Small and medium-sized businesses in Saxony-Anhalt can get grants for digitalisation projects. Two programmes matter right now: DIGITAL INNOVATION from the state investment bank Investitionsbank Sachsen-Anhalt, which reopens on 16 November 2026, and INQA coaching, which subsidises consulting.
DIGITAL INNOVATION: the next round starts on 16 November 2026
- When: The 9th call opens on 16 November 2026 at 13:00. Applications are online only, through the bank’s customer portal. The call closes as soon as 90 applications have been received.
- Who: small and medium-sized businesses with a registered office or premises in Saxony-Anhalt. Each business can submit one application per call.
- How much: a grant of up to 50 per cent of eligible costs, at most €70,000 and at least €3,000. Total project costs must not exceed €200,000. Consulting services are recognised only up to €6,000. A project can run for up to 12 months.
- What: digitalising internal processes and services, digital processes with an effect on the outside, digital marketing and sales strategies, IT security, and digitalising products, production and business models. The project must use technology that your business has not used before, or has not used in a connected way.
- Applying: you submit a project outline in the bank’s customer portal: what is new about the project, how many users it reaches per year, whether it pays off, and how it is financed. Projects must reach a minimum score.
Does a website or an online shop count?
The pages of the bank and of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK) say nothing about this. Websites, online shops and software are not named as eligible or as excluded. The IHK writes that standard hardware and standard software are eligible only if they belong directly to the project and bring something new for your business.
Our assessment, not an answer from the bank: a simple new company website probably does not fit. A digital booking or sales system, a customer portal or custom software is more likely to fit. Ask the bank or the IHK before you plan.
INQA coaching: up to 80 per cent of consulting costs
INQA coaching subsidises consulting when your business changes digitally: in processes, staff development and securing skilled workers.
- Who: small and medium-sized businesses in all sectors with fewer than 250 employees, up to €50 million annual turnover or €43 million balance sheet total, with a registered office and place of work in Germany. The business must have been on the market for at least two years and have at least one full-time position covered by social insurance.
- How much: 80 per cent of consulting costs, for up to 12 coaching days, at most €1,200 net per consulting day. The costs are reimbursed after the coaching is finished.
- Process: initial consultation at a regional INQA advisory office, check of eligibility and setting the coaching goal, issue of an INQA coaching voucher, redeeming the voucher with an authorised INQA coach. According to the IHK, vouchers are issued until 30 June 2028.
- Check: inqa.de says that the authorisation of new coaches for 2026 has ended. Ask the advisory office whether vouchers are currently being issued.
Questions about INQA coaching are answered at the IHK Halle-Dessau by Dr Sophie Kühling, telephone +49 345 2126-265.
What to do now
- Describe your project in one sentence: which problem does it solve, and which technology is new to your business?
- Check the requirements: registered office in Saxony-Anhalt, small or medium-sized business, project not yet started.
- Estimate the costs: get quotes before you write the outline.
- Ask first: whether your project is eligible is something you settle with the bank or the IHK, not only in the application.
- Set up your access: register in the bank’s customer portal before 16 November, so you do not have to create accounts at 13:00.
Where we help
If your project is software, a customer portal, a booking system or an online shop, we help you describe and plan it clearly. You submit the application yourself to the bank. We cannot promise approval.
In a free first call of 30 minutes, we look together at whether and how your project could fit one of the programmes.
Sources
- Investitionsbank Sachsen-Anhalt: Digital Innovation (German)
- IHK Halle-Dessau: Funding programme of the month, Sachsen-Anhalt DIGITAL INNOVATION (German)
- INQA: INQA coaching (German)
- IHK Halle-Dessau: Mitteldeutsche Wirtschaft 05/2026, page 34: grant for digital transformation in small and medium-sized businesses (German)