Foerderdatenbank.de Scraper

Scrapes structured funding program data from the official German Foerderdatenbank. This actor paginates search results, extracts detail pages, and outputs clean JSON with program metadata, providers, contacts, and external resources. Built with Apify Actors and Crawlee (Cheerio).

Overview

The actor navigates the site's expert search form or follows provided URLs to collect data on federal and state funding programs. It normalizes contact information, provider links, and descriptive sections into a consistent format.

Typical use cases include funding intelligence and monitoring, CRM enrichment for grant advisory teams, creating alerts for new programs, and research on eligibility criteria and regional focus.

Key Features

• Flexible Input: Start with search parameters (query) or directly provide listing/detail URLs (startUrls).
• Comprehensive Filtering: Supports numerous search filters like region (fundingArea), domain focus (supportArea), eligible entity type, funding type, and provider level.
• Pagination Handling: Automatically follows and scrapes paginated search result listings.
• Structured Output: Returns clean JSON with normalized fields for easy integration and analysis.
• Proxy Support: Configurable proxy settings to handle the site's IP blocking.

How to Use

You can run the actor by providing input via the Apify console, API, or a scheduled run. Configure your search using the input parameters below.

Input Configuration

Provide either a query for a new search or startUrls to scrape specific pages. If both are provided, the actor will process all valid startUrls and execute the search.

Core Parameters:

• startUrls (array, optional): An array of listing or detail page URLs from foerderdatenbank.de. URLs from other domains are ignored.
• query (string, optional): Search text for the expert search form. Required if startUrls is not provided.
• maxItems (integer, optional): Limit the total number of items to scrape.
• proxyConfiguration (object, optional): Standard Apify proxy settings. Using a proxy is strongly recommended to avoid IP blocks.

Search Filters (all optional):
* page: Starting page number (1-based).
* sort: Sort by title or date.
* sortType: asc or desc (default desc).
* fundingArea: Region codes (e.g., _bundesweit, berlin, bayern).
* supportArea: Domain focus (e.g., digitalisierung, forschung_innovation_themenoffen).
* eligibleEntity: Applicant type (e.g., unternehmen, privatperson, kommune).
* fundingType: (e.g., beteiligung+darlehen, beteiligung+zuschuss).
* fundingProviderLevel: (e.g., bund, bund+eu).
* companySize: (e.g., grosses_unternehmen, kleines_unternehmen).
* documentType, filterCategories, grwProgram: Additional filter categories.

Input Example

{
  "query": "digitalisierung",
  "maxItems": 50,
  "fundingArea": ["berlin", "_bundesweit"],
  "supportArea": ["digitalisierung"],
  "eligibleEntity": ["unternehmen"],
  "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true }
}

Output

The actor outputs a dataset of items, where each item is a JSON object representing a single funding program. The structure includes:

• Metadata: Program title, ID, direct URL, last update date.
• Provider & Contact: Funding provider name, contact person, address, phone, email, and website links.
• Program Details: Description, eligibility criteria, supported regions, funding types, and applicable company sizes.
• External Resources: Links to related documents, legal bases, and application forms.

The dataset is available for download in JSON, CSV, and other formats via the Apify platform.