MIT R&D

• Maximum funding per consortium: EUR 350,000, unchanged from last year
• Submission deadline 2026: 15 September 2026, for national and regional applications alike
• Application format: a consortium of at least two independent SMEs
• Assessment: a tender with ranking, not first come first served
• Windows: opened separately per region, each with its own themes and conditions

The R&D collaboration strand covers industrial research and experimental development.

In practice it funds projects where two or more independent SMEs work together on a technical advance.

Alongside R&D collaboration, MIT also offers feasibility studies, which establish in advance whether an innovation is technically and commercially viable.

MIT opens separately per region. Conditions and themes differ by area.

What is identical in every region is the structure of the project plan. The required chapters and the assessment criteria are the same wherever you submit.

This is where most applications fail before they are even written: the project fits substantively, but the region is closed or the theme does not match.

MIT is a tender. All applications are ranked against each other after the closing date, and the highest scoring receive funding.

Meeting the conditions is therefore not enough. An application that misses the threshold falls away even where it is substantively sound.

We therefore build applications along the scoring criteria rather than along the project description.

MIT and the WBSO can be used alongside each other. The difference is not the cost category but the type of instrument.

The WBSO is a tax reduction, MIT a regular grant. The same hours can therefore feature in both.

It is also efficient in practice: the project description prepared for the WBSO can largely be reused.

With MIT the work sits mostly at the front: choosing the right region and strand, and building a consortium that holds up.

• Eligibility check. We assess whether the project fits your region’s themes and whether the collaboration meets the conditions.
• Building the consortium. Roles, cost allocation and agreements between partners are settled before the writing begins.
• Preparing the application. We write against the scoring criteria and submit in time.
• Reporting. After the award we handle the reporting and the final accountability.