Investments are expenses for items than can be used independently and over long periods of time and that exceed a certain minimum value. The legal budgetary limit is € 2,500 (incl. VAT and additional costs). Anything below this limit is considered small equipment.
Please note that the minimum value can vary considerably if external funding bodies are involved. You should always check the funding body's individual stipulations for information about the correct minimum value. Below you will find information about the usual minimum values used by various funding bodies:
- EU: € 410 plus VAT (typically it is only the depreciation that can be reimbursed, see below)
- Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bund) € 410 plus VAT
- Federal state: € 2,500 incl. VAT
- DFG: € 10,000 incl. VAT (the DFG may reserve the right to make the purchase, see below)
Baden-Württemberg Foundation:
- for contract research: € 5,000 gross (typically it is only the depreciation that can be reimbursed, see below)
- For grants: What is important is the operating life of the item(s) in question rather than their worth, i.e. if the items are operational for a year or less, they are classified as material expenses. Anything with an operating life of more than a year is deemed an investment. A PC worth € 300 is not considered an investment.
Any piece of equipment consisting of several individual devices is treated as a single unit.
You can find information about who is responsible for placing orders in our FAQs.
Please note that if DFG funds are involved, any items exceeding a certain minimum value will be ordered by the DFG and/or that you must request advance permission if you want to order the items in question yourself.
For information about ordering large equipment, please see our large equipment page.
Writing off investments (depreciation)
A write-off is the calculated loss of value in investment goods. Some funding bodies (e.g. EU, BW Foundation) only pay for loss of value, not the entire investment sum. In these cases you should check which funds can be accessed to cover the deficit prior to submitting your application (e.g. available industry resources or core funding and basic infrastructure (“Grundausstattung”)).
Write-offs for investment goods purchased for the project are usually calculated linearly as follows:
- Monthly depreciation
- purchase costs and overall operational life in months
- purchase costs: price printed on the invoice including additional costs, e.g. for transportation, installation etc.
- overall operating life: as per the applicable state-wide table
- monthly depreciation (see above) x number of months within the duration of the project (if the item is shared between several projects, every project can only write off its individual share)