Putting research into practice
Progress needs people who dare to innovate. Our goal is to support researchers on their path to founding a company so that, for the benefit of society, more solutions to current challenges—such as climate protection or resource efficiency—can be developed and brought to market.
We provide funding where others still hesitate: in the high-risk phase before market entry. We support researchers who want to turn their results into concrete solutions—for example as a startup, patent, license, or open-source offering.
Who we fund
Our programs are designed for individual researchers, prospective founders, and research groups.
What we fund
We support transfer-oriented, interdisciplinary research projects in that are in the transitional phase between completed basic research and market readiness.
Our fundings
innovate! fund
Our innovate! fund supports projects positioned between research and application that demonstrate new ways to improve the efficient use, purity, and availability of water.
innovate! academy
We support researchers in engineering, natural, and materials sciences with a transfer focus directly on the path from basic research to market readiness.
Add-on Fellowships for Interdisciplinary Science and Transfer
Our Add-on Fellowships support researchers who want to develop and implement bold new ideas for the resources of the future.
Joachim Herz Award
We award 500,000 euros to researchers whose projects on the smart use of water are driven by economic analyses and methods.
Events
Community Day
The Community Day brings together the foundation’s diverse network of funded participants to strengthen professional and personal exchange and create synergies. The focus is on interactive sessions with experts on entrepreneurship, non-academic career paths, and transfer-oriented research.
Deeptech Innovation Conference
The Deeptech Innovation Conference of the Joachim Herz Foundation brings together leading figures from science, politics, industry, and startups to discuss how to accelerate deeptech innovations, featuring keynotes, panel discussions, and the presentation of the Joachim Herz Award 2026.