New BIK Call: Up to €35 Million per Company for Industrial Decarbonisation R&D
Sketch deadline: 6 December 2026 · Funding body: BMWE · Project management: KEI
On 19 October 2026, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE) opens the third funding window for research and development projects under the Federal Funding for Industry and Climate Action (BIK), Module 1, sub-module 3. Companies can submit project sketches to the Competence Centre for Climate Protection in Energy-Intensive Industries (KEI) until 6 December 2026.
What is funded
Applied R&D that reduces greenhouse gas emissions from industrial processes substantially and permanently. Three project types qualify under Article 25 of the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER): industrial research, experimental development and project-related feasibility studies. Developing new or significantly improved products and processes, building prototypes and pilot plants, and testing new technologies under realistic conditions are all in scope. Basic research (below TRL 4) is not.
Funding at a glance
Non-repayable grant. Maximum per company: €35 million for industrial research, €25 million for experimental development, €8.25 million for feasibility studies. Mixed projects are assigned to the category that accounts for more than half of the costs.
Aid intensity: up to 50 % for industrial research and feasibility studies, up to 25 % for experimental development. Medium-sized enterprises receive +10 percentage points, small enterprises +20. Further premiums are possible up to a maximum of 80 % for industrial research and experimental development (Art. 25(6) lit. b–d GBER, not combinable).
No minimum project size for R&D projects.
Who can apply
Companies and consortia that plan or operate plants for industrial processes, have an establishment in Germany and carry out the project there.
Consortia may consist of several companies. At least one of them must plan or operate industrial plants and intend to apply the results at a production site in Germany.
Universities and research organisations can join as partners, led by an eligible company.
The programme addresses energy-intensive industries such as steel, chemicals, glass and cement, but is not expressly limited to them. Projects funded in earlier rounds cover cement and other building materials, chemicals, waste recovery, paper and pulp, food and feed, glass, steel, mechanical engineering, household appliances and motor vehicles.
Not funded: measures required by law, measures that mainly aim at energy or resource efficiency, basic research, and measures already funded under other federal schemes such as EEG, KWKG or the climate protection contracts.
Procedure
The procedure has two stages.
Sketch. Submit a project sketch in German through the easy-Online portal. KEI, together with the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), evaluates all sketches against the selection criteria of the funding guideline.
Application. Selected companies are invited to submit a full application. The BMWE takes the final funding decision.
Do not start the project before approval. Funding also requires an incentive effect: a project that would be carried out anyway, at the same scale and in the same timeframe, is not eligible.
Two dates and conditions to note: KEI hosts a free online information event on 27 October 2026, 10:00–12:00. And the BMWE states that funds for the next round are earmarked in the draft 2027 Climate and Transformation Fund plan; funding remains subject to the availability of budget until the 2027 Budget Act enters into force.
Our assessment
Seven weeks between opening and deadline are tight but workable if a concrete project idea exists. The sketch is the decisive document. In the first round (2024), 113 sketches were submitted; 82 met the formal entry criteria and 64 were invited to submit full applications across both modules.
A good sketch shows, in plain terms: the expected emission reduction, what goes beyond the state of the art, how the result reaches industrial use at a German site, and a realistic budget. Research partners should be approached now, not in November.
The call is probably not the right fit if there is no own industrial plant in Germany, if the project mainly improves efficiency, or if the work is basic research.
How Eurogrant can help
We assess the fit in a 20-minute call, structure the sketch against the selection criteria, set up the consortium with suitable research partners, calculate eligible costs and aid intensity, and prepare the full application if your project is selected.
Interested? Write to us – we will get back to you shortly.
Sources: KEI funding call page and Module 1 overview; BMWE press release of 14 October 2026. The binding conditions are those of the call published in the Federal Gazette (Bundesanzeiger) on 19 October 2026.
Comments