Funding Consulting for Industrial Companies
We Make Investments and Transformation Financially Viable
Strategically use funding, research allowances, and grants to improve business cases, expand your investment scope, and ensure audit-proof implementation.
Industrial transformation requires substantial investment into decarbonization, automation, and the development of resilient supply chains. At the same time, many companies face significant cost and margin pressures. That’s why the federal government, states, and the EU provide comprehensive funding programs, grants, and tax incentives like the research allowance.
However, companies often consider subsidies too late, handling them project-by-project without an overarching strategy. As a result, they leave substantial financial potential untapped.
Through strategic consulting, Drees & Sommer experts identify relevant funding programs early and integrate grants and allowances directly into your investment planning.
Ultimately, funding is not just a grant tacked on at the end. It’s a strategic financing lever at the beginning of any industrial transformation.
High Effort, Uncertain Returns?
Many companies find applying for funding to be a real challenge. They face the major hurdle of identifying the right programs on time and submitting successful applications.
The reasons for this vary:
- An opaque and complex funding landscape
- Time pressure with investment decisions and funding applications
- Limited internal resources for research, application, and documentation
- Uncertainty about eligibility and chances of approval
- A lack of integration between funding strategy and investment planning
In a worst-case scenario, incorrect applications can lead to the clawback of funds.
Why Now? Investment Pressure and Untapped Potential
People generally associate public subsidies with research or major public projects. In reality, numerous standard investment and transformation initiatives can already qualify for funding.
The real question is: What is the cost of not exploring funding options?
Unclaimed funds represent lost profit margins. More importantly, companies might postpone, downsize, or cancel projects entirely without a systematic funding strategy, even if these projects were financially viable with the right funding structure.
Examples of Funding Consultation
- Measures for decarbonization and energy efficiency improvements
- Digitalization and automation of production processes, Industry 4.0
- Investment into AI, robotics, and laser processing
- Transitioning from batch to continuous production
Benefit: Significantly lower investment costs through grants
- Funding for energy-efficient logistics real estate and new construction
- Grants for sustainable logistics solutions and transitioning fleets to electromobility
- Digitalizing and automating logistics processes, such as using automated guided vehicles (AGVs) or robotics
- Developing new algorithms for dynamic route optimization.
Benefit: Optimization of construction and operating costs through funding
- Research and development of new products, processes, and technologies, such as:
- Biological targets (e.g., proteins, signaling pathways).
- Molecules and antibodies.
- Cell lines or expression systems.
- Optimizing development and innovation processes.
Benefit: Direct funding of development expenses
A Highly Attractive Option: The Research Allowance
Companies can claim tax incentives for research and development initiatives through the research allowance (Forschungszulage). Generally, businesses of all sizes and nearly all types of R&D projects are eligible for this funding.
Why the research allowance is particularly relevant for industrial companies:
Companies often fail to recognize many industrial development activities as R&D internally, even though these activities could qualify for funding. Examples include automation solutions, AI applications, new manufacturing processes, material innovations, pilot plants, robotics, digital twins, or process developments.
Your Advantage: You can apply the research allowance much more broadly than most companies assume, and you can generally claim it retroactively.
Apply for the research allowance now:
- Up to €12 million in eligible expenses per year.
- 25% funding rate for large companies (up to €3.0 million per year).
- 35% funding rate for SMEs (up to €4.2 million per year).
- 20% flat rate for overhead and operating costs for projects starting in 2026.
- Retroactive claims are generally possible for up to four years.
Our Services
We do more than just manage projects, we also help you make them financially viable.
Drees & Sommer combines technical, economic, and funding perspectives. We understand industrial investment programs, production sites, transformation roadmaps, as well as construction and infrastructure projects, and we translate these into eligible, audit-proof, actionable project structures.
- Step 1: 60–90 Minute Management or Project Interview
Clarifying investment goals, project portfolios, timelines, and the site and innovation context. - Step 2: Screening Current and Planned Projects
Reviewing CAPEX initiatives, R&D activities, site measures, and energy or digitalization themes. - Step 3: Classifying R&D vs. Investment
Identifying which project components are more likely to qualify for tax incentives, investment grants, or program-based funding.
Result: Initial Funding Indication
- Assessing potential funding rates, grant amounts, research allowances, and economic impacts
- Business Case Evaluation: Demonstrating how funding can influence investment costs, payback periods, cash flow, and decision-making capabilities.
- Prioritization of Next Steps: Recommending a funding strategy, application process, project structuring, or in-depth review.
Result: Funding Application
- Preparing and submitting funding applications, coordinating with funding bodies, and handling documentation and proof of compliance.
- Additionally, we offer Project Support
Supporting audits and reviews, ensuring compliant project management, and providing a Project Management Office (PMO).
The Leverage Lies in the Business Case
A funding check often determines whether a project gets approved, prioritized, or postponed in industrial transformation programs.
Funding can improve your business case on multiple levels:
The critical question is therefore not whether funding exists somewhere. Instead, you should ask: How do we structure our transformation projects to make them eligible, profitable, and actionable?
Significantly more projects qualify for funding than companies realize, ranging from new production facilities to automation, AI projects, and research and development activities.
Your Benefits
We translate complex funding programs into an efficient end-to-end process, from the initial assessment and application submission all the way to the payout.
- Strategic Competitive Advantage: You can leverage government programs from the EU, federal, and state levels as targeted management tools for innovation and transformation.
- Improved Business Case: You improve the profitability of your projects through the intelligent use of funding.
- Faster Implementation: A systematic funding check accelerates decision-making and investment processes, even for already completed projects.
- Zero Risk: We base our compensation on success, and our rates are significantly lower than the market standard (12% vs. 14–20%).
Let's talk!
We’re happy to help.