EFRE

EFRE is the European Regional Development Fund, a structural fund of the European Union. It was set up in 1975 to reduce regional imbalances. At European level the European Commission is responsible; in Germany the fund is implemented by the federal states, partly through their promotional banks. You receive the money as a grant.

Unlike other funding programmes, EFRE is not a single programme for the whole of Germany. Each federal state runs its own operational programme with its own priorities and its own authorities. The programme of the state in which you carry out your project therefore applies to it.

What stands out about EFRE is the breadth of the projects funded. Funding goes not only to buildings and technical equipment but also to concepts, strategies and pilot projects. You can therefore carry out a project with fewer of your own funds than you otherwise could.

Depending on the state programme, companies, municipalities, social institutions and further public and private actors are eligible to apply. Small and medium-sized enterprises are named most often.

Your location is decisive. Your project needs a regional link to the assisted area of the programme from which it is to be funded. Check that first, because it determines which programme is an option for you at all. Bavaria publishes an EFRE assisted-area map with the list of districts and municipalities. Lower Saxony provides the NBank assisted-area coverage as a map. In Baden-Württemberg, an interactive map shows the EFRE projects funded in the state. Without this regional link, funding is not possible.

Funding goes to projects that have a visible effect in your region, for example in innovation, infrastructure and urban development. This includes construction measures, technical equipment and supply infrastructure.

EFRE does not fund only building and equipment, however. Strategy development, concepts and partial concepts are eligible too, along with data and information foundations, preparation for implementation as well as networking and cooperation. Demonstration, model and pilot projects are also funded.

In every case, your project must include eligible expenditure and fit the programme objectives. If you want to test an idea on a small scale first, that is an eligible project too.

You receive the funding as a grant, not as a loan. The share of your project costs depends on the region category into which your location falls. The EU distinguishes three categories.

In less developed regions, EFRE contributes up to 85% of the project costs. In transition regions it is up to 60%, and in more developed regions up to 50%. These rates apply to the 2021 to 2027 funding period and form the upper limit of the EU contribution.

Within this upper limit, the state programme sets how much you receive for your project. The rate for your case is named in the call to which you apply.