EXIST Gründerstipendium: everything you need before you apply

Twelve months of personal living allowance per founder, scaled by qualification: ~€1,000/month for students, ~€2,000 for technical staff, ~€2,500 for graduates, ~€3,000 for PhDs. On top of that, Sachmittel (material expenses) up to €30,000 for teams or €10,000 for solo founders, plus €5,000 in coaching. The grant is taxable as personal income but explicitly not a loan - it does not have to be paid back.

Teams of up to three founders. At least one must be a graduate (within the last 5 years) or current student of a German university. Technical staff at universities qualify too. International candidates need a residence permit allowing self-employment in Germany. PhDs are eligible. Founders who already have an operating GmbH disqualify the team.

An Ideenpapier of 10-15 pages (formats vary by university but ~27 pages of content max is standard at TUM, Arial 12pt, 1.5-zeilig). Seven sections: idea, innovation, market, team, plan, risks, funding need. A signed cooperation agreement with your university (your mentor + Gründungsbüro arrange this). The EASY-Online formal application is filed by the university, not by you.

From first Gründungsbüro contact to first disbursement, plan 4-5 months. Week 1-4: write the Ideenpapier. Week 5-6: internal university review + signatures. Week 7: submission. Weeks 8-19: PTJ review (~12 weeks median). Weeks 20-21: Bewilligungsbescheid + start of funding period. Build cash runway for that gap - €0 income for four months kills more applications than rejection does.

The four mistakes we see most: (a) tech-first opener - reviewers want the why before the how; (b) no citations in Innovationshöhe - the section dies without state of the art; (c) round-number Sachmittel ('€30,000 hardware') - line-itemed beats round; (d) no university anchor named in section 4 - structurally EXIST is a Hochschul-Antrag.