Industry.IN.NRW- Innovative Materials and Intelligent Production

Funding for joint projects in materials development, production technology, production processes as well as product innovations which create new perspectives for the industry of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany.

Building on the innovation fields of the Regionale Innovationsstrategie des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (RIS – North Rhine-Westphalia’s Regional Innovation Strategy), the Ministerium für Wirtschaft, Industrie, Klimaschutz und Energie des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (MWIKE-NRW – Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of North Rhine-Westphalia) now aims to support North Rhine-Westphalian industry and science in developing climate and environmentally friendly innovations and finding sustainable solutions for climate protection in the fields of energy, industry, buildings and building materials as well as sector coupling. Funding is granted via six innovation competitions.

The present innovation competition (Industry.IN.NRW) supports competitive innovations which aim to close and more comprehensively map the value chain from materials production to processing and utilisation. Funding covers the entire spectrum of materials (ie from the basic materials industry to chemistry, metal production and processing, plastics, biotechnology, textiles and nanomaterials).

The call supports the following activities:

• Development and upscaling of innovative process technologies.
• Development of new manufacturing and recycling processes.
• Development of alternative (e. bio-based) materials, products and services for greater energy and resource efficiency.

Networked autonomous processes (‘smart factories’), artificial intelligence, digital manufacturing technologies and intelligent logistics processes are prerequisites for the development of innovative products and business models in all industrial sectors.

Funding is provided exclusively for collaborative projects in which actors from industry, science and research are involved.

The call is part of the EFRE/JTF-Programme NRW 2021-2027. Projects must be implemented and exploited primarily in North Rhine-Westphalia.