DKK 5 Million in Danish Innovation Grants: Complete Guide to the Innobooster Program

DKK 5 Million in Danish Innovation Grants: Complete Guide to the Innobooster Program

If your company has a hard technical problem and enough momentum to build something new, but too much uncertainty to fund alone, Innobooster is one of Denmark’s most relevant public funding options for SMEs.

This page is written for founders, technical teams, and business leaders who need practical clarity before they invest time in an application.

You get three immediate signals from the official page:

1. Innobooster is for innovation development, not general operating costs.
2. The Fund co-finances only part of your project, normally up to 35% of eligible costs.
3. You are competing in timed funding pools, so your timing matters as much as your idea.

1) Quick overview in plain language

Innobooster is a co-investment program from Innovation Fund Denmark for Danish small and medium-sized enterprises, including entrepreneurial companies.

It is designed to reduce extraordinary development risk when a company undertakes a knowledge-based project with meaningful technical uncertainty.

The program offers an investment from DKK 200,000 up to DKK 5,000,000.

The Fund does not give a full grant. It can co-finance up to 35% of your project’s relevant expenses.

The usual project period maximum is 24 months.

Key implication for you: if your plan depends on full funding from Innobooster, you are likely not ready. You need additional internal budget, another grant, or private capital to close the remaining costs.

2) At-a-glance snapshot

3) Who this is for (and who it is not for)

This opportunity is usually strong for teams that:

• have a clear technical problem with uncertain technical path,
• can define a specific project outcome instead of a broad corporate strategy,
• need external support to run expensive development work,
• can show ownership commitment via cash/equity and matching funding.

It is usually not right for teams that:

• need money mainly for commercialization, sales hiring, advertising, or investor relations,
• are looking for ongoing operational subsidies,
• want to fund broad planning with little measurable development output,
• have no way to document co-financing and internal contribution.

A useful shortcut: if your “project” is mostly the same as normal business-as-usual, Innobooster is a poor fit.

4) What the official source actually says this money is for

The program supports knowledge-based development projects with growth and societal value potential.

Examples covered by official guidance include:

• new products,
• new services,
• process innovations,
• other forms of innovation.

Officially, the Fund can reject projects that are already too far toward commercialization.

It excludes project types where:

• the solution is already market-ready,
• planned effort is mostly sales, marketing, testing, documentation, and commercial production,
• the proposal is mainly optimization of an already deployed solution.

The most important boundary test is practical.

If you can describe the project as “we need to solve uncertain technical knowledge gaps before commercialization” then you are in scope. If you can describe it as “we need money mainly to execute already planned commercial activities” then you are probably out of scope.

5) Eligibility: what to validate before writing

5.1 Company eligibility (strict)

The application requires the applicant to be a Danish SME under EU SME limits:

• fewer than 250 employees,
• annual turnover up to EUR 50 million, or annual balance sheet total up to EUR 43 million.

You should confirm both conditions in your records before you continue.

5.2 Financial entry criteria (one of two must apply)

At submission time, the company must satisfy at least one:

• risk capital or development grants of at least DKK 100,000 raised in the last three years,
• gross profit of at least DKK 250,000 in at least one of the last three published accounts.

If your company is privately structured and does not have public accounts, the requirement must be met through fully audited and management-signed annual accounts.

5.3 Explicit exclusions you should verify early

Before drafting, check that your company is not:

• in compulsory dissolution, bankruptcy, voluntary liquidation, or payment suspension,
• owned >50% by state, region, or municipality,
• heavily reliant on public operating subsidies more than half turnover,
• in difficulty per EU aid rules without the stated crisis-time exception,
• subject to unresolved Commission recovery orders for incompatible state aid.

5.4 Good hygiene for these checks

The Fund expects documentation to be available on request and in audit. In practice:

• keep CVR data and financial statements ready,
• keep ownership structure documentation ready,
• keep prior grants and investor/equity records ready in one place.

If you cannot provide this cleanly in the first draft, your application can stall during formal checks.

6) Funding limits and budget boundaries you can rely on

You can ask for between DKK 200,000 and DKK 5,000,000.

Co-financing max is 35% of project-relevant costs.

This is often misunderstood.

You should budget as follows:

• only eligible project costs in your total request,
• explicit co-investment from your side,
• clear split of costs that are truly project work versus routine expenses.

For invoice handling, official guidance is explicit: items under DKK 10,000 (excluding VAT) for “Equipment and Materials” are not included in budget and accounting, unless the invoice is from a knowledge supplier.

The practical consequence:

• if you buy many small consumables below this threshold, consolidation may be required,
• if the invoice is from a collaborator knowledge supplier, the minimum invoice threshold does not apply the same way.

7) What can be financed vs what is usually rejected

Typically financeable

• hours from new hires, existing employees, and founders dedicated to specific project activities,
• collaboration with universities, GTS institutes, private research firms, specialist companies, and freelancers,
• purchasing materials, experimental equipment, rental, and depreciation of new equipment tied to the project.

Usually out of scope

• routine office, admin, and operations cost,
• general commercial strategy and business development,
• sales and marketing campaigns,
• generic documentation preparation,
• market/customer research as stand-alone activity,
• training material and internal communication that does not clearly support the specific development tasks.

A strict test from practice: if a cost would still be booked if the project did not exist, it is likely not eligible.

8) How the process works in practice (pool system)

Innobooster is applied to in published periods (pools), with each period having a budget and theme distribution. The official page is clear that applications are accepted while the program is open and that pool choice depends on submission date.

Example from the 2026 schedule shown by the program page:

• Autumn 2025 Period 5,
• Autumn 2025 Period 6,
• Spring 2026 Period 1 and 2,
• Spring 2026 Period 3 and 4,
• with theme budget split in some periods between Green technology, life sciences/welfare, critical and digital tech, and Defence Tech Denmark.

The important operational rules:

• You cannot have more than one submitted application for the same project in assessment at the same time.
• If you submit in one period and want to resubmit elsewhere, you must usually wait for decision first.
• An unsubmitted draft in E-grant is deleted when a period closes.

Because of this, do not begin drafting in a period if you already know the program is close, unless you intend to re-enter only after revalidation.

9) Application process, step by step

Apply through E-grant.

Step 1: Register and locate the right call

• create an E-grant user using username/password or MitID,
• in Search options locate the correct Innobooster call,
• start the application in the correct call.

Step 2: Select your grant bracket

The calls are by amount range:

• DKK 200,000–1,000,000,
• DKK 1,000,000–5,000,000.

The call list is sorted alphabetically, and Innovation Fund Denmark call names start with “IF”.

Step 3: Build the application sections

The application has two main parts:

• administrative and declarations,
• technical narrative.

Technical answers cover:

• company,
• the idea,
• your Innobooster project,
• market,
• business benefit,
• risk assessment,
• team,
• prior Innovation Fund investments,
• activity plan.

Step 4: Upload the budget

You must upload a budget using the provided template.

Step 5: Write in clear language and submit once complete

You may write in Danish or English. Submit only when every required section is filled and the budget can be defended against the program criteria.

If you miss a required element and it is not complete, you may lose time and fall behind expected response windows.

10) What reviewers are actually assessing

The process is formally assessed in three equally weighted areas:

• quality of idea,
• impact,
• quality of execution.

The evaluation is not just scoring words. It is assessing whether the project is realistic, measurable, and financed for completion.

Quality of idea

• clear solution outcome,
• clear differentiation from existing solutions,
• credible starting evidence,
• genuine risky knowledge development.

Impact

• realistic commercial gain,
• real market need of relevant size,
• project value consistent with requested funding,
• potential for broader Danish societal and growth impact.

Execution quality

• clear purpose and method,
• realistic milestones and success criteria,
• team competence and specialist match,
• risk mitigation,
• credible budgeting.

Important nuance: higher grant size increases required proof quality. If you ask for larger support, your evidence has to be tighter.

11) How to decide if your project is worth applying

Use this short readiness filter.

If most of these are true, the application is likely worth writing:

1. The solution is still in development and not fully launch-ready.
2. Your company meets SME criteria and at least one financial criterion.
3. You can explain three concrete risks and the method to reduce each.
4. Every cost line is either directly tied to project milestones or explicitly excluded with reasoning.
5. You have identified matching funding and can explain timing.
6. You can describe the team’s execution capacity with named roles and accountable owners.

If three or more points are unclear, pause and fix first. Submitting too early is usually slower than waiting for a cleaner draft.

12) Preparation checklist before you start writing

• Map your project outcome in one sentence: what exactly changes after project completion?
• Create a one-page timeline with phases and deliverables for each 2-4 weeks.
• Convert your budget into eligible vs non-eligible columns and compute required co-financing.
• Collect proof for either risk capital/development grants or gross profit criterion.
• Prepare a clear market rationale and who would pay for the output.
• Write a one-page “why this is still risky” note that explains why this project is not just routine expansion.
• Choose your call bracket first, then write with that scale in mind.

This prep usually saves at least one major rewrite.

13) Typical documents and information you need ready

You do not need a giant proposal at the first pass.

You need:

• registration and company data,
• recent annual accounts,
• investor and grant records,
• budget assumptions and unit rates,
• project plan with milestones,
• team roles and resource plan,
• list of collaborators/knowledge suppliers,
• prior Innovation Fund references if relevant.

If you submit incomplete financial evidence or conflicting numbers, the Fund can defer or reject formally.

14) Timeline realities and what to expect after submit

You receive decisions in E-grant, with a notification by email when ready.

Time-to-response varies by pool and period demand.

After approval:

• you receive a commitment letter in E-grant,
• grant conditions must be accepted digitally,
• project starts only from grant issuance date,
• funds are paid in arrears after approved accounts,
• accounts are reviewed (often within 30 days), payment up to 10 days after approval,
• quarterly submissions are required through E-grant,
• annual auditor’s statement is required each project year,
• mid-project progress presentation is commonly requested,
• significant changes in scope, partners, dates, or budget usually require prior approval.

At project end, final report and evaluation are due within one month, and final approval of final accounts unlocks final release (often referred to as the last requested 15% tranche).

15) Common mistakes that cost time and score

• confusing routine and eligible development costs,
• weak proof of eligible co-financing,
• weakly defined milestones,
• weak evidence of why the company can deliver,
• submitting in the wrong period window,
• assuming “innovation” wording in narrative replaces concrete deliverables,
• duplicate submissions for same project at once,
• forgetting draft deletion rules when periods close.

These mistakes are usually fixable, but only before submission. A rejected or delayed application often costs more time than waiting one planning cycle.

16) FAQ (what founders ask most)

Can we apply if our project is almost ready for launch?

Usually no if remaining work is mainly commercialization, sales, marketing, or normal production.

Can we ask for exact market launch costs?

Commercial launch costs are usually outside scope unless clearly tied to eligible development activities.

Can we apply with a very early idea?

You need enough evidence and a development pathway. The Fund supports risky development, not idea exploration with no technical basis.

Can we speak Danish or English?

Yes, the application can be in either language.

What if our application is not submitted before period close?

Drafts are deleted at period close. You need to recreate and resubmit in the next period if still eligible.

Can we split the same concept over two applications?

For the same project, not simultaneously. You must wait for first decision before re-submitting in another theme or pool.

17) Practical next steps before you click “submit”

1. Confirm eligibility and financial criterion in one folder.
2. Confirm your call period and note the submission window.
3. Run a one-line scope test for each expense category.
4. Finalize the timeline and milestones with owners.
5. Prepare the budget at the requested call scale.
6. Draft a concise, evidence-driven idea description.
7. Verify that project risks and mitigation steps are explicit.
8. Ask a teammate to run a 30-minute reality check on: objective, budget, milestones, co-financing.
9. Submit only when the file is complete and internally consistent.

18) Official links

• Official Innobooster page (Danish): https://innovationsfonden.dk/da/p/innobooster
• English program page: https://innovationsfonden.dk/en/p/innobooster
• E-grant platform: https://www.e-grant.dk
• Innovation Fund contact (program email): [email protected]
• E-grant support: [email protected]

If your goal is practical progress instead of a polished first draft, focus on these three things first: clear project boundaries, clean budget logic, and proof of one matching-finance criterion.

Only then does language quality matter.