Checklist: All Documents for Forschungsprämie 2025
1. Basic company data
Before diving into details, have the following information ready:
- FinanzOnline access
- Company data for the fiscal year in which the Forschungsprämie is claimed
- Revenue
- Balance sheet total
- Number of employees (FTEs)
- Contact person in the company
2. Expenses for R&D activities
- Total wages and salaries of employees in R&D, including employer contributions and other personnel expenses
- Total expenses and investments (including purchase of land) directly attributable to R&D activities
- Financial expenses related to R&D activities
- Overheads related to R&D
- Imputed entrepreneurial wage (for sole proprietors, co-entrepreneurs, and unpaid partners) = €50 per hour if time tracking is available
- Total amount of tax-free grants from federal, state, or EU sources
3. Employees
- R&D employees with a university or university of applied sciences degree (FTE)
- R&D employees with a high school diploma (FTE)
- R&D employees with other qualifications (FTE)
4. Project description
- Meaningful project title (max. 80 characters)
- Objective and content
- Methods and approach
- Novelty
- Project start
- Expected project end
⚠️ Objective & content, methods & approach, and novelty must not exceed a total of 3,000 characters. Distribution across the three sections is flexible. In practice, “methods and approach” usually requires the most space.
Our Recommendation
The Forschungsprämie is straightforward if all documents are complete and accurate. With this checklist, you can avoid the most common mistakes.
👉 Pro Tip: Create an internal “research file” where you collect all relevant documents throughout the year. This will save you stress when submitting the application.
