BMBF: SPRIND – A home for real new thinkers in Germany as a center of innovation

Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger explains: “With SPRIND, there is finally a home for real new thinkers in Germany as a center of innovation. Germany needs innovative ideas from science and industry that make our lives better. SPRIND has already achieved a great deal here in its short history. It promotes high-risk ideas with novel solutions that can replace existing products, technologies or business models and create new markets. SPRIND focuses on topics that are truly relevant to society – topics such as health, microelectronics or climate and environmental protection. The SPRIND Freedom Act has enabled it to fulfill its task even better since this year. It can now become a real leap forward innovation in its own right.”

Background

SPRIND was founded in Leipzig in 2019. The aim: to create a new type of funding instrument to specifically promote ground-breaking ideas – so-called leap innovations – in Germany. Since then, SPRIND has developed successfully under the leadership of its founding director, Rafael Laguna de la Vera: Its budget has more than quadrupled since 2021 to currently around 190 million euros. More than a dozen subsidiaries are driving forward projects with leapfrog innovation potential and highly specialized teams are competing in five innovation competitions, known as challenges, to find the best solution to important social problems. The SPRIND Freedom Act came into force at the end of 2023 and has further improved the framework conditions for SPRIND so that it can now provide independent, fast and tailored support.

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Further links

👉 www.bmbf.de 
👉 www.sprind.org 

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