Develop the space sector with AI and edge learning through ESA Phi-Lab Sweden

The call for proposals aims to develop the space sector by promoting the development of AI and edge learning technologies for the space sector. It is implemented within the framework of ESA Phi-Lab Sweden som är en del av ESA Phi-Lab NET, ett strategiskt programme för kommersialisering av rymdtekniska innovationer.

The call for proposals har två spår:

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• Mjukvaruspår - Intelligenta satelliter och kognitiv autonomi.
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• Hårdvaruspår - Nästa generations rymdberäkningsarkitekturer och datakedjor ombord satellit.
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Projekten som beviljas i the call for proposals ska löpa i maximalt 24 månader. Varje project kan söka mellan 2,5 miljoner till 4 miljoner kronor i funding. Utlysningens totala preliminära budget är 8 miljoner kronor.

Finansieringen delas mellan Vinnova och ESA, The European Space Agency. Vinnova only funds Swedish partners. ESA funds Swedish partners, and also has the possibility to fund participants from another ESA member state.

Proposal should be sent to both Vinnova and ESA Phi Lab Sweden. The applications must be identical and contain the same attachments.

European space policy is facing growing challenges. These include the rapid expansion of the global space economy, increasing orbital congestion and rising geopolitical tensions. These challenges underline the need for greater European autonomy in terms of launch capabilities, infrastructure, computing and space-based services. Despite strong national assets, European countries are at a lower level than many of their leading global competitors, and there is a lack of a unified legal framework within the EU.

AI is becoming increasingly crucial along the entire space industry value chain, from manufacturing to in-orbit operations and data analytics. Supporting the maturation of these technologies is central to Europe's long-term competitiveness.

ESA Phi-Lab Swedens's mission is to strengthen Sweden's and Europe's competitiveness in the global space sector by promoting the development of AI and edge learning technologies. In the coming years, ESA Phi-Lab Sweden wants to show how these technologies can be applied in the space sector and other industries.

ESA Phi‑Lab Sweden är en del av initiativet ESA Phi-LabNET och drivs av RISE. De erbjuder tekniskt support och forskningsstöd till project som tillämpar AI och edge learning-teknik inom rymdtillämpningar. Initiativet ska också anpassa rymdbaserad teknik för användning i andra sektorer, och samtidigt dra nytta av EU:s strategiska investments och regleringsutveckling för att främja innovation och stärka konkurrenskraft.

Med denna call for proposals vill Vinnova och ESA Phi-Lab accelerera utvecklingen av banbrytande teknologier som kan göra satelliter och rymdburna plattformar än mer autonoma, intelligenta och beräkningseffektiva. De project som finansieras ska bidra till en framtid där rymdsystem blir proaktiva actors som förstår världen och kan agera på den i realtid istället för att observera den. Ambitionen bygger på ESA Phi‑Lab Swedens övergripande syftet: att stödja djärva och innovativa project som stärker Sveriges konkurrenskraft i den globala rymdsektorn och driver sustainable growth.

Utlysningens objective är att katalysera innovativa lösningar som minskar gapet mellan data och handling, minskar beroendet av markinfrastruktur och möjliggör edge‑AI‑system som fungerar tillförlitligt och robust under verkliga rymdförhållanden. Det kan handla om strålning, intermittent energitillgång och begränsad beräkningskraft. The call for proposals ska också stödja utvecklingen av nästa generations rymdberäkningsarkitekturer som klarar kraven och arbetslasterna från framväxande AI‑ och grundmodeller i omloppsbana. Tillsammans har dessa satsningar potential att stärka Sveriges ledarskap inom AI, inbäddade system, 5G/6G icke-terrestra nätverk, strålningshärdad teknik och avancerad beräkningsinfrastruktur.

Mjukvaruspår — Intelligent satellites and cognitive autonomy This track funds project that enables development where satellites go from passive data collectors to cognitive actors that can detect, decide and act on their own. The projects will push the boundaries of reliable, real-time capable intelligence on board satellites, where space platforms can themselves interpret complex events, prioritize critical information and act with minimal dependence on the ground segment.

Project within the track will promote breakthroughs in AI-powered satellites, lightweight and robust model architectures, self-assessment and health monitoring, and cognitive cloud capabilities in multi-agent systems. These advances will enable satellites to deliver actionable information within seconds or minutes, greatly reduce the time and bandwidth required for data downlink, and expand access to real-time Earth observation data.

Project in this track should enable:

• Autonomous detection and interpretation of changing environmental phenomena.
• AI systems with high reliability and the ability to reason under uncertainty.
• Architectures optimized for constrained onboard environments, such as COTS, ARM, RISC‑V, and FPGA.
• Coordinated decision-making in constellations of multiple satellites.
• Significant reductions in downlink requirements, enabling faster response in, for example, climate, security and emergency preparedness domains.

The project funded will strengthen Sweden's position in real-time Earth observation intelligence, cognitive autonomy and embedded AI for space.

Hardware track — Next-generation space computing architectures and data chains onboard satellites.

This track aims to stimulate innovation in the co-design of hardware and software that can power the next era of spaceborne AI. Projects will address today's bottlenecks in data movement, memory hierarchy, and deterministic low-latency computing - challenges that increasingly limit the performance of AI systems in orbit.

The hope is to fund solutions that deliver predictable, energy-efficient and radiation-robust computing across heterogeneous platforms onboard satellites. This includes the development of new architectures, chiplet concepts, hybrid memory systems and ultra-low latency interconnects, and the modernization of onboard data chains to ensure quality, reliability, modularity, timeliness and energy efficiency, from raw sensor input to AI-driven decisions.

This track should achieve:

• Architectures that minimize data movement and maximize computational efficiency.
• Reliable, deterministic AI performance in demanding space environments.
• Hardware portability that allows complex models to run across multiple architectures.
• Robust data chains that can support the inference of future basic models.
• Implementation-ready computing architectures for upcoming Swedish and European space missions.

Strengthening national capabilities in advanced System-on-Chip design, memory systems and computing on board satellites contributes to Sweden's long-term competitiveness in both the space sector and high-performance edge AI.

Commercial benefit

Phi-Lab activities should address technical challenges that, once solved, could enable already identified commercial applications. The commercial conditions and potential should be clearly stated in proposal.

Equal funding of innovations

Your project should integrate gender equality both into how your project team is composed and how you carry out the project. This means that you need to:

• Take into account the gender distribution within the project team.
• Assess whether aspects of sex and gender are relevant to the design of the project, and if so, in what way.

By integrating different perspectives, more inclusive and relevant solutions are developed. This strengthens both the innovation capacity and the project's results.

Gender equality as a tool for innovative social development

An innovative force in a sustainable world

Making scientific publications and resultsavailable

This the call for proposals will also contribute to making results available to everyone. Therefore, all scientific publishing should be open access. When results from research and innovation are made freely available, more people can contribute to solving societal challenges.

The call for proposals is aimed at consortia with at least two participants. The consortium may include industry, business, academia, research institutes, public activities, authorities or economic associations. At least one company must be part of the consortium. All participating parties may be companies.

Participants from an ESA member state other than Sweden must demonstrate that participation contributes to the Swedish innovation ecosystem.

Eftersom ESA Phi-Lab Sweden is run by RISE, RISE or organisations which is part of RISE cannot search in the call for proposals.

Please note that Vinnova and ESA have partly different rules for who can apply funding. Read more in sections 4 to 6.

Vinnova and ESA Phi-Lab fund activities for research and innovation projects within the call's aim and objective as described in section 2.

The project, or activities within the project, must not be funded by other means, such as ESA's activities within research and development, ESA Business Incubation, ESA Business Applications or the European Commission.

Examples of activities eligible for support:

• Investigate technical and structural conditions.
• Develop prototypes or demonstration versions of products and services. This may include pilot work, testing, and validation.
• Research and develop production methods.
• Plan and conduct studies and tests to validate an innovation.
• Investigate market conditions, for example, identifying customers, customer needs, potential partners and competitors.

What costs can we finance?

Our funding is subject to rules about state aid. The rules govern what kinds of costs we can finance. These are called eligible costs.

In this the call for proposals, these types of costs are eligible:

• Salary costs: Gross salary paid, employer contributions and other salary-related costs.
• Equipment, land and buildings: Costs for instruments, equipment and rent for premises other than regular business premises.
• Consulting and licensing costs: Costs for consulting services, knowledge and patents purchased or licensed from external parties. These costs may not exceed 20 percent of an organization's budget.
  In case of special needs, for example if the project requires specialist expertise, we may accept a higher percentage. This must be justified in proposal, and the justification will be taken into account in our assessment.
• Other direct costs: Costs for, for example, materials, supplies and travel that are necessary to carry out the project.
• Indirect costs (overhead):Costs that are linked to the project but do not arise directly, such as premises and cleaning. Indirect costs may amount to a maximum of 30 percent of salary costs. Universities, university colleges, research organizations and government agencies may have higher permitted levels, depending on activities.

For more detailed information about which costs we can finance, see Instructions for eligible costs

Support offer and additional costs that may be covered by ESA Phi-Lab Sweden

A mandatory aspect of ESA Phi-Lab Sweden is to provide technical support and research support for the project's activities.

The type of support that the projects need should be specified in proposal. A description of the support package is provided in the project description template.

The call for proposals includes:

• Research mentorship and technical support.
• Business coaching.
• Intellectual property law and legal advice
• Equipment and facilities.
• Support concerning intellectual property rights.

What eligibility requirements apply to costs we finance?

For your costs to be eligible for support, the following applies:

• They must be factual, reasonable and necessary for the activities in the project.
• They must be booked correctly and under a separate project code in the accounting. You may not cover project costs with other public funding or own funds intended for other project.
• You may not claim someone else's expenses as your own.

For more detailed information about which eligibility requirements, limitations and exceptions apply, see Vinnova's general terms and conditions for funding | Vinnova.

The rules about state aid govern how large a proportion of the costs we can finance. This is determined individually for each organisation. We therefore differentiate between how large a funding project can get, and how much a participant organisation can get.

How big can the funding project get?

The support can amount to between 2.5 and 4 million SEK per project. Vinnova finances the participation of the Swedish the actors with a maximum of 2 million SEK per project. ESA finances the Swedish the actors, as well as any project partners from an ESA member state other than Sweden with a maximum of 2 million SEK per project.

How much funding can a participant organisation get?

How much funding a participant organisation can receive depends mainly on:

• the organisation's size and activities
• what activities the organisation will carry out in the project.

Descriptions in the following sections about what support we can provide are simplified. For complete information, see Support bases and levels for funding.

Support to companies for research and development

In this the call for proposals we give support to industrial research.

Industrial research can be simply described as seeking new knowledge through planned research or critical analysis. This is to develop or significantly improve products, processes or services.

How much of the costs can we finance?

The organisation's The size and type of activity determines how much of the costs we can finance. This is called the maximum support level.

Situations where we finance a higher proportion

If the project is covered by any of these bonus bases, we can finance a higher proportion of the costs.

• Actual cooperation: Some level of cooperation between small and larger companies, between companies in two different European countries or between research organisations and companies
• Dissemination of results: Widespread dissemination through, for example, conferences or open databases.
• Other bonus basis.

Support of minor importance to companies

We can [also] provide de minimis support, also known as support of minor importance. We can fund up to 100 percent of an organization's costs.

A organisation can receive a maximum of 300,000 euros over a three-year period in this form of support, regardless of the funder and project. This means that if the same organisation has received support of lesser importance in other project from other funders in the past, it affects how large the support can be in this the call for proposals.

Submit a certificate of de minimis support when you submit proposal. This is required for us to be able to grant this support.

Certificate of de minimis-support

Support to universities, university colleges and other public organisations with non-economic activities

We also give support to organisations that do not engage in economic activities. This means that the organisation do not offer a service or product in a market. This usually includes universities and university colleges, research institutes and other public organisations.

We can finance up to 100 percent of such an organization's costs, but only if these costs amount to a maximum of 30% of the project's budget.

How is it determined whether a organisation is engaged in economic activities?

A organisation that offers any kind of service or product on a market is considered to be conducting economic activities and cannot be granted this form of support. It does not matter how the the organisation is financed: whether it is public or private, or whether it has a profit motive. It also does not matter what legal form the business has. For example, whether it is a limited liability company, a trading company, an economic association, a non-profit association or a foundation.

If you are unsure whether a organisation in your project conducts economic activities, contact call manager. The organisation is, however, responsible for assessing whether it conducts economic activities.

Support levels per activity and organization type

Here you can see how much support we can pay out, depending on activity and organization type.

Swedish participants in industrial research

• Small business: up to 80%
• Medium-sized company: up to 75%
• Large company: up to 50%

Swedish participants - not state aid

Academy or research institute: 100%, but max. 30% of the project budget

ESA funding, including non-Swedish participants

Funded by ESA, but max. 30% of the project's total budget.

• Small business: up to 80%
• Medium-sized company: up to 75%
• Large company: up to 50%
• Academy or research institute: 100%, but max. 30% of the project budget

In order for us to assess your proposal it must meet certain formal eligibility requirementsrequirements. If the requirements are not met, we will reject your proposal immediately.

Eligibility requirements on participants

• All participants organisations must be legal entities. Individuals or sole proprietorships cannot participate.
• No participation organisation is organizationally part of RISE
• The coordinating party must be a Swedish legal entity and conduct activities in Sweden.
• Foreign legal entities can participate if they have a branch or establishment in Sweden and the costs arise at the branch or establishment.
• Foreign legal entities, without a branch or establishment in Sweden, can participate if they are a legal entity established in another ESA member state. These can be funded by ESA, but not by Vinnova.
• At least 2 participants must participate in the project. This includes the coordinating party.
• At least 1 participant must be a company.

Eligibility requirements on the project

• The project may apply for a minimum of 2.5 million SEK and a maximum of 4 million SEK.
• The project may not begin before proposal has been approved and the research contract has been signed.
• Maximum project duration is 24 months

Eligibility requirements on proposal

• Proposal should be written in Swedish or English. Since applications will be assessed by international evaluator, we prefer that applications are written in English. Swedish applications will be machine translated before assessment.
• Proposal should follow the instructions under the heading “ How to apply”.
• Proposal should contain all requested attachments.
• The same proposal should be submitted to Vinnova's e-service and to ESA Phi-Lab via e-mail. This is called a parallel application. Only applications that are identical to the parallel application, including attachments, will be assessed.

Applications that meet our eligibility requirements will proceed to assessment.

In this call for proposals, assessment is done according to criteria established by ESA Phi-Lab NET. Your proposal is assessed based on the assessment criteria below.

Research and technological development (30 percent)

• Relevance for the call for proposals.

• The suitability of the technology for the application described.

• Understanding and utilization of current knowledge (State of the Art) and the novelty value of the proposed solution.

• Maturity and feasibility of the described application.

• Relevance of the proposed research and development methodology.

• How the solution contributes to sustainability.

Commercial opportunities and potential socio-economic impact
(25 percent)

• Potential market segment.

• Potential product/service.

• Potential customers and users.

• Value proposition.

• Potential socio-economic impact including sustainability.
• IPR strategy.
• How well the project proposal contributes to increased gender equality by integrating perspectives on sex and gender.

• How good the conditions are for the project's results to be taken forward and used after the end of the project.

Background and experience (25 percent)

• The composition of the project team.

• Partnerships and support units.

• Vision.

• The project partners' competence, credibility and ability to implement the project.

• The consortium's anchoring in Swedish industry within the chosen area.

• The ability of the project partners to disseminate, exploit, commercialize and further develop the results and the knowledge generated in the project, both within their own organisations and outside the consortium.

• How well the financial contribution, participation, power and influence are distributed equally between women and men in the project team.

Implementation plan (20 percent)

• The relevance of the work to achieving the goals.

• Milestones and cost planning.

• Work distribution structure.

• Management of the research project.

• How well the project plan and budget are assessed to be able to realize a solution in accordance with the project proposal.

• The participation and relevance of the specified project partners in the project's various work packages and activities.

• How well the project design contributes to the exploitation and dissemination of the results, both within the consortium and outside it.

• How credible the project plan's risk analysis and action plan for these risks are.
• How well the need for consulting services and licenses is justified. This only applies if an organization's budget includes more than 20 percent consulting and license costs.
• How well the gender distribution in the project team and perspectives on sex and gender have been integrated into the project plan.

How do we assess?

The assessment is based on proposal submitted via Vinnova's e-service and to ESA Phi-Lab Sweden.

Applications that meet the formal requirements are evaluated against the assessment criteria by an assessment group, Tender Evaluation Board (TEB), appointed by ESA Phi-Lab Sweden. It consists of representatives from ESA Phi-Lab Sweden, ESA, Vinnova and other experts. Evaluation of all received applications are handled locally by ESA Phi-Lab Sweden and Vinnova, and follow the joint ESA Phi-Lab-förfaranden.

All applications received will be reviewed. Applications that are incomplete or do not meet the requirements will be discarded.

Applications that are correct and complete will be invited to make a presentation to the assessment group, and there will also be an opportunity for the group to ask questions to the applicant.

How does it affect an organization's financial status?

Before we decide on funding we also make a comprehensive assessment of the organizational and financial status of those who receive funding.

We use information we receive from credit reports, currently from Dun & Bradstreet. We may also ask small and medium-sized businesses to demonstrate that they have the financial capacity to carry out the project.

In our assessment we check this:

• That organisations who are granted funding for salary costs are registered as employers with the Swedish Tax Agency. If such registration does not exist when we make a decision, you must be able to show that a notification has been made. We do not approve retroactive registration.
• That organisations is not insolvent, or undergoing liquidation or corporate restructuring. You must also not have any significant unpaid debts with the Swedish Enforcement Authority.
• That the project manager is employed by the coordinating party in the project.
• That the limited liability company has not used up half or more of its share capital.

Once we have assessed all applications, we will send you a decision either granting or rejecting your proposal. Since applications are assessed competitively, you may be rejected even though you meet all eligibility requirements and criteria.

In the decision, we state how much of the costs we will cover for each organisation.

You cannot appeal our decision, but you are welcome to apply to us again at another time.

What if you are granted funding?

If we grant you proposal you must follow our general terms and conditions for funding. The terms include, among other things:

• That you will sign a special document in which you approve your participation and commit to carrying out the project.
• That you report how things are going, your costs and achieved results to us during the project period.
• If you are multiple parties, you must have a written project agreement that regulates your mutual rights and obligations in the project. All parties must sign the agreement before the project starts. Since it can take time to develop and negotiate an agreement, we recommend that you start this as soon as possible.
• How the results will be used and how scientific publication will take place.

See our general terms and conditions

We may also decide to add additional special conditions for individual project. In that case, they will be stated in the decision.

Term for reporting to ESA, as well as term for developing project agreements are described in the funding decision.

Could you have to pay back funding?

If you have received more money than you are entitled to or if you do not follow our term, you may be liable for a refund.

When the call for proposals closes, your proposal will be registered as. We will then send an email confirmation to the person responsible for the user account, as well as to the project manager and the signatory. If you have not received a confirmation within 24 hours of the call for proposals closing, please contact us.

You must submit your parallel application to ESA Phi-Lab Sweden by June 15th. Applicant is responsible for ensuring this happens. You must do this even if you have not received the email confirmation mentioned above.

When the call for proposals is closed, you cannot change anything in proposal. Then you can only supplement if we ask you to.

Who can read your proposal?

Your proposal will be read by employees at Vinnova and those evaluator who participate in this the call for proposals. Everyone works under a duty of confidentiality.

Applications submitted to us become public documents. This means that we must disclose them if requested. However, we keep certain types of information confidential if disclosure could be expected to cause financial harm to the individual. This applies to information about business and operational conditions, inventions or research results.

Public documents and confidentiality

We also ask you to pay attention to the terms in the section 'Use of Intellectual Property Rights’ in ESA PhiLab Sweden Draft Research Contract.