FFG General Programme
Offers Austrian companies broad, cross-sector innovation support through flexible grants and loans.
The FFG General Programme 2026 is the Austrian Research Promotion Agency's open-topic flagship instrument for company-led R&D. Administered by FFG on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Innovation, Mobility and Infrastructure (BMIMI) and the Federal Ministry for Economy, Energy and Tourism (BMWET), it supports experimental development projects at Technology Readiness Levels 5 through 8 across all technologies and research themes. Applicants define both the research content and the key technologies independently; cooperation with universities or other companies is permitted and may be viewed favorably by the evaluation panel but is not a requirement.
Funding takes the form of a combination of a non-repayable grant and a low-interest loan (currently 1.75% p.a.), and for large projects may also include a guarantee for a bank loan. The total eligible project costs are capped at EUR 3,000,000 per project. Maximum funding intensity by company size is 45% for small enterprises (grant share up to 28%, with a 5% bonus for high-tech startups reaching 31%), 35% for medium-sized enterprises (grant up to 25%), and 25% for large enterprises (grant up to 19%), with the combined financing mix reaching up to 70% for startups. The submission window is open continuously from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2026 via FFG's eCall portal. Seven decision-board meetings are held per year, each following expert evaluation of technical quality (degree of innovation, technical challenge) and economic performance (commercialization potential, financial standing). Companies in difficulty as defined under EU state-aid rules are excluded.
Applicants submit at any time through the eCall system, uploading project details, cost plans, and required attachments such as a business plan or CVs. Call documents are available exclusively in German under Call Guideline version 5.4 (valid from 20 January 2026) and Instrument Guideline Experimental Development version 6.1. To maximise the score, proposals should demonstrate a strong commercialization roadmap and quantify the innovation step relative to the state of the art. SMEs and startups benefit from higher base funding rates, and projects with academic cooperation partners may gain additional evaluation credit.
Open to all topics and technologies. Experimental development (TRL 5–8). Projects typically yield exploitable products, processes or services, including digital ones.
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