to be in before the project starts. That single distinction decides more cases than any wording detail in the application itself.
No. What gets funded is the project, not your organisational chart. What matters is that the project contains a technical question whose answer was not settled at the start — that can happen in a team of two alongside day-to-day business. Contract research counts too: what you commission from a university or research institute is partly eligible under the Forschungszulage.
Above all, who worked on what and for how long. Time records per employee and project are the core — for the Forschungszulage they carry the assessment base, for grants the proof of use. On top come receipts for external work and, depending on the programme, an interim and a final report. Reconstructing all of that at the end regularly loses items that would have been eligible.
Questions about a specific funding programme
Every programme page carries its own FAQ with the rules, deadlines and eligible costs for that programme.