Digitalbonus Lower Saxony Has Ended: Five Funding Options for SMEs Around Osnabrück

Is the Digitalbonus Lower Saxony still available?

No. The Digitalbonus Lower Saxony, officially the Digitalbonus.Niedersachsen-innovativ guideline, expired on December 31, 2025. NBank, Lower Saxony's state development bank, now lists the program under expired funding. It paid grants of up to 35% for small and up to 20% for medium-sized companies, ranging from €3,000 to €50,000, mainly for hardware and software. NBank does not name a successor on the program page.

That means the direct grant for buying hardware and software is gone. The federal program "Digital Jetzt" (Digital Now) was also limited to the end of 2023. For comparison: with €30,000 in eligible hardware and software costs, a small company could get a grant of up to €10,500. If you finance the same purchase today through the KfW digitalization loan (KfW is Germany's public development bank) and it counts as level 2, you are left with €900. Today's programs mainly fund consulting, change within your team, genuine development work and the financing of implementation. Which pot fits therefore depends on your project.

Which funding option fits which digital project?

It depends on whether you want support for a concept, for change within your team, for a new development or for implementation. The table shows the figures for companies in the Osnabrück region, as of October 5, 2026.

Our take: For most automation projects at small and midsize companies, the free check, BAFA consulting and the KfW loan are the realistic building blocks. The nIFP only fits if you actually develop something.

What should you know about BAFA consulting grants before year-end?

Above all, the deadline and the order of steps. BAFA's funding guideline applies until December 31, 2026, and the date of your application is what counts. So far, the BAFA page does not announce a successor.

• Funding rate: In the Osnabrück region, BAFA covers 50% of consulting costs of up to €3,500, so up to €1,750. The 80% rate only applies in the eastern German states (excluding Berlin and the Leipzig region) and in the Lüneburg and Trier regions.
• Quota: no more than two funded consultations per year and five over the entire term.
• Order: apply online first, then wait for the information letter, then sign. Even the contract with the consultant counts as the start of the consultation.
• Scope: no more than five consulting days of eight hours each. You have to submit your final statement of costs within six months of the information letter.
• Exclusions: BAFA does not fund consulting aimed at buying goods or services that the consultant sells. Consulting that mainly revolves around funding programs is excluded as well.

What gets funded is conceptual consulting: analysis, weak spots and recommendations, including guidance on implementation. An example that fits: a consultant takes your quoting process apart, shows where data has to be moved by hand from one medium or system to the next, and recommends which steps can be automated. Our take: Keep concept and implementation cleanly separate. A report that ends up recommending only the consultant's own product puts the grant at risk.

When is INQA-Coaching worth it for a digitalization project?

When the problem isn't the technology but workflows, responsibilities and collaboration. The current INQA-Coaching guideline from Germany's federal labor ministry is dated June 12, 2026. It covers 80% of up to twelve consulting days, with the day rate capped at €1,200 net. At the full day rate, that's a €960 grant per day, or €11,520 over twelve days.

The key conditions:

• fewer than 250 employees, at least two years in business and at least one full-time employee subject to social security contributions
• the need for change is tied to a traceable digital transformation within the company
• you start with a free initial consultation at a regional INQA advisory office, which issues the coaching voucher; you pick the coach yourself from a pool of authorized coaches
• the work follows a fixed agile method, with a steering committee and a lab team of employees
• you pay first and get the grant reimbursed, covering 20% yourself

An example that fits this framework: an automation will draft your quotes from now on, and your inside sales team has to sort out who reviews them, who approves them and who handles exceptions. The coaching supports this reorganization; it does not pay for the automation itself. Coaching vouchers are available until June 30, 2028, and everything must be completed by the end of 2028.

Who should consider NBank's nIFP innovation program?

Companies that develop something new rather than just adopting it. NBank's low-threshold innovation funding program (nIFP, short for "niedrigschwelliges Innovationsförderprogramm") supports projects in which your own development work creates a new or improved marketable product, production process or service that goes beyond the current state of technology in your company.

• Grant: up to 35%, max. €100,000. The 45% rate only applies to small companies in the Lüneburg transition region, and the Osnabrück region is not part of it.
• Catch 1: External services and investments may each account for no more than half of the eligible costs. Without your own developers, it gets tight.
• Catch 2: The program only funds process and organizational innovations once eligible costs exceed €200,000. Routine changes are excluded.
• Focus area: The project has to fit one of the strength areas of Lower Saxony's innovation strategy, which include the cross-cutting field "Digitale Wirtschaft" (digital economy).
• Application: before the project starts, via NBank's customer portal.

Our take: If you're building a customer platform or web app as a new offering and developing a good share of it with your own team, check out the nIFP. For automating your internal invoice checks, it usually won't fit.

How does the KfW digitalization loan help with implementation?

It finances the implementation itself: hardware and software, including internal and external staff costs and consultant fees. From level 2 up, you also get a grant. The ERP-Förderkredit Digitalisierung has three levels:

1. Basisdigitalisierung (basic digitalization): for example hardware, networks or moving to the cloud. Only for SMEs that have completed the KfW-Digitalisierungs-Check (KfW's digitalization check) beforehand, and without a grant.
2. LevelUp-Digitalisierung: connecting systems, such as CRM or ERP, digital workflows with business partners or digital sales channels. Grant: 3% of the loan amount paid out.
3. HighEnd-Digitalisierung: for example AI that uses internal company data. Standard software with built-in AI features explicitly does not count. Grant: 5%.

The grant is capped at €200,000 and counts as de minimis aid, a category of state aid with an overall cap per company. You apply for the loan through your bank before the project starts, and for the grant together with the loan application or no later than three months after the loan is approved. For a sense of scale: a €40,000 loan for an AI project at level 3 comes with a €2,000 grant. Our take: The grant alone doesn't justify a loan. If you're financing the implementation anyway, don't leave it on the table.

What does the Mittelstand-Digital Zentrum offer, and why now?

Free, vendor-neutral support, but in its current form only until December 2026. The Mittelstand-Digital Zentrum Lingen.Münster.Osnabrück, whose partners include Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences, has been extended through December 2026 with a focus on AI.

What you get there:

• the KI-Schnell-Check (AI quick check): a one-on-one session of about an hour, online or on site, with a results report
• workshops, demonstrators and joint hands-on projects
• on November 4, 2026, the free online talk "KI-Agenten verstehen: Von der Chat-Nutzung zur Prozessautomatisierung" (understanding AI agents: from chat use to process automation)

Starting in 2027, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy is restructuring the network. According to the funding announcement, six regional centers will be set up at first, each covering at least two federal states. Lower Saxony will then belong to the Nord-West-Mitte (North-West-Central) region along with Bremen and Saxony-Anhalt, with at least one physical location planned per state. The announcement doesn't say where the one in Lower Saxony will be.

Companies based in the city of Osnabrück can also turn to the WFO, the city's economic development agency. It provides information on funding from the federal government, the state, the EU and the region, and on December 8, 2026, it hosts "Fördermittel & Frühstück" (funding and breakfast), including a talk by NBank on current innovation programs.

What does this mean for you?

Plan funding around your project, not around a program. Five steps:

1. Classify your project: Is it about a concept, change within your team, a new development or implementation? That tells you which route in the table above fits.
2. Don't sign anything before your application is in. At BAFA, the contract already counts as the start; for nIFP and KfW, you must apply before the project starts; for INQA-Coaching, you need the voucher first.
3. Use your BAFA quota for 2026 if a concept is on the agenda. If you haven't applied for anything this year and at least two of your five consultations are still unused, you can still apply for two funded consultations by December 31.
4. Do the AI quick check in 2026, while the regional center still works in its current form.
5. Don't wait for a new Digitalbonus. Our take: If an automation project pays for itself in twelve months, every month you wait costs you roughly one twelfth of the investment in lost savings. A 25% grant would be used up after three months, and it's unclear whether a new program will come at all.

We build AI automation, web apps and websites, and as a Webflow agency in Osnabrück we also handle relaunches. If you want to know which funding route is realistic for your project, send us a message.