May 12, 2025

Announcement of participation in the competition procedure for Czech-Saxon R&D collaborative projects

Czech-Saxon R&D projects with an earliest start date of 01.01.2026 and a project period of up to 24 months are eligible for funding. For this call, the Saxon State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labor and Transport is calculating a total funding budget of up to EUR 5,000,000.

The R&D projects for the current call must deal with one of the following topics:

Life Science
semiconductor technologies
Intelligent and sustainable mobility

Recipients of funding can be SMEs in the commercial sector with a permanent establishment in the Free State of Saxony and, in association1 with these, also large companies2 in the commercial sector with a permanent establishment in the Free State of Saxony and research institutions in the Free State of Saxony. The project must involve at least one company with its registered office or permanent establishment in the Czech Republic and at least one SME with its registered office or permanent establishment in the Free State of Saxony.

The Czech part of the project is funded according to the specifications of the Czech Technology Agency. The Saxon part of the project will be funded in accordance with the requirements for joint R&D projects of the ERDF/JTF Technology Funding Directive 2021 to 2027. Information on the funding conditions for research institutions can be found on our program page for the directive.

If the application is selected and approved, the funding would amount to
90 percent of the eligible expenditure. Personnel expenses/costs that are already covered by public budgets and own contributions are not eligible for funding. The own contribution must therefore be paid in cash. As personnel expenses are funded as a lump sum and this is generally lower than the actual costs incurred, additional own funds are required to cover shortfalls in personnel expenses in addition to the above-mentioned own contribution. An estimate of these costs is made during the application process.

A competitive procedure must be completed before the grant is approved. This does not give rise to any entitlement to funding.

Applications are submitted in a two-stage procedure. In the first stage, a project idea with a project description in accordance with the SAB form must be submitted together with a joint English-language description of the project by the Czech and Saxon partners - a common proposal. The Common Proposal must be signed by all partners. The submission of project ideas and Common Proposal is legally binding as a PDF exclusively through the EPC via the TU Dresden's access to the SAB funding portal by July 9, 2025 at the latest.

Please follow the information on how to apply on the EPC's program page for R&D technology funding (see Procedure and Application) and contact the EPC at an early stage to prepare calculations in accordance with the funding regulations and to check and ensure that the own contribution is made.
The deadline for submitting application documents to the EPC is July 1, 2025.

The submitted project applications will be evaluated according to the following criteria

Compliance of the project idea with the objectives and priorities of the ERDF/JTF program of the Free State of Saxony for the funding period 2021 to 2027 and the Saxon Innovation Strategy 2020
Quality of the problem description and the proposed solution in relation to the state of the art (degree of innovation)
Projects with above-average scientific and technical risk
Competence of the applicants
Contribution to increasing the innovative capacity and competitiveness of Saxon companies
Contribution to the improvement of environmental conditions
Statements on the exploitation potential of the planned development (market analysis, expected economic output from the project results).

The Saxon State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labor and Transport and the Sächsische Aufbaubank - development bank - in coordination with the Czech Technology Agency decide on the applications. Interested parties will be informed of the selection result in writing.

Information on the funding conditions for the Czech part of the project can be found at: https://www.tacr.cz/en/8th-call-for-proposal-sub-objective-4bilateral-cooperation/.