Innobooster (Danish SME innovation grant)

What it funds

Innobooster supports knowledge-based development projects, with innovative content and technical risk, within one of the Fund's four themes. Eligible spend covers hours of internal staff and owners, external knowledge providers, project materials and equipment. The support is a grant on costs, so it covers a share and the rest stays with the company. The regime follows the amount requested: the smaller framework runs under the de minimis guidelines, the larger under the General Block Exemption Regulation. Applications under the same theme compete with each other for the window's funds.

Requirements and what is left out

• The measure is for Danish SMEs under the European definition, listed in the Danish business register: large companies stay out, even with a fitting project.
• It takes a verifiable financial foundation, for every applicant including startups: risk capital or development grants attracted over the past three years, or a gross profit in one of the past three published statements.
• The project must fall under at least one of the four themes (green research, technology and innovation; life science, health and welfare technology; critical and digital technologies; defense and security technology) and is judged in competition with the other projects of the same theme.
• Costs incurred before the start date in the grant letter are excluded: the project starts only after accepting the grant in the system.
• One assessment per project at a time: a second application for the same project, under another theme or in another window, starts only after the decision on the first.
• The project runs for two years at most, extensions included.
• Combining aid follows the dual regime, per the program page: under the smaller framework the grant is de minimis and consumes the shared allowance, under the larger it follows the exemption regulation. Stacking two measures on the same costs without doing that arithmetic risks repayment.

How to apply

1. Create an account in the e-grant system, with MitID or with a username and password.
2. Find the call under the options and start the application, choosing the framework that matches the amount requested: the smaller framework or the larger one.
3. Describe the company, the problem, the solution to develop, the value for the theme and for the business, the team and the plan, and upload the budget on the fixed template attached to the application.
4. File before the window closes: a draft left unfiled at the deadline is deleted, and the next window starts from scratch.

Everything runs through e-grant: communications, the decision, statements with recorded internal hours and the annual auditor statement. The Fund pays in arrears, on filed and approved accounts, after the costs have been incurred. The conditions in full are on the call page.

What this budget builds

I build the version that answers the project's uncomfortable question: does it actually work, and at what cost. A prototype running on real data, with the integrations and the measurements showing whether it holds up in real use, working in small verifiable packages the statements can follow without effort. The people who stay in the company know how to carry on without me, with the data, the code and the record of what was decided.

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.