AGVO (General Block Exemption Regulation): what it is, why it controls your grant

Without AGVO, every state-aid decision would need EU-Commission pre-approval - a process that takes 6-18 months and that no operational grant programme can survive. AGVO is the EU's pre-approved rulebook: 'if your aid fits these categories with these rates and caps, you don't need to ask Brussels each time'. German funders draft their Förderrichtlinien to fit explicit AGVO articles so they can disburse quickly.

Five AGVO categories drive most German startup funding: Article 25 (R&D aid), Article 28 (innovation aid for SMEs), Article 22 (aid to start-ups), Article 14 (regional investment aid), and Articles 31-34 (training, advisory, environmental). Each has its own definition of qualifying costs, max aid intensity (percentage), and absolute cap. The funding-rate caps you see in programmes (50% for SMEs in cooperation projects, 60-65% with bonus, 100% for research institutes) come directly from these articles.

ZIM: AGVO Article 25 R&D + Article 28 innovation aid. KMU innovativ: AGVO Article 25 R&D with industry/research-institute splits. IGP: Article 25 R&D + Article 28 innovation aid. BayTOU: Article 25 R&D with Bavarian-specific Förderhöchstgrenzen. EXIST Forschungstransfer Phase II: Article 22 start-up aid + Article 25. Knowing which AGVO article underlies a programme tells you (a) what counts as qualifying cost, (b) what the absolute cap is, and (c) whether you can stack with another article-25 programme without bumping the limit.