A materials company has developed, together with a university, a new sustainable material and a corresponding test method to characterise it. The material will only gain traction if buyers can rely on a recognised, comparable way to test and specify it. Without a published standard, every customer tests differently and adoption stalls. The company and the university want to turn their test method into a recognised specification.
WIPANO (Wissens- und Technologietransfer durch Patente und Normen) does not fund research and development itself; it funds two things that turn innovation into transferable value: securing intellectual property and standardisation. Its research-to-standard strand funds cooperation projects that prepare research results for standardisation, developing test methods, terminologies, interfaces or reference data and bringing them into bodies such as DIN, CEN or ISO. At least one publicly funded research partner must take part.
For such a cooperation the funding rate is up to 50 percent for companies and up to 80 percent for SMEs, with a maximum of around EUR 200,000 per partner over up to 24 months. The programme is run through the Juelich project management agency, with applications submitted via the easy-Online portal. The current directive runs to the end of 2027.
The work fits WIPANO's research-to-standard strand exactly. The cooperation project prepares the test method for standardisation, the test procedure, terminology and reference data, and brings it into a standards body, for example by publishing it as a specification such as a DIN SPEC, which makes it usable across the market as a picture of the state of the art. As an SME, the company receives the higher rate on its share, up to 80 percent and up to around EUR 200,000 over up to 24 months; the university is funded on its side. This lets both partners dedicate real effort to standardisation work that is otherwise unfunded and easily neglected.
A €200k WIPANO grant.
A recognised test standard for the new material removes a major adoption barrier, gives customers confidence, and positions the originating company as the reference point. Turning the research into a standard scales both the impact and the commercial value of the innovation.
Standardisation · up to 80% of eligible costsWhere adoption of an innovation depends on a missing standard, the standard itself is worth funding. WIPANO lets a company and a research partner carry their results into the standards the market will then follow, at a high rate for the SME and with the research partner funded on its own side.
The questions we hear most about the programme. Short answer first, detail after.
Cooperation projects that prepare research results for standardisation, with at least one publicly funded research partner.
Up to 50 percent for companies and up to 80 percent for SMEs, with a maximum of around EUR 200,000 per partner over up to 24 months.
A specification that makes a method or result usable across the market as a picture of the state of the art, faster to publish than a full standard.
The Juelich project management agency (PtJ), via the easy-Online portal.
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