SPRIND sees itself as an incubator for breakthrough innovations in Germany and Europe. It identifies, validates, finances, and supports projects and plans that have the potential for producing breakthrough innovations. In contrast to pure research funding, SPRIND aims to support new marketable products, technologies, business models, and/or services that sustainably improve the lives of as many people as possible. The focus is on social and economic added value. This added value includes, in particular, the potential for major economic value creation and for solving significant technological, social, or ecological problems.

SPRIND is characterized by its focus on innovations with breakthrough potential that address major technological, social, economic, and ecological challenges. Its target group is primarily innovators and project teams who are prepared to take high risks in order to successfully develop their innovations towards marketability. SPRIND focuses on projects that are often still too high-risk to obtain financing on the private capital market due to a lack of market maturity.

SPRIND has developed and established an in-depth evaluation process in order to assess the potential for a breakthrough innovation. Based on specific criteria and parameters, all submissions undergo a process leading to a holistic assessment of their technological basis and economic potential.

The assessment includes internal and external consultations and evaluations.

Validation is used to check the potential a project proposal has to be a breakthrough innovation. In particular, technical and scientific aspects are validated. This validation helps SPRIND to evaluate options for possible follow-up financing.

SPRIND bases its projects and technologies on Technology Readiness Levels (TRL). The TRLs indicate whether a technology is still at the basic research stage (TRL 0-2) or has already achieved full product status (TRL 9). SPRIND generally focuses on TRLs 3 to 7, that is, projects that are between experimental feasibility and a marketable prototype.

All relevant information can be found in the Submit project proposal section.

To submit your project proposal, please use the submission form.

SPRIND Challenges bring visionary teams working on radically new solutions together.

The goal: to find the best way to solve the great challenges of our time through competition.

Topics for SPRIND Challenges are developed through targeted internal reflection processes and external consultations. SPRIND sets ambitious innovation objectives for itself and how well the topic fits in with those objectives will be reviewed constantly in light of SPRIND’s mission.

Do you have an idea for a new Challenge? Please send it to challenge@sprind.org.

SPRIND is entrepreneurially organized as a German limited liability company (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (GmbH)) and does not use formal funding notices. SPRIND doesn’t have funding guidelines. Funding guidelines imply a standard program with grants being awarded according to their requirements.

SPRIND represents a new approach to providing finance for players in the field. Our goal is to identify and support breakthrough innovations. This requires deviating from the norm and finding individual answers and tailored solutions to issues and problems. For that reason we are committed to exploring new partnership pathways.

For the start-up phase 2019-2022, funds of at least EUR 151 million were budgeted. The agency is initially planned as an experimental phase for a period of ten years. For this ten-year term (from 2019), a total budget of around EUR 1 billion is expected. Further information in German can be found on the BMBF website.

SPRIND acts with the legally stipulated goal of creating added value through new, highly innovative products, processes or services, particularly in Germany and Europe.

For this reason, SPRIND primarily focuses on promoting and financing projects with breakthrough innovation potential in Germany and the EFTA states.

In exceptional cases, SPRIND can also operate outside these regions, for example, as part of the SPRIND innovation competitions (Challenges and Funken).

The decision on possible support is made by a project committee of experienced innovation managers who accompany the analysis, evaluation, and selection process, as well as by SPRIND’s management team.

Since the SPRIND Freedom Act, SPRIND has had a wide range of instruments at its disposal. SPRIND uses various forms of financing and funding, for example validation contracts, equity investments, mezzanine financing, or grants. SPRIND uses the various instruments in a targeted manner to support projects with breakthrough innovation potential as precisely, flexibly and unbureaucratically as possible, with the aim of ultimately transitioning the projects into mostly private-sector financing. In the case of equity investments and mezzanine financing, 30 percent of the financing round must come from independent private investors.

In general, the innovators or companies decide independently on the co-investors. SPRIND can act as a pari passu investor within the framework permitted under state aid law if there is insufficient private sector capital available or if the investors insist on this due to the interface that SPRIND provides with the state.

SPRIND attracts private investors instead of pushing them out. It invests in projects that the private market would not yet finance due to a lack of market maturity. In this way, the project gains exactly the momentum it needs for the transition to commercial exploitation. SPRIND typically withdraws as soon as the projects can be transferred to private financing.

SPRIND’s return on investment (ROI) is measured in particular in terms of impact, not exclusively in financial returns. The focus is on long-term, sustainable economic value creation with the goal of supporting products, technologies, or business models that create new markets and industries and significantly improve people’s lives. SPRIND acts boldly and takes risks that purely yield-oriented investors cannot take. Half of the income resulting from the sale of company shares or the exploitation of intellectual property rights is to be allocated to SPRIND funds and the other half to the federal budget. The annual budget law regulates all further details.

SPRIND sees itself as a partner for very early-stage innovation projects that still involve high development risks. It bridges what is referred to as the valley of death, that is, the time between basic research and market maturity. It helps start-ups get ready for private-sector investors. SPRIND facilitates the transition to private financing by cooperating with private investors at an early stage and promoting crowding-in, in other words, attracting private investors instead of crowding them out. SPRIND also strengthens the German and European start-up and venture capital ecosystem by specifically addressing regulatory or systemic obstacles through strategic initiatives. The aim is to remove these obstacles, for example by facilitating the transfer of intellectual property (IP) from universities and non-university institutions.

SPRIND pursues the goal of being as founder-friendly as possible. The regulations for intellectual property (IP) vary depending on the instrument used to promote innovation. In the SPRIND Challenges, the IP always remains with the participants. However, for reasons of state aid law, SPRIND regularly reserves a free, non-exclusive right to use the results. Details can be found in the respective participation agreements.

Leipzig is a beacon of innovation policy. We deliberately chose a location in an East German federal state – without compromising on the other criteria: urban spirit, entrepreneurial and innovative power, scientific orientation and excellent transport connections were the decisive factors. We are convinced that Leipzig is an attractive and powerful location for the agency.

www.bmbf.de

SPRIND sees education as the mother of all breakthrough innovations, and social innovation in education is part of SPRIND’s mission. It is thus responding to the growing challenges facing the education system.

SPRIND focuses on the common good and social issues. This is why it primarily supports civil innovations. It also supports dual-use innovations that can have both civilian and military applications.

In addition to representatives from our shareholder, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Supervisory Board also includes prominent personalities from business and science who contribute their expertise in the fields of innovation and entrepreneurship. It was also important to us to have equal representation, which is why we are very proud that five women and five men have accepted the appointment to this important body.

Please check here: Corporate Governance.

Submission via the form is the preferred and fastest way to ensure a consistent, quick and efficient processing workflow. If you have any issues with the form, please send us a brief description of the technical problem (projects@sprind.org). This allows us to identify the cause.

If we are unable to provide a solution, you have the option to send your documents to projects@sprind.org.

Please note: If you submit your documents by email, you must fully answer all the guiding questions included in the form when describing your project idea. Incomplete submissions may lead to delays in processing. You are welcome to submit additional supporting documents.

The privacy policy explains which of your personal data we process, how we process it, and for what purpose.

If your project proposal is not accepted after review, we ask for your consent to store your personal data and project proposal data for three years to enable us to contact you at a later date and review your proposal again.

To provide your consent, simply include the following sentence in your email:

If my project proposal is not accepted after review, I agree that my personal data and project proposal data will be stored for three years to enable subsequent contact and re-evaluation.

This consent is voluntary and can be revoked at any time with future effect by sending an email to info@sprind.org or contacting us via the details provided in the imprint. The revocation is effective from the time of the declaration and applies to future processing activities.

Further information, in particular about your rights as a data subject, can be found in our privacy policy.

If your project idea cannot be submitted digitally, you can also send the project idea to SPRIND’s address by post.

Please understand that we can only accept submissions digitally (by submission form or email) or by post. Unfortunately, it is not possible to present your project proposal in person. All further information can be found here: Submit project proposal.

To describe your project idea, please use the guiding questions we have compiled. You will also find them in our submission form. This allows us to make the best possible assessment of your project idea’s breakthrough innovation potential. You are welcome to submit additional supporting documents.

ITo simplify processing and give us a structured overview of your project idea, we ask you to answer the guiding questions in the submission form in as much detail as possible. in as much detail as possible. You are also welcome to send us further documents, e.g., your pitch deck, pictures of the project or a patent.

You do not need a patent to submit your project idea to us.

However, if a patent is available, you are welcome to send it along with your project or note the patent number in the submission.

We attach the highest priority to the confidentiality of your data. At SPRIND, all employees or, if applicable, any external experts consulted are therefore bound, where appropriate, by a non-disclosure agreement.

Any type of institution can submit a project idea – including small and medium-sized companies, large companies, research centers, individual researchers or universities.

Project ideas can be submitted by individual applicants as well as by a consortium. It is important, however, that a contact person be specified in case of queries.

We ask you to understand that due to the large number of submissions and in order to ensure equal opportunities, we are not able to provide evaluations unless you directly submit a project proposal.

We therefore ask you to submit your project proposal via the submission form in full with all requested information.

You may add new information to your submission at any time. If you would like to add new findings or documents, for example, please send them to projects@sprind.org.

If you wish to revise your submission completely, please fill out the submission form once again and notify us via projects@sprind.org about your updated submission.

Yes, you can (re)submit a project proposal to SPRIND at any time on the SPRIND website. If a project proposal was not initially followed up, it can be resubmitted. Where possible, the progress made since the last submission should be described.

Projects identified by us as having breakthrough innovation potential will be selected by a group of experts.

We have an open mind when it comes to areas of interest. SPRIND focuses on the common good and on issues relevant to society. For this reason it primarily supports civilian innovations. We also support dual-use innovations that can have both civilian and military applications.

Details on the process sequence and next steps can be found in the Submit project proposal section.

You will initially get a confirmation of receipt by email. Afterwards we will register your submitted project proposal and begin the assessment.

The entire assessment process currently takes around twelve weeks.

You can query the current status of your project at any time by emailing projects@sprind.org.

By their very nature, breakthrough innovations are extremely rare and difficult to predict. For this reason we only offer support to a small proportion of the proposals submitted, currently less than ten percent.