German Federation of Industrial Research Associations (AiF)
The German Federation of Industrial Research Associations – AiF in short – is the leading national organization promoting applied research and development benefiting Germany’s small and medium-sized businesses. It builds up alliances together with partners from industry, science and government in order to turn ideas into successful products, processes or services in the market.
About 100 industrial research associations from a wide variety of industrial sectors work together in the AiF network. The AiF network also includes more than 1,500 organizational units at research institutions (e.g. universities, non-university and industry-funded research institutions) as well as more than 50,000 companies.
The AiF e.V. manages public programmes of the German federal government to strengthen SME competitiveness as the pre-competitive Industrial Collective Research. With this programm AiF participates in the international network CORNET (Collective Research Networking), with which national or regional programmes are linked to promote cross-border, international research projects.
Partnerships with the Brazilian funding organizations EMBRAPII and SENAI are established to promote joint research projects, but any other Brazilian funding source is also welcome. Each year there are two calls for proposals, in spring and autumn. Further collaborations with Brazilian institutions are sought.
