Forschungszulage: What Does 'Neuartig' Mean? (BSFZ)

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Why This Article Matters

Many companies fail not because of the idea, but because of the justification of novelty: "We haven't done it this way before" is often correct – but it only becomes eligible for funding when it systematically produces new, reliable knowledge (and not merely a project "with new software" or "a new feature"). Presenting novelty clearly increases the chances of a positive BSFZ certificate – and thus of the tax-based funding.

Tax-based funding (requirements):

• Requirements for the Forschungszulage

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Novelty: What Exactly Does It Mean?

"Novel" refers to the degree of novelty of the knowledge generated in your innovation project.

Innovation projects:

• Example projects

In practice this means:

• New to your company: You do not yet have the solution and cannot simply adopt it from existing resources.
• New in the industry / state of the art: Something is being developed that is not yet used in the market or the industry (or at least not in this form/performance class).
• New for the customer segment/application area: Even if a method exists elsewhere, transferring it to a new environment can be novel – if genuine technical uncertainties must be resolved in the process.
• No copy / reverse engineering: Pure "copying", "reverse engineering" or standard integration without generating knowledge is not novel.

Important: Novelty rarely stands alone. In the logic of the Forschungszulage, "novel" is closely linked to creative, uncertain, systematic and reproducible/transferable.

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Common Misconceptions (and Why They Are Critical)

Common misconceptions:

• The 8 most frequently asked questions about the Forschungszulage

"For us this is new – so it is eligible for funding."

May be true, but it must be justified: What exactly is new about the knowledge? What assumptions/hypotheses were tested? What technical hurdles existed?

"We use new tools/frameworks/cloud – that's innovation."

New tools are often only a means to an end. If you "implement known methods with existing tools", the novelty in the sense of technical progress is frequently missing.

"We are building a new product – so it is novel."

A new product can still be not novel if at its core it is a known solution (e.g. standard software + customisation, routine engineering, a typical feature set).

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Practical Examples: When Novelty Is More Likely "Yes"

1) Software & AI: Novelty Through Technical Progress

Context (software R&D):

• Can I claim funding for past innovation projects retroactively?

More likely novel, if you e.g.:

• develop new or significantly more efficient algorithms,
• build a new search/matching logic on an original technology basis,
• resolve hardware/software conflicts through new system/network configurations that were not solvable "by the book",
• develop new encryption/security mechanisms (rather than merely implementing known standards).

Example (plainly stated): "We needed to enable real-time analysis directly at the production line, even though existing approaches only covered static quality control. To achieve this, new procedures for robust detection of process deviations under varying conditions were developed and validated."

2) Data & Analytics: Novelty When It Goes Beyond Reporting

More likely novel, when data collection/analysis is an integral part of the innovation project and you:

• develop new methods for acquiring or processing data,
• generate insights that go beyond known analyses.

Not novel is often:

• standard BI, dashboards, sales statistics,
• classic market analyses using known methods.

3) Transfer to New Contexts: Can Be Novel – But Only With Uncertainty

A transfer can be novel if it is not "plug-and-play" but creates technical uncertainty, e.g.:

• transferring B2C logic to data-sparse, complex B2B contexts and developing new methodological approaches for this,
• achieving multi-tenant cloud environments with significantly new performance boundaries (e.g. extremely short startup times).

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Practical Examples: When Novelty Is More Likely "No" (or Subject to Scrutiny)

• (Further) development of application software based on known methods and tools, without technical progress.
• Integration of customer-specific applications into existing systems or adaptation for new use cases, when it is essentially standard work.
• Routine debugging (exception: debugging as part of an ongoing development phase when it contributes to resolving the technical uncertainty).
• Market research and market analyses (even if important for commercialisation).
• Patent/licensing work, production start-up, routine checks, etc.

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How to Demonstrate Novelty Convincingly (Practical Approach)

To make novelty "verifiable", you need clear, concise building blocks:

1. Starting point / state of the art (brief):

   What is standard today? What is the "default solution" – and why is it insufficient?

2. Core of novelty (1–3 sentences):

   What is the new knowledge / the new technical capability you are generating?

3. Technical uncertainties (specific):

   What open questions existed at the outset (feasibility, performance, stability, integration risks)?

4. Plan & iterations:

   Which work packages/experiments/tests did you plan, carry out and evaluate?

5. Results & documentation:

   Which artefacts demonstrate the findings (e.g. test protocols, simulations, architecture decisions, measurement series, code repos, technical reports)?

Results & documentation (example link):

• Forschungszulage Personalkosten

If you want to make life easier: this is exactly where we support you at zeitmaker.com – from structuring the novelty argument to solid project documentation and preparation for BSFZ/tax office.

Project documentation:

• 6 tips: using the Forschungszulage safely and efficiently

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Why the Forschungszulage Is a Strong Option for Innovation Projects

The Forschungszulage is a tax-based innovation incentive: it targets exactly those situations where companies bear genuine technical risks and systematically develop something new. Especially for innovation-driven software, AI, industrial or process topics it is often a very attractive lever – regardless of whether a project ultimately "succeeds perfectly" (what matters is the systematic process of generating knowledge).

Tax-based innovation incentive:

• What tax incentives exist for innovation in companies?

Software/AI context:

• Can I get public funding for my software project?

More details on implementation, the process (BSFZ → ELSTER) and suitable innovation examples can be found at zeitmaker.com.

Process (BSFZ → ELSTER):

• Application process

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