Innobooster Additional Grant During COVID-19

You can apply for an extension of your Innobooster project if:

• Your Innobooster project has a project end date after 1 January 2020, and we have received your application for the Innobooster project no later than 1 April 2020.
   
• You can render it probable that you need additional funding due to the situation around COVID19. For example, maybe the situation around COVID-19 has affected your development project or market situation, requiring changes, new development or market adjustment, etc.
   
• There are outstanding development activities that may form the basis for an extension of the Innobooster project, hereunder activities that can support the commercialisation of the project. The general Innobooster scheme now allows for additional activities to be included in order to support the market position, and the additional grant may also be used for this purpose. See the updated guidelines at www.innovationsfonden.dk.
   
• You do not receive any other public support to fund the additional activities of the Innobooster project. This includes, for example, other funding from Innovation Fund Denmark, including Innofounder, or from some of the public compensation schemes initiated to mitigate the economic impact of the COVID19 crisis.

• You can apply for an additional grant of 20% of the original grant with the same grant percentage and the same set of rules as the original Innobooster grant. For example, if you received DKK 500,000 in grants from Innobooster, you can apply for an additional 20%, corresponding to a grant of DKK 100,000. The requirement is that you add a short additional project with a gross value of DKK 303,000 (the normal grant percentages of up to 33% will still be applied).
   
• The budget: The breakdown of budget items shall not follow the breakdown of the original application, but must be budgeted in continuation of the application’s activity plan in accordance with the general guidelines of the Innobooster scheme and inserted in the budget form.
   
• The project may last for a maximum of 12 months
   
• Accounts, accounting principles and other matters are in accordance with the updated guidelines for Innobooster of 7 May 2020.

Documents

• beskrivelse-af-tillaegsbevilling-covid-19-innobooster_0.pdf
• innobooster-retningslinjer-covid-19.pdf

This particular pool of funds that shall ensure the continued development of your Innobooster project is implemented within the framework of EU State subsidy rules. In this particular situation, the starting point is the EU Commission’s rules on establishment aid:

Establishment aid may be given to companies established within the last five years, based on the date of registration of the company in the CVR register. The company must not have taken over another company’s activity, distributed profits or entered into a merger. If the company is part of a group of companies, the date of registration of the oldest company in the group shall define the time of establishment.

In addition, at the time of application, the company (or the group of companies, of which the company may be a part) must have less than 50 employees and 1) a balance sheet of less than EUR 10 million (approx. DKK 75 million) or 2) a turnover of less than EUR 10 million (approx. DKK 75 million).

Budgeting of the activities in this project is basically an hourly rate of DKK 750 plus possible direct costs to the knowledge provider and/or materials and equipment. The use of the establishment aid option is independent of whether the former Innobooster was granted under the de minimis rules or the State Aid Exemption Regulation – industrial research or experimental development.

If you are unable to use the establishment aid scheme because you do not meet the criteria, you may be able to use the de minimis Regulation:

The de minimis Regulation: If, overall, your company has not received de minimis aid totalling EUR 200,000 (about DKK 1,500,000) in the current financial year and the two previous financial years, you may apply under the de minimis Regulation. (See Innobooster guidelines for additional issues regarding the de minimis Regulation.)

Under the de minimis Regulation, you can use the same budgetary principles that you used in your previous Innobooster, including an hourly rate of DKK 750 as well as possible direct costs to the knowledge provider and/or materials and equipment.

Use of the de minimis Regulation is independent of whether the former Innobooster was granted under the de minimis or the block exemption – industrial research or experimental development. The important thing is that there is ‘air’ up to your overall ceiling of the de minimis, including the budget used in the application for this project. If your company is part of a group of companies, the de minimis ceiling of maximum EUR 200,000 (approx. DKK 1,500,000) applies to the entire group.

If you cannot use any of the above two aid regulations, you may be able to use:

If you cannot take advantage of the above options, you have the option to use the group exemption scheme – experimental development or industrial research.

Here the budget rules are different: You must budget with direct costs for wages etc. as well as possible direct costs to the knowledge provider and/or materials and equipment. The activities must take place within the definitions of industrial research and experimental development.

You should also be aware that under this Regulation, you must be able to declare that the company is ‘not undergoing a crisis’, cf. the EU Regulation’s definition of ‘undertaking in difficulty’ in Article 2 (18) of the Commission’s Regulation (EU) No. 651/2014 of 17 June 2014. See also detailed notes in the Innobooster guidelines.

The application is submitted as an application for a change request under your original grant number, e.g. (9071-00xxxB). Application and processing are ongoing, and the scheme is open until 15 November 2020. However, the scheme may close before 15 November 2020, if the amount allocated to the scheme is exhausted ahead of time.

If you are eligible to apply, but your original Innobooster grant has been completed (you final report has been approved, etc.), please send an email to innobooster@innofond.dk with your case number, and we will reopen your grant so you can apply for an additional grant.

Reporting: You must prepare financial accounts in accordance with the applicable Innobooster guidelines.

Documents

• ansogningsskema-tillaegsbevilling-innobooster.docx

The application form has to be uploaded when applying through e-grant.

See an example of a budget form. You get access to the real form when applying through e-grant.

Documents

• innobooster_guidelines_eng_maj_2019.pdf
• innobooster-budget-guidelines-english-version.pdf
• innobooster-application-english-version.pdf

Prior guidelines for Innobooster (in Danish)

Your application must be created and submitted via the electronic application system e-grant .

You must register as a user of the system with either a username and password or with MitID before you can create an application.

You create a new application by finding the correct call under “Search options” and clicking “Start your application”.

Select the amount you wish to apply for:

• 200,000 – 1 million DKK
• 1 million – 5 million DKK

Please note that the list of apply options is sorted alphabetically and that the names of all calls from Innovation Fund Denmark start with “IF”.

You may write your application in either Danish or English.

You can find a guide to e-grant on the website of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research.

Most of the application is completed directly in E-grant. The application consists of an administrative part, where various information and declarations are provided, and a technical part, where questions are answered regarding:

• The company
• The idea
• The Innobooster project
• The market
• The business benefit
• Risk assessment
• The team
• Results from any previous investments from Innovation Fund Denmark (e.g. Innobooster, Industrial Researcher, Eurostars, Grand Solutions and Innofounder)
• Activity plan

In addition to completing the form in e-grant, you must upload a budget, prepared using a template that can be downloaded via a link during the application process.

When writing your application, there are some aspects you can pay attention to in order to improve the application and present the project more clearly.

In this video you can meet Marie Friis Madsen, Innovation Officer at the Fund. She gives some concrete tips to avoid some of the mistakes that are often seen in Innobooster applications. During the video she discusses how you can become sharper at:

• Interface between company and project
• Unfolding knowledge challenges
• Concrete language and clear milestones

The assessment process is summarized here:

Innovation Fund Denmark’s employees will first assess whether your application meets the formal requirements.

The subsequent professional assessment is carried out by at least two individuals who are either employed by Innovation Fund Denmark or are members of the Professional Assessment Committee for Innobooster. Together, they make a recommendation to the management of Innovation Fund Denmark.

Applications invited to present to the Innobooster Panel Committee are assessed by a panel of approximately five committee members. Panel members have expertise and extensive experience in areas such as innovation, entrepreneurship, business development and various specialist fields.

In all cases, the final decision — approval, reduced approval, rejection or administrative rejection — is made by the management of Innovation Fund Denmark.

In cases of reduced approval, Innovation Fund Denmark has assessed that specific, identifiable parts of the application cannot be supported under the Innobooster programme guidelines, while the remaining parts still constitute an eligible Innobooster project.

All participants in the assessment process are subject to confidentiality and Innovation Fund Denmark’s enhanced requirements regarding conflicts of interest.

Your application will be assessed based on the three decision criteria below. The assessment criteria are:

• The quality of the idea
• Impact
• Quality in execution

In connection with the three decision criteria, Innovation Fund Denmark emphasizes the following:

The quality of the idea

• That it is sufficiently clear what solution the project will end up with, including what overall solution the project contributes to if it is a sub-project.
• That the solution differentiates itself sufficiently from existing solutions on the market, including any existing solutions of the company.
• That it is sufficiently clear which initial results the project is based on, and that these are sufficiently convincing to provide a basis for initiating the project.
• That the project sufficiently implements risky, challenge-driven and knowledge-based development activities.

Impact

• That it is sufficiently probable that the company will achieve a significant commercial gain from the project.
• That it is sufficiently probable that the solution meets a need in a market of a relevant size, and in the long term addresses an international market, including that there are users/customers for the solution.
• That there is sufficient correlation between the expected benefit from the project and the size of the Innovation Fund’s investment.
• That it is sufficiently probable that the project’s results will contribute to creating societal impact within the applied thematic area, as well as growth and employment in Denmark, even after the project has ended.

Quality of execution

• That it is sufficiently concrete and clear what the purpose of the project is and how it is to be achieved, including that a clear activity plan has been prepared with clear milestones and success criteria.
• That the team, including any knowledge suppliers, partners, and other associates, has sufficiently relevant and specialized skills to complete the project and ensure the subsequent implementation.
• That the project appears sufficiently realistic to implement in relation to both the described methods, plans for mitigating risks and the company’s resources to execute.
• That the project is budgeted reasonably, realistically and effectively in relation to the activities set out.

An overall assessment is made based on the three decision criteria, with each criterion given equal weight. The assessment takes into account the size of the investment, i.e. the higher the amount requested, the more it will take for the application to meet the criteria in question.

You will receive a response to the application in e-grant.dk. You will receive a notification by e-mail when a decision is available in e-grant.

The expected processing time for your application varies throughout the year. You can see estimated response times under pools and date ranges.

Contact

Phone: +45 61 90 50 00

Thursday: 9:00-12:00 CET

Email: Innobooster@innofond.dk

Technical questions about e-grant?

Contact e-grant support

Phone: +45 33 92 91 90
E-mail: Support.e-grant@ufm.dk

Weekdays: 9:00-12:00

If you have submitted an application or have a grant from the Fund, please contact us via your case in e-grant.

If you have any questions regarding an application to Innobooster, you can contact your local business centre , which is familiar with Innovation Fund Denmark’s programmes. Please note, however, that the Business Centre cannot help with administrative questions regarding ongoing projects.

Business Hub Northen Denmark
Only for companies in the North Jutland region
Contact information Business Hub North Jutland

Business Hub Central Denmark
Only   for companies in the Central Denmark region
Telephone hours 8 -16: Tel. 7015 1619

Business Hub Southern Denmark
Only for companies in South Jutland
Allan Clausen, Mail: acl@ehsyd.dk , Tel. 4188 6641

Business Hub Funen
Only for companies on Funen
Email: innobooster@ehfyn.dk

Business Hub Zealand
Only for companies in the Zealand region
Anette Høgh Sonnichsen, ahs@ehsj.dk, +45 6188 4621

Copenhagen Business Hub
Only for companies in the Capital Region
Find contact information here

Danish small and medium-sized enterprises, including entrepreneurial companies. The company must meet the EU’s SME requirements, which means that your company has:

• less than 250 employees
• an annual turnover of no more than EUR 50 million, or an annual balance sheet total of no more than EUR 43 million.

In addition, the applicant company must be able to meet at least one of the two financial criteria below at the time of application:

• Risk capital or development grants
  Have obtained a total investment of risk capital or development grants of at least DKK 100,000 within the past three years.
• Gross profit
  Have a gross profit of at least DKK 250,000 in at least one of the last three years’ published annual accounts. The accounts must be accessible at www.cvr.dk. For company structures where publication is not required, the annual accounts must be fully audited and signed by the company’s management.

Documentation of compliance with a financial criterion must be available upon request and/or during an audit.

Risk capital is defined as equity financing for companies in their start-up and development phase. It can be cash deposits or as a convertible loan without the requirement of a mortgage or other collateral. Financing must come from another legal entity, e.g. from owners (as private individuals or via companies), Business Angels, foundations or other investors.

Development grants can come from public or private programs, where these funds are invested in specific development activities in the company. This includes grants to the company from Innofounder and other Innovation Fund Denmark programs, as well as funds from Innoexplorer for developing the basic idea for the application.

Examples of contributions that cannot be counted towards meeting the requirement for risk capital or development grants are loans with priority, repayment and/or collateral requirements, non-monetary contributions (e.g. goodwill, IP value, in-kind hours) and grants of a non-financial nature (e.g. consulting hours or the opportunity to participate in events).

Innobooster cannot grant funding to:

• Companies undergoing compulsory dissolution, bankruptcy, voluntary liquidation or suspension of payments.
• Companies that are owned more than 50 percent by the state, regions or municipalities.
• Companies with operating subsidies from public institutions of more than half of their turnover.
• Undertakings considered to be “in difficulty” as defined in point (18) of Article 2(1) of Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 of 17 June 2014 on the compatibility of certain categories of aid with the internal market in application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty, provided that the aid from Innobooster is covered by the Block Exemption Regulation. However, this condition does not apply to undertakings that were not in difficulty on 31 December 2019 but were hit by a crisis between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021.
• Companies that have not complied with any recovery orders issued by the European Commission in one or more decisions where state aid granted by the Danish authorities has been found illegal and incompatible with the internal market, if the aid from Innobooster is covered by the block exemption regulation.

The purpose of an Innobooster project must be the development of an innovative solution that has the potential to strengthen the company’s growth and create value for Danish society. The solution can be a new product, a new service or process innovation in the company, as well as other forms of innovation.

Innobooster does not support projects where the solution is ready to be launched on the market, and where the remaining activities primarily relate to sales, marketing, testing and documentation, and commercial production. If the solution is already available on the market, and the project is primarily of the nature of optimization, further development, verification and documentation, the project is probably too far advanced in its development to be co-financed by Innobooster.

Innobooster cannot also co-finance expenses related to the normal operation, development and establishment of the company. This means that costs for, for example, ongoing operational optimization, rent, transport, office staff, strategy and business development, sales and marketing initiatives and attracting investors are outside the scope of Innobooster. Further examples of activities that are generally considered normal operation, development and establishment of the company are communication and content production, market or customer analysis, manual preparation, preparation of training material and entering into agreements with suppliers/other partners.

Also read the guidelines and see pools and date ranges for an overview of the politically determined themes within which projects can be applied for.

You can apply for between 200,000 DKK and 5 million DKK.

Innovation Fund Denmark can co-invest a maximum of 35% of the company’s relevant expenses for the project.

Note: Each invoice under the budget item “Equipment and Materials” must be at least DKK 10,000 excluding VAT in order to be included in the budget and accounts. This minimum requirement does not apply to invoices from knowledge suppliers.

See the guidelines for a further description of state aid rules for companies.

An investment from Innobooster can co-finance:

• Hours that new employees, existing employees, and the company’s owners spend on specific activities in the project.
• Expenses for collaboration with public and private knowledge suppliers, both Danish and foreign (e.g. universities, GTS institutes, contract research institutes, private knowledge companies, specialist companies and freelancers).
• Expenses for purchasing materials, experimental equipment, equipment rental and depreciation costs on newly purchased equipment.

See the guidelines for a further description of what an investment can finance.

An Innobooster project can last a maximum of 24 months, but it is possible to extend it over a shorter period. You must define a project period that is realistic for the project and indicate the start and end dates you want.

You will receive a letter of commitment in E-grant. You will also be asked to accept the grant conditions electronically in E-grant before the project starts. Accepting the grant conditions is a prerequisite for the grant to be valid and for us to approve your first financial statements, etc.

The project can start no earlier than the date the grant is issued. The start date is described in the grant letter.

Innovation Fund Denmark reserves 30 days to review your accounts. If we approve the accounts, it may take up to 10 days before the payment is transferred to your company’s NEM account.

All funds in an Innobooster project are paid in arrears based on the specific expenses incurred, which are documented through the submitted accounts.

Every three months you must submit an account. This is done through E-grant, where an overview of the tasks in your project is displayed on your case from the start.

For each project year, you must submit an auditor’s statement in which the auditor declares that the regularly submitted accounts are correct and that the Innovation Fund’s investment has been used as intended and in accordance with the requirements set out in the grant letter and these guidelines.

Furthermore, midway through the approved project period, you will be asked to submit a progress presentation so that Innovation Fund Denmark can get an overview of the development of the project. Further requirements are stated in the grant letter and task description in E-grant.

Innovation projects do not always follow the original plans. Therefore, it is possible to apply for changes that you consider necessary to realize the project’s potential. These may include changes in partners or knowledge suppliers, end date or budget allocation. Before adjustments can be implemented in the project, this must always be approved in advance by Innovation Fund Denmark.

Requests for changes must be made via E-grant.

If there are significant changes that affect the overall Innobooster process, this must be reported to Innovation Fund Denmark as soon as possible via E-grant. Sometimes it turns out that projects no longer have the expected potential or cannot be technically successful. In such cases, the Fund initially strives for a dialogue with a view to an appropriate conclusion of the project, but the Fund may be forced to unilaterally stop the project. Other significant changes may include bankruptcy and suspension of payments or sale of the company.

At the end of the project, you must complete an evaluation of the process and prepare a short final report. These tasks must be completed no later than one month after the end of your project period. Together with the final accounts and the auditor’s statement, these tasks constitute the end of the process.

When the evaluation, final report, auditor’s statement and the final accounts have been approved by Innovation Fund Denmark, the last requested 15% of your total grant will be paid.

The guideline document is legally binding. In the event of any deviations from the text on the website, the guideline document is binding.

Documents

• Innobooster guidelines De minimis ENG – 2026 (Valid from May).pdf
• Innobooster guidelines GBER ENG – 2026 (Valid from May).pdf

All applications submitted in 2024 are expected to receive a response no later than March 4th.

Documents

• Revisionsinstruks – Innovationsfonden 2025_0.pdf
• Bilag 1 – revisionsinstruks 2025.pdf

The Professional Assessment Committee and the Panel Committee for Innobooster have been established by the Innovation Fund’s Board of Directors with the purpose of assisting with professional assessments in connection with the Fund’s investments in research, technology and innovation within the Innobooster program.

See the members of the two committees here:

The Academic Assessment Committee

The panel committee for Innobooster

Innobooster is one of Innovation Fund Denmark’s two programs that are involved in Defence Tech Denmark. Therefore, Innovation Fund Denmark has established two committees to assist with professional assessments in connection with the fund’s investments in research, technology and innovation within defence and security, including Defence Tech Denmark.

See the members of the two committees here:

Defence Assessment Committee

The Defense Expert Panel Committee

Innobooster can be applied for on an ongoing basis as long as the programme is open. The annual budget is distributed throughout the year, and your application date determines which funding pool your application competes in.

If there are funds left over from one period, they will be transferred to the next period. The allocated pools can also be increased if unused funds are added from, for example, cancelled projects.

The amount in application periods 3 and 4 in 2026 is distributed across three themes. Based on the following ratios:
• 32% – Green technology and innovation
• 36% – Life science, health and welfare technology
• 32% – Critical and digital technologies
Note that the distribution may shift as a result of the allocation of funds to one or more themes.

More or fewer applications than expected can result in a difference in competition between application periods and a longer waiting time than stated.

Processing of an application begins as soon as it is submitted.

It is not possible to have more than one application for the same project under assessment at the same time. This means you cannot submit the same application under multiple themes or in a new application period until you have received a decision on the first submission.

If you have an application draft in the e-grant system that has not been submitted when an application period closes at 12:00 noon, it will be deleted. If you wish to apply in the following period, the application must be created and submitted again from scratch.

It is not possible to have more than one application for the same project for assessment at a time. This means that you cannot submit the same application to more than one theme or submit in a different period before the first submitted application has received a response.

Number of applications is deducted from withdrawn, administrative rejections and applications that are continued to the next period due to high scores (applies to 18 applications in period 2, 13 applications in period 3).
Success rate, number covers the proportion of applications for the period and theme in question that obtained a grant.
Success rate, amount indicates the ratio between the amount applied for and the amount granted.