What is the Forschungszulage? The full overview for 2026

Germany's most important R&D incentive — explained simply: what it is, who gets it, and how much is in it for you. Including the new figures from the official 2026 evaluation report.

Free initial consultationQuestions? In 15 minutes we'll clarify whether it's worth it for you.

Definition

The Forschungszulage reimburses up to 35% of your R&D costs — even retroactively, with a statutory legal entitlement.

No basic research required

You don't need scientific research. Software development, product improvements, and process optimization count just as much — as long as there's technical uncertainty behind them.

Statutory legal entitlement

No competition, no selection process. If your project meets the criteria, it must be funded — regardless of the budget situation.

Even without profit

You don't have to pay taxes to benefit. If the funding exceeds your tax liability, the rest is paid out in cash — giving pre-profit startups a real liquidity boost.

Who is it worth it for?

Is your industry covered? Most likely, yes.

What matters isn't the industry sector, but whether you carry out technical development involving innovation. This is how applications are distributed nationwide:

And no matter how big you are:

86%of applicants are SMEs, 18% of them start-ups in their first five years

Software, IT & AI
Machinery & Plant Engineering
Electronics, Optics & Electrical Engineering
Metal, Chemistry & Materials
MedTech, Health & Life Sciences
Vehicle Construction & Mobility

and many more – Your industry not listed? Get a free check in 15 minutes →

Requirements

What you need to qualify

Four formal requirements — all met? Then you are generally entitled to the Forschungszulage.
All requirements in detail →

Tax liability in Germany: Subject to unlimited or limited tax liability.
No company in difficulty: No undertaking in difficulty under EU state aid law, no insolvency, no outstanding EU recovery claim.
Taxable legal form: GmbH, AG, KG, OHG, sole proprietors, freelancers, farmers and foresters, opting partnerships — all qualify.
EEA for contract research: The contractor must be based in the EEA.

Facts & Figures

Low bureaucracy, eligible for retroactive projects, and attractive funding rates

Three figures that help you decide quickly whether this is even relevant for you.

35%

Funding rate SMEs

on the eligible assessment base (25% for large companies)

4 years

Retroactive

you can still submit R&D expenses from past years

€4.2M

Maximum

funding per year and company — corporate groups are consolidated

Calculation

How much would it be for you?

Move the sliders for a ballpark figure. You'll get the final number in the initial consultation — this one is enough to decide whether it's worth pursuing.

R&D employees5Avg. gross annual salary per employee€80kAvg. R&D share of working time70%

Estimated funding€98kper year · 35% funding rate

4 years retroactive€392k

Initial consultation

In 15 minutes, we'll find out together whether the Forschungszulage is a fit for you

What we'll clarify in the call:

Whether your development projects qualify
What funding amount is realistic, including retroactively
All open questions, from process to terms

Choose a slot that works for you. 15 minutes over video.

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Real-world examples

Sounds too good to be true? Here are funded projects

From AI to hardware to SaaS — these are the kinds of projects funded by the Forschungszulage.

AI speech recognition for care documentation. A novel NLP architecture with genuine technical uncertainty around recognition accuracy.

voize

YC W23 · AI / Care · Forschungszulage secured

Read case study →

2026 evaluation report

Officially reviewed: the Forschungszulage works

On 10 September 2026, the German federal government submitted the statutory evaluation report on the Forschungszulage Act to the Bundestag (Bundestag document 21/7999). For the first time, the effect was measured causally — against control groups of companies that did not apply. The figures that matter for your decision:

The catch: for two out of three projects, the BSFZ requests additional information, usually about novelty and technical risk. And only 49% of companies with a certificate have actually claimed the money from the tax office so far.

Read all 7 answers from the evaluation report →

13.7%

More R&D spendingby funded companies compared with similar companies that did not apply. R&D headcount grew 11.4% more.

79%

Certification rateof reviewed projects were certified positively or partially positively by the BSFZ (2020–2025).

2.8%

Rejected by tax officesof assessment applications are rejected by the tax offices. Only five cases are pending in court nationwide.

62 days

Until the BSFZ decisionon average — in 2025 it was just 54 days through the end of August.

89,000 €

Per applicationaverage Forschungszulage claimed. In total, around €1.65 billion has been assessed so far.

More than a grant: what the allowance sets in motion inside companies

The report does not just measure whether money flows, but what companies do with it.

Own funds grow faster than the funding

Funded companies raise their own R&D funds by 20% and public funds by 16.8%. The report calls this crowding-in: the allowance does not displace a company's own money, it pulls more in.Report p. 128Evaluation report · BT-Drs. 21/7999 · p. 128 (original German): „Gemäß den kausalen Analysen auf Basis der FuE-Erhebung bzw. des MIP in Verbindung mit den BSFZ-Daten hat die Forschungszulage zu einer Steigerung sowohl der Eigen- als auch der staatlichen Mittel für FuE geführt (FuE-Erhebung: um 20,0 % bzw. 16,8 %; MIP: um rd. 28 % und 19 %, je nach Kontrollgruppe). Der stärkere Zuwachs der Eigenmittel gegenüber der staatlichen Mittel spricht für ein Crowding-in.“

1 : 3.90

Every euro of Forschungszulage stands for €3.90 in claimed R&D costs. That describes the co-financing, not the causal effect, as the report itself points out.Report p. 128Evaluation report · BT-Drs. 21/7999 · p. 128 (original German): „Das entspricht einem rechnerischen Verhältnis von 1 : 3,9. Das bedeutet: Mit jedem Euro Steuergutschrift wurden 3,90 Euro an qualifizierten FuE-Kosten abgerechnet. Dieser Wert dokumentiert die kofinanzierende Natur des Instruments, darf jedoch nicht mit der kausalen Additionalität verwechselt werden.“

€210,000 more internal R&D per company

That is how much funded companies spend additionally on internal R&D on average. Across all applicants this adds up to €1.6 billion, i.e. one euro of additional R&D per euro of funding.Report p. 124Evaluation report · BT-Drs. 21/7999 · p. 124 (original German): „Der durchschnittliche absolute Effekt der DiD-Regressionen auf Basis des MIP sowie der BSFZ-Daten ergibt für die geförderten Unternehmen eine Ausweitung der internen FuE-Aufwendungen von 210.000 Euro. Multipliziert man diesen Betrag mit den bisher 7.819 Unternehmen mit einer beantragten Forschungszulage ergibt das zusätzliche, interne FuE-Aufwendungen von rund 1,6 Mrd. Euro. In Relation zur bisher ausbezahlten Forschungszulage von ebenfalls rund 1,6 Mrd. Euro entspricht dies einem Euro zusätzlicher interner FuE je Förder-Euro.“

The team becomes more qualified

The share of university graduates in funded companies rises by more than 3 percentage points. The report calls this upskilling: the allowance lifts not just headcount but qualification.Report p. 112Evaluation report · BT-Drs. 21/7999 · p. 112 (original German): „Dieser steigt in den Unternehmen mit einem Antrag bei der BSFZ, gegenüber den vormals FuE-aktiven nach Antragstellung um mehr als 3 Prozentpunkte. Da im Schätzsample der Anteil der Hochschulabsolventen im Median bei 25 % (Mittel: 35 %) liegt entspricht das einem relativen Plus von rund 12,5 % (8,9 %) bezogen auf den Median (Mittelwert). Die ist ein deutlicher Hinweis auf „Upskilling“ und die Förderung geht mit einer qualifikatorischen Aufwertung der Belegschaft einher.“

Free initial consultationIn 15 minutes we'll work out what these figures mean for your project.

All original quotes from the sources (4)

Verbatim quotes, in the original language, from the linked primary sources. Each reference links to the original.

„Gemäß den kausalen Analysen auf Basis der FuE-Erhebung bzw. des MIP in Verbindung mit den BSFZ-Daten hat die Forschungszulage zu einer Steigerung sowohl der Eigen- als auch der staatlichen Mittel für FuE geführt (FuE-Erhebung: um 20,0 % bzw. 16,8 %; MIP: um rd. 28 % und 19 %, je nach Kontrollgruppe). Der stärkere Zuwachs der Eigenmittel gegenüber der staatlichen Mittel spricht für ein Crowding-in.“
p. 128
„Das entspricht einem rechnerischen Verhältnis von 1 : 3,9. Das bedeutet: Mit jedem Euro Steuergutschrift wurden 3,90 Euro an qualifizierten FuE-Kosten abgerechnet. Dieser Wert dokumentiert die kofinanzierende Natur des Instruments, darf jedoch nicht mit der kausalen Additionalität verwechselt werden.“
p. 128
„Der durchschnittliche absolute Effekt der DiD-Regressionen auf Basis des MIP sowie der BSFZ-Daten ergibt für die geförderten Unternehmen eine Ausweitung der internen FuE-Aufwendungen von 210.000 Euro. Multipliziert man diesen Betrag mit den bisher 7.819 Unternehmen mit einer beantragten Forschungszulage ergibt das zusätzliche, interne FuE-Aufwendungen von rund 1,6 Mrd. Euro. In Relation zur bisher ausbezahlten Forschungszulage von ebenfalls rund 1,6 Mrd. Euro entspricht dies einem Euro zusätzlicher interner FuE je Förder-Euro.“
p. 124
„Dieser steigt in den Unternehmen mit einem Antrag bei der BSFZ, gegenüber den vormals FuE-aktiven nach Antragstellung um mehr als 3 Prozentpunkte. Da im Schätzsample der Anteil der Hochschulabsolventen im Median bei 25 % (Mittel: 35 %) liegt entspricht das einem relativen Plus von rund 12,5 % (8,9 %) bezogen auf den Median (Mittelwert). Die ist ein deutlicher Hinweis auf „Upskilling“ und die Förderung geht mit einer qualifikatorischen Aufwertung der Belegschaft einher.“
p. 112

Go deeper: our guides

Four concise guides on the Forschungszulage — from eligibility to the concrete calculation.

Requirements

Who is eligible, which projects count, and what the BSFZ actually checks.

Calculation

Which costs are eligible, how the funding amount is composed, and what ends up in your account.

Application

Step by step through the BSFZ portal and tax office — deadlines and common pitfalls included.

FZulG law

The Forschungszulagengesetz at a glance: paragraphs, definitions, and the legal entitlement.

Your path

Should I do it myself or hire a consultancy?

Both work. Which path fits depends on time, risk, and scale. According to the evaluation report, around two thirds of all applications are filed with external consultants. Here are the four most important differences.

With consulting

Do it yourself

Internal time investment

With consulting

Under 5 hours spread across 4 calls

Do it yourself

40–80 hours over several weeks

Success rate

With consulting

95 % (our own applications, last 4 years)

Do it yourself

79% across all applicants (2026 evaluation report)

BSFZ requests for additional information

With consulting

Reasoning drawn from interviews with your tech team, targeted at novelty and technical risk

Do it yourself

For two out of three projects, usually about novelty and technical risk

Cost structure

With consulting

100% success-based, due only after the tax office has paid out

Do it yourself

No fee, but your hours instead

Free initial consultation How our Forschungszulage consulting works →

FAQ

What newcomers ask first

The most common questions from initial consultations — direct, honest, no marketing.

Probably it does. “Research” sounds like lab coats, but the law means industrial development: anything where you solve a technical question whose answer isn't in the textbook. Software architecture, new machines, materials, algorithms — often qualify.

The Research Allowance Act (Forschungszulagengesetz, FZulG) has existed since 2020, passed by the Bundestag. The official evaluation report of September 2026 shows around €1.65 billion of Forschungszulage assessed from roughly 18,600 applications and recommends keeping the instrument permanently. It's not a grant and not a competition — it's a tax incentive with a legal entitlement.

Yes. If your tax liability is smaller than the funding, the difference is paid out in cash. That's exactly what makes the Forschungszulage so valuable for startups — it works like a direct reimbursement.

Both are correct, it depends on your company size. The basic rate is 25% of the assessment base (Section 4 (1) FZulG). Small and medium-sized enterprises can additionally apply for an increase of 10 percentage points, bringing them to 35%. Important: the increase is not automatic, you have to claim it in your application. You qualify as an SME under Annex I AGVO with fewer than 250 employees and no more than 50 million euros turnover or 43 million euros balance sheet total, with partner and linked enterprises counted in.

Rule of thumb: R&D personnel costs × 35% (SMEs). For a team of 5 developers each with a 70% R&D share, that quickly adds up to €150–300k per year — retroactively over 4 years, potentially seven figures. The quick calculator gives you a concrete number in 60 seconds.

Two steps: BSFZ certificate (62 days on average from submission according to the evaluation report; with preparation and requests for additional information, expect 3–6 months), then the application to the tax office via ELSTER. Payout typically 3–9 months after submitting the tax-office declaration. Under Section 10 (2a) FZulG, the allowance can also be offset against ongoing advance tax payments. You can keep working as usual during the wait.

The 2026 evaluation report measured the effect causally for the first time: funded companies increased their R&D spending by 13.7% and their R&D headcount by 11.4% more than comparable companies that did not apply, and their own funds for R&D by around 20%. Every euro of funding triggers at least one euro of internal R&D spending. Windfall effects exist mainly among large companies; for SMEs, the additional effect clearly dominates.

According to the evaluation report, the BSFZ certified 79% of reviewed projects positively or partially positively, with little variation over the years. At the tax office, only around 2.8% of assessment applications are subsequently rejected. The real hurdle is requests for additional information: for two out of three projects, the BSFZ asks follow-up questions, almost always about why the project is technically uncertain and new. At Zeitmaker, the success rate across all supported applications is 95 %.

The Forschungszulage Act has no expiry date. The first recommendation of the 2026 evaluation report is to keep the Forschungszulage as a permanent element, and the federal government has welcomed the recommendations. So you can include it in your multi-year planning. R&D costs from the last four financial years can be claimed retroactively.

Contact

Sounds relevant? Let's take a quick look.

A 15-minute initial consultation is enough to clarify whether this is a fit for you at all — and at what scale. Free and without obligation.