Finnish-German partnering for joint innovation funding
“ZIM” stands for Zentrales Innovationsprogramm Mittelstand, which means “Central Innovation Programme for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)”. It is a funding programme of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy that aims to foster the innovative capacity of SMEs. It launches several thousand new projects every year all around Germany, making it the country’s largest innovation programme for SMEs. The ZIM is open to all technologies, topics and industries. Several bilateral agreements with other countries facilitate synchronised funding with foreign national programmes.
Business Finland provides funding for small and medium-sized enterprises that have the know-how and desire to expand into export markets. Business Finland funding is available for companies registered in Finland. Business Finland R&D funding enables companies to develop products or services, production methods, and business models. It is also possible to test and demonstrate the operation of a new, innovative solution and evaluate the benefits together with customers.
NEW:
This time also research institutes in Finland can participate in the Call. This is done by Co-innovation funding tool: If one or more research organizations are involved in the Co-innovation project, there must also be at least three companies which have applied for Business Finland funding for their R&D project.
Co-Innovation Funding in a nutshell
Please register before 18th May 2021 if you wish to participate in the pitching.
The bilateral German / Finnish call will be open until 15th December 2021.
Virtual matchmaking sessions
In addition, we offer several virtual matchmaking sessions that bring together companies from Finland and Germany:
- 26 May 2021 - 13.00 to 14.30 (German time) / 14.00 to 15.30 (Finnish time) (afternoon of the virtual information session)
- 27 May 2021 - 10.00 to 12.00 (German time) / 11.00 to 13.00 (Finnish time)
- 27 May 2021 - 13.00 to 14.30 (German time) / 14.00 to 15.30 (Finnish time)
These targeted 1:1 meetings offer the opportunity to find partners for joint proposals. In addition these matchmaking sessions offer the general opportunity to generate new business contacts in Finland or Germany.
Why is Finland especially attractive for a cooperation in the field of healthcare?
Finland is the most advanced digital economy in the EU (DESI). Finland is a pioneer in digital health and the first country in the world that has digitized national health registries originating in the 1960’s, along with digitized biobank data dating back to the 1920’s. The combination of Finland’s digital mindset and approach to solving healthcare problems with our rich data repositories has enabled us to address patients' problems utilizing real-world data. There is 100% penetration of electronic health records (EHR) and Finland has the only EHR in the world where clinical and social data are layered on top of each other. Furthermore all Finns have 100% access to their EHR and encouraged to contribute to it.
In May 2019 Finland approved legislation on the secondary use of health data, which elevates research and innovation opportunities across health and wellbeing, disease prevention, and predictive and personalized medicine including new methods of treatment.
