Innovationsfonden – Grand Solutions

Innovation Fund Denmark (IFD) invests in ambitious and targeted strategic research and innovation projects that create new solutions, technologies and valuable new knowledge. Its purpose is to advance research, development, and testing of innovative solutions for the benefit of growth and employment in Denmark as well as to solve societal challenges. IFD, therefore, invests in projects across the entire value chain, from research to implementation.

Grand Solution projects are characterised by their high risk profile and focus on ambitious results with high value creation whether in the form of new knowledge, improvement of/or new processes, systems, products or solutions to societal challenges.

Level of funding for participants

Grand Solutions funds up to 75% of the total direct cost of the project, including salaries, procurement (apparatus, materials, equipment, etc.), other project costs (events, travel, dissemination, etc.), and external services (eg consultancy or services). Industrial research is funded higher than experimental development, which is closer to commercialization. The investment rates are:

• SMEs: 35-75%
• Large companies: 25-65%
• Government organizations and research institutions: 90% + 44% overhead
• GTS institutes: Up to 60%

Who can apply?

Any legal entity (such as an enterprise, a research institution or a public institution) in or outside Denmark, directly involved in the project activities, is eligible to apply or participate and receive funding from Grand Solutions. One of the Danish project participants must act as the applicant organisation, and the project participants must in addition specify the person who, during the application process, acts as contact person between IFD and the project participants.

What language must the application be written in?

All texts in the application form and appendices must be written in English.

What are the evaluation criteria?

Applications for Grand Solutions projects are assessed on the basis of the following main criteria

• Quality of the idea – the quality of the research and innovation
• Impact – value creation during and after the project
• Quality of execution – efficiency in the project execution and the implementation of the results

The application form is designed so that applicants are required to specifically address each of the above criteria in separate fields in the application.

The best projects are invited for interview with the Innovation Fund. Typically, a little less than half of these projects are awarded grants.

What happens if the project is granted funding?

Once a project is granted funding the project participants must sign an investment agreement with the Fund no later than 60 days after the written invitation to the Investment Agreement negotiations. Together with an investment agreement comes also a collaboration agreement, where participants decide how to use background and foreground knowledge, distribution of the project results, who will gain access to the project results and rules for publication and other publications of data, the process for project participants leaving or entering the project etc.

The project must start no later than 60 days after the investment agreement has been signed by all parties.

Are winning projects required to provide reports?

IFD will engage in proactive interaction with the project for its duration. IFD usually appoints one or more Investment Manager(s) to safeguard its interests in the project, and requires that the project undertakes thorough reviews in the project period, typically once a year.

IFD requires the right to obtain information about results and effects for a period of five years after the termination of the project, so that projects documenting especially promising results will be invited to apply for new funding. In addition, IFD has the right to terminate projects, which are deemed to have made insufficient progress or considered futile, or are unable to meet the goals on which IFD based its investment in the project.

Can a project be resubmitted if it is unsuccessful?

Yes, projects can be resubmitted.