Announcement by the Saxon State Ministry of Social Affairs, Health and Social Cohesion on a call for expressions of interest in funding model projects for the Future Platform of the ESF Plus Directive SMS

The Saxon State Ministry for Social Affairs, Health and Social Cohesion (SMS) has published the fourth call for funding for model projects for the Future Platform for Social Innovation (Section II, capital letter E of the ESF Plus Directive SMS). The aim of the call for funding is to develop and test socially innovative solutions with a focus on artificial intelligence (AI) in social work.

Subject of Funding

Funding is provided for pilot projects that serve the temporary testing of socially innovative and public welfare-oriented concepts for solving societal and social problems in the work and areas of activity of social work. The innovation content of the project is paramount, i.e. societal and social challenges are to be addressed with new and innovative solutions and concepts. The aim of the pilot projects is to generate new findings and to be able to transfer the results obtained to other applications and thus reproduce them.

Funding is available for socially innovative prevention or support measures that have a clearly recognizable link to the development, introduction and model testing of artificial intelligence (AI) applications in the subject and work areas of social work.

The projects must be assigned to at least one of the following subject areas of social work: special life situations, integration, inclusion, children, young people, family or ageing society.

The funded pilot projects must also:

a) identify specific areas of application in which AI offers recognizable added value compared to existing procedures,

b) contribute to relieving the burden of administrative, organizational or repetitive processes and thus increase time resources for work processes in social work or improve the quality, accessibility or effectiveness of social services, for example through new forms of analysis, advice, interaction, prevention, support or case-related decision support.

The services of the Future Platform for Social Innovations of the Free State of Saxony (known as "SINN") are available as part of the implementation and preparation of the pilot projects.

Funding Conditions

The grant is awarded as part of project funding as partial financing in the form of a subsidy for up to 24 months. It amounts to up to 95 percent of the eligible expenditure.

Personnel expenses are funded in the form of a job grant or person-related lump sum.

Material and administrative costs are granted as a residual lump sum amounting to 40 percent of the direct eligible personnel costs.

The own contribution to be made can be provided by the cooperation of basic-financed personnel or "cash" from free funds (own funds).

The maximum grant amount is 300,000 euros per project. Any additional funding for the project must be provided from own or third-party funds, which must be specified in the project proposal.

For a project that is implemented by an association of sponsors, the total grant amount can be up to EUR 400,000 if the project is implemented in the NUTS II base regions of Dresden and Chemnitz.

The grant recipient must prove that both social and technical expertise is available for the development, introduction and pilot testing of the planned AI application. These requirements can be met by the recipient's own professional and technical expertise or by cooperating with suitable partners.

Participants in a pilot project must have their main place of residence in the Free State of Saxony.

The project duration must be planned or applied for from 01.01.2027. The maximum duration is 24 months.

Applicants

Funding recipients are sponsors or a sponsor association. The prerequisite is that the grant recipient is organized as a legal entity under private or public law with its registered office or branch office in the Free State of Saxony. An association of sponsors exists if at least two legally independent institutions jointly implement a project.

Application

Information Session Hosted by SMS and SAB on February 26, 2026, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Link to the presentation: https://buergerbeteiligung.sachsen.de/Präsentation

The application process consists of two stages. The EPC supports applicants from TU Dresden in accordance with the notice from the Vice-Rector Research 2/2023 and must be involved in the application process as early as possible. The EPC provides advice on funding conditions and the application process, holds power of attorney for legally binding signatures with the Saxon Development Bank (SAB), and has central access to the SAB’s funding portal for submitting project proposals.

Currently, no applications can be submitted.

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