FFG Basisprogramme

What it funds

The Basisprogramm funds company-led experimental development projects with no theme restriction: the company defines the technical content, and what matters for my work is that digital products, processes or services count as eligible outcomes. The point almost every listing gets wrong is the shape of the benefit, a mix of a grant and a soft loan, with the uncovered share of the cost staying on the company. Cooperation with other companies or research partners is allowed but not required, and young researchers can take part.

Requirements and what is left out

• Companies of any size, micro, small, medium and large, plus startups still being founded. The instrument guide focuses on companies seated in Austria, and at payment it requires an operating site or branch in the country. Anyone classified as a firm in difficulty under the European exemption regulation is out.
• The project has to be experimental development with outcomes worth exploiting: products, processes or services that reach the market, digital innovation included. Work with no technical risk or no application stays out.
• The company funds the uncovered share and accounts for every line: staff, materials, equipment use, third-party costs and travel. With no cover for the rest and no line-by-line accounting the mix never starts.
• Anyone looking for a mandatory partner: there is none. Cooperation with companies or research bodies is optional and can raise the rate.
• Anyone seated in a Land with regional co-funding: the rate can grow with Land money, which adds to the national mix instead of replacing it.
• On combining aid with other public funding the call page only covers the Laender top-up: before stacking two measures on the same costs, check compatibility in the operating guide.

How to apply

1. Register in the FFG eCall system and fill in every field: project description, work packages, cost and financing plan, plus CVs and, where asked, the business plan.
2. File at any time of the year: there are no intermediate deadlines, and the review runs through the board's periodic sessions.
3. For projects running past one year: file the continuation request before the funded period ends, with the progress report and the reasons for any deviation. The details are in the instrument guide.

Everything runs through eCall, with the system's tutorial for filling it in; the conditions in full are on the call page.

What this budget builds

I build the development component the programme wants to see: a software prototype or a data-based service born inside the funded project, with work packages, technical risks and a cost plan written the way the reviewer reads them. I stay on the ground I know: cloud, data and applied AI on company processes, with documentation left to whoever carries the project on after the funded period closes.

This entry is informational and is not advice: I do not handle grant applications, and before committing to a purchase it is worth reading the official source above or talking to whoever files the application.