Funding for life sciences and health

For the German market, different instruments apply depending on the development phase. On the development side, these are the Forschungszulage, ZIM and thematic calls from kmu-innovativ. For clinical trials, dedicated programmes may apply depending on the phase.

At European level, Horizon Europe, EUREKA Eurostars and the EIC Accelerator are relevant where international collaboration, market-facing innovation or scale-up is the focus. Investment in laboratory and production technology is covered by different instruments than development work.

Clinical evaluation, verification, validation, quality management and documentation are not formalities at the end of a project. They influence product design, trial planning, data quality and development decisions from the outset, and the effort involved has risen sharply.

Many years often pass between research, preclinical work, clinical testing, approval and market entry without reliable revenue. Financing is especially demanding in that phase because technical, clinical and regulatory risk come together.

Cell and gene therapies, biomarkers, companion diagnostics and personalised approaches shift development and production from standardised methods towards more specific, sometimes patient-proximate processes. That has substantial consequences for manufacture, scale-up, quality assurance and evidence.