According to experts, the coronavirus pandemic will lead to the worst recession since the end of the Second World War: Corporate insolvencies in Europe are expected to rise by around 20% in 2020. The European Commission expects Germany's gross domestic product (GDP) to fall by 6.5%.
"SMEs are being hit particularly hard by the effects of the current crisis," says AiF President Professor Sebastian Bauer. "It is true that the consequences of the pandemic for companies in Germany are being cushioned by the federal government's protective shield, which is worth billions, with a wide variety of measures. However, we know from past crises that it is now important to provide SMEs with targeted support for their innovation activities," explains Bauer. With the two SME-oriented innovation funding programs "Industrielle Gemeinschaftsforschung (IGF)" and "Zentrales Innovationsprogramm Mittelstand (ZIM)" of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), two highly effective instruments are available for this purpose. Both programs have been proven to ensure that technological trends are initiated and spread quickly throughout the entire economic system. An increase in IGF and ZIM funding would now be an encouraging signal for all SMEs," recommends Bauer.
The willingness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to innovate seems unbroken during the coronavirus crisis. This is supported by the application situation in the IGF: Compared to the same period last year, the number of applications in March and April 2020 increased by 47 and 23 percent respectively.
An increase in the ZIM for sustainable economic recovery in crisis situations was explicitly recommended by an independent body: As a non-profit and neutral source of impetus and advice for German SMEs, the RKW Competence Center certified that ZIM provides a sustainable economic stimulus in crisis situations.
About the AiF
The German Federation of Industrial Research Associations "Otto von Guericke" e. V. is the research network for German SMEs. It promotes research, transfer and innovation. As an umbrella organization of 101 non-profit research associations with more than 50,000 companies and 1,200 participating research institutions, it makes an important contribution to sustainably strengthening the competitiveness of the German economy. As a non-profit association, the AiF organizes joint industrial research and manages other public funding programmes through AiF Projekt GmbH and AiF F∙T∙K GmbH, its wholly owned subsidiaries. In 2019, the AiF used over 496 million euros in public funding. Since it was founded in 1954, it has channeled around 12.5 billion euros in public funding into new developments and innovations and initiated more than 238,000 research projects.
AiF e. V., Evelyn Bargs-Stahl,
