Funding for innovative product validations

All University of Bonn academic staff as well as (graduate) student assistants and research assistants, including of the Faculty of Medicine, are eligible to apply for the aforementioned grant funding.

We also invite proposals for prototyping projects that have been rejected by other third-party funds, e.g. VIP+ or EXIST fundings.

Teams that have already been funded through other start-up programs cannot be funded.

Funding can be applied for up to a maximum amount of €50,000 per project for a maximum period of one year.

1. The funds are made available annually from the MWIKE funding, the ESC individual project "U-Bo-Grow" of the university.
2. The funds are tied to the funding of science-based and innovative start-up ideas or projects from the University of Bonn (excluded are companies that have already been founded and start-up teams funded in other ways (e.g. EXIST start-up grant holders).
3. Research projects are not funded.
4. The aim of the funding is to promote innovative start-ups, develop them further towards marketability and ensure that a technology readiness level (TRL) of at least 4 is achieved in order to be able to connect to other start-up programs such as the Exist start-up grant or the Exist research transfer.
5. The funding is provided on a year-to-year basis, so that the term of each granted grant always ends on December 31st of the current year.
6. Unspent funding cannot be saved or carried over to the following financial year.
7. The funds can be used for:
   1. Material resources
      Subcontracts in compliance with the procurement guidelines of the University of Bonn resp. UKB
   2. No funding of personnel costs
   3. No funding of work equipment (e.g., Laptop, Smartphone, Tablet)
   4. No possibility of planning and disbursing other third-party funds for the duration of the requested prototyping project (exclusion of unauthorized double funding); the exclusion must be confirmed in writing
   5. Changes to the financing plan before or during the project period require the prior written consent of the Transfer Center enaCom.
8. Participation in mandatory start-up events (e.g. workshops, info sessions, start-up round table) is required for the duration of the project. This covers a total time of 25 hours, whereby at least one person from the applying team must participate. This includes, in particular, participation in events offered by the Transfer Center enaCom and must be proven by the end of the grant. In justified cases, events and workshops outside of enaCom can also be credited, this is only possible after prior consultation and approval by enaCom.
9. The letter of approval with the notification of grant is legally binding.
    

An assessment of the technology readiness level (TRL) of research results may be obtained before proposal filing in cooperation with the enaCom team. Please get in contact with us!

Grants are awarded on the basis of the following objectives:

1. Development of an innovative prototype (minimum viable product, TRL 4)
2.  Evaluation of the applicants' intention to start a business, including their vision for bringing the product or service to market and their motivation and commitment to the start-up project
3.  Previous steps to advance the start-up project (e.g. initial market analysis, business planning, team composition)
4. Description of the strategies to be developed during the project period, including the development of the business model, building the founding team, building founding-related skills, IP protection

Before and during proposal writing, please get in contact with our advisor: Dr. Alexander Kuesshauer (Phone: 0228 / 73-62026, kuesshauer@verwaltung.uni-bonn.de).

Please submit your proposal through the digital application platform on the website of enaCom Transfer Center, University of Bonn.