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Climate-tech · Case study

Research allowance appeal: certified after a full rejection.

A climate-tech company we worked with was rejected outright, then certified after a formal objection, even with most of its costs in external contract research.

€75,000
research allowance granted
€300,000
eligible base
25%
SME funding rate
Free assessment Read the story
At a glance

The mandate in figures

IndustryClimate-tech / Web3Carbon-certificate infrastructure
Research allowance granted€75,000Fully claimable, paid as cash
Eligible base€300,000
ScenarioRejected, then certified on appeal
Projects1
SME funding rate25%
About the company

The company, and the R&D underneath

The company builds technical infrastructure to represent climate-related certificates in a standardized, verifiable way and make them tradable on a blockchain. The hard part is not the idea but the technology behind it: standardized, tamper-proof data models that merge heterogeneous inputs into a robust, comparable certificate.

The cost profile was striking. Most of the expenditure went not to the company's own staff but to external development work, that is, contract research. The whole case therefore hinges on one question: is this external work recognized as eligible contract research or not.

The challenge

Where the funding really sat

Contract research is eligible only if the contractor independently solves a scientific or technical problem and thereby generates new knowledge for the client. If the external work is classified as a pure service, merely executing a specification, it drops out of funding.

For a project whose eligible base consists mostly of contract research, this is existential. That is exactly where the rejection struck. The first decision denied the project, threatening not just a reduction but the complete loss of funding.

Novelty Technical risk / uncertainty Systematic approach
Our approach

How we built the case

Substance

We worked out which concrete technical uncertainty the external work carries, which problem without a safe solution was actually addressed there, and how it could have failed. A standardized, verifiable representation of heterogeneous climate data is not a solved standard problem; it demands its own methodological decisions with an open outcome.

Contractual and substantive delineation

We showed that the external work was result-oriented and aimed at the independent solution of a technical problem, not at merely supplying labor.

Objection itself

filed on time and re-argued along the three criteria, with the clear thread that the research embedded in the project is also visible in the externally executed part.

How the case moved

✕
Rejected
Full rejection of the project
↻
Re-argued
External work shown as genuine R&D
✓
Certified
Granted on formal objection

What made up the eligible base

In-house ~25%Contract research ~75%
In-house personnel workContract research (recognised)

Eligible base €300,000, predominantly contract research, recognised in full after the appeal. Split shown is illustrative.

The result

A €75,000 research allowance.

After the appeal, the project was certified. A full rejection became a granted certificate with an eligible base in the order of magnitude of around EUR 300,000. At the 25% rate applicable to the fiscal years in question, this yields a research allowance in the mid five-figure range.

Eligible base €300,000 · SME rate 25%
Rejected, then certified on appealThe outcome of the mandate.
Eligible base €300,000Recognised cost the allowance is calculated on.
SME rate 25%Applied to the eligible base.
Key takeaways

What other companies can learn

Anyone with a high contract-research share must secure the eligibility of that external work from the outset. Three points are decisive:

01

Result, not labor

The contract and the description must make clear that the contractor owes a result and independently solves a technical problem. A construct that only supplies hours is not eligible.

02

Show the uncertainty in the external part too

Contract research is eligible only if real failure risk existed there as well. That belongs explicitly in the description.

03

The rate depends on the fiscal year

The increased SME rate of 35% applies only from fiscal year 2024. Projects completed earlier are funded at 25%. That is not a flaw in the application but a consequence of the cut-off logic.

“
This mandate is the textbook example that a rejection is not the final word.
BeFunded On the research allowance
FAQ

Your questions, answered

The most common questions on this kind of case. Short answer first, detail after.

Yes, but only if the contractor independently solves a scientific or technical problem. A share of the contract cost is then recognized as the eligible base. Pure service work without R&D character is not eligible.

For projects in the relevant periods, 60% of the recognized contract cost is included in the eligible base. The funding rate is applied to that base.

Yes. A timely objection with a freshly built reasoning can correct a rejection. The prerequisite is that the project genuinely meets the three criteria and that this is made visible in the appeal.

The increased SME rate of 35% applies from fiscal year 2024. If the project ends earlier, the basic rate of 25% applies.

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