German-Swedish Call for joint R&D projects by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises spring 2026

This call for proposals finances collaborative projects where small and medium-sized Swedish and German companies will jointly develop products, technology-based services or methods. The project can be in all areas of technology and application. These should be able to generate socially sustainable solutions with both market potential and the ability to address societal challenges. Through this call for proposals companies will be given the opportunity to strengthen their development, competitiveness and internationalisation.

The call for proposals is a collaboration between Vinnova and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy in Germany (here represented by AiF Projekt GmbH).

Vinnova can grant up to three million SEK per project and the total budget in this call for proposals is 15 million SEK for the Swedish side of the projects.

The German the actors in the project submit proposal to AiF Projekt GmbH who assesses and finances the German part of the project. See AiF Projekt GmbH's website for further information.

Through deeper collaboration between Swedish and German actors, the projects will contribute to increased integration between the countries' research and innovation ecosystems. The implementation of the projects will strengthen the ability of Swedish actors to participate in and drive international innovation initiatives through increased coordination, strategic cooperation and improved capacity to act in global innovation environments, including within EU programme and other international funding instruments.

As results of the projects, joint solutions will be developed with good conditions for further development, commercialization and continued cooperation after the end of the project period. In the short term, this will contribute to increased Swedish impact in international innovation contexts and a strengthened position within the EU. In the longer term, the projects will contribute to strengthened innovative capacity, increased resilience and economic development, by addressing global societal challenges, to strengthening Europe's long-term competitiveness. The actor constellations within the project will have relevant expertise, equal distribution of resources and an integrated gender perspective in both the project team and implementation. In this way the call for proposals contributes to sustainable growth and equal funding of innovations

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

• take into account the gender balance 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

The call for proposals is primarily aimed at small and medium-sized companies (in this call for proposals up to 499 employees, see section 5) in Sweden that want to collaborate with companies and other actors in Germany. Large companies (more than 500 employees) can participate as participant, but do not receive support from Vinnova. The project may also have partners from universities, university college or institutes, both on the Swedish and German side.

A small or medium-sized company should fulfill the role of coordinator by taking clear project ownership and leadership responsibility within the consortium. The coordinator's role is defined in Vinnova's general terms and conditions.

Vinnova's general terms and conditions for funding

The company must be able to clearly describe a concrete added value of its participation in the project, its position in the value chain within the project and the future market potential of the project results. The project as a whole must also be able to demonstrate a clear added value of the collaboration between the selected partners from the two countries. This could be, for example, an increased knowledge base, business opportunities, access to R&D infrastructure or new areas of application.

Efforts and active participation shall be balanced both between the countries and between the parties. The effort shall be of decisive importance for the implementation of the project. Please see the attachment for the joint call text from Vinnova and AiF Projekt GmbH regarding these eligibility requirements.

All participating companies must prove their capacity to implement the project and be able to finance their share of the project cost.

Activities for which funding can be applied for

The activities for which you are seeking funding must be research and development activities. These could be, for example:

• develop new knowledge or skills
• conduct research and development work
• develop a first working prototype
• conduct demonstration
• pilot work
• testing and validation
• work with intellectual property and regulatory requirements
• develop intellectual property strategies and protection

The activities must fall under the definitions of “industrial research” or “experimental development. Vinnova does not finance:

• marketing
• sales
• investments in equipment
• quality assurance, certification, or equivalent, for example CE marking
• educational efforts
• regular business development, for example launching an existing call for proposals in a new market
• ongoing operation
• recurring changes to existing goods, manufacturing methods or services.

This applies even if the changes may mean improvements.

What costs can we finance?

Our funding is subject to state aid rules. The rules govern what types 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 an external party. These costs may not exceed 20 percent of an organization's budget.
  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 organisations 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

What eligibility requirements apply to costs we finance?

In order 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 your own funds intended for other project.
• You may not claim someone else's expenses as your own.

For more detailed information on which eligibility requirements, limitations and exclusions apply, see our general terms and conditions.

state aid rules govern how much of the costs we can finance. This is determined individually for each organisation. We therefore differentiate between how much funding the project can receive, and how much a participating organisation can receive.

How much funding can the project receive?

The total budget for the call for proposals is SEK 15 million. A maximum of SEK 3 million per project can be granted.

How much funding can a participating organisation receive?

The amount of funding a participating organisation can receive depends primarily on:

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

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

Vinnova can finance eligible costs in this call for proposals as follows:

• Up to 40 percent for small and medium-sized enterprises. (In this call for proposals a maximum of 499 employees and a maximum annual turnover of EUR 50 million or a maximum balance sheet total of EUR 43 million).
• Up to 100 percent for research organizations (for example, universities and university colleges, as well as for research institutes engaged in their non-economic activities).

Companies with 500 or more employees or an annual turnover exceeding EUR 50 million or a balance sheet total exceeding EUR 43 million are not eligible for funding under this call for proposals. state aid rules

Please note that companies with 250–499 employees are not formally considered to be in the category of “small and medium-sized enterprises” according to current state aid regulations. Kontakta Vinnova if you have any questions about this.

Support for companies for research and development

In this the call for proposals we provide support for industrial research and experimental development. Full information on the grounds for support

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.

Experimental development can be simply described as combining, shaping and using existing knowledge to develop new or improved products, processes or services.

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

Eligibility requirements on participants

• All participating organisations must be legal entities. Individuals or sole proprietorships cannot participate. Foreign legal entities can participate if they have a branch or establishment in Sweden and the costs are incurred by the branch or establishment.
• The main applicant (project coordinator) for Vinnova is a Swedish company that conducts activities in the country and belongs to one of the two groups below:
  • Small companies with 1–49 employees and a maximum annual turnover or balance sheet total of EUR 10 million
  • Medium-sized enterprises with 50–249 employees and a maximum annual turnover of no more than EUR 50 million or an annual balance sheet total of no more than EUR 43 million
• Companies with 250 – 499 employees have the opportunity to receive funding, but these are considered “large companies” in terms of maximum support levels.
• The project is being implemented in collaboration between Swedish partners (for example, companies, research organizations) and a similar German partnership.
• Proposal for funding the project must have been submitted in both Sweden and Germany according to the respective funder's guidelines.
• That the amount applied for does not exceed three million SEK and does not exceed the support levels that apply to the respective actor types (for example, small, medium-sized or large companies or research organizations).
• The project manager responsible for reporting to Vinnova is employed by the main applicant (coordinating) small or medium-sized company.
• The project partners must be able to clearly demonstrate that there is a good balance between the project partners' efforts and equivalent priorities (see the joint Swedish-German text). In a project with two participants, one party may not perform more than 70 percent of the project's man-months. In project with more than two parties, no party may contribute more than 50 percent of the work. If one or more research organizations are involved in the consortium, they may not perform more than 50 percent of the person-months. See also the joint Swedish-German call text available on the call's website.
• A draft project agreement (“consortium agreement”) between all parties in the project must be in place at the time of application. The agreement must not be attached to proposal to Vinnova. However, the Swedish applicant must state in the project description that such an agreement exists at the time of application.

Eligibility requirements on the project

• The project may apply for a maximum of 3 million SEK.
• The project must start no later than May 31, 2027 with a project duration of two years.
• The project may not be started before submitting your proposal.
• Costs for consulting services and licenses may not exceed 20 percent of an organization's budget.

Eligibility requirements on proposal

• Proposal must be written in Swedish or English.
• Proposal must follow the instructions under the heading "How to apply", section 9.
• Proposal must contain all requested attachments.

Once the application period has expired, no additions or completions to proposal can be made unless Vinnova requests it.

The assessment of the applications is carried out in parallel by Vinnova (in Sweden) and AiF Projekt GmbH (in Germany). The processes differ to some extent. For the process for which Vinnova is responsible, the project that meet the formal requirements (section 6) will be evaluated on three criteria: Potential, Implementation and Actors.

What do we assess?

Assessment criterion: Potential

• The intended product, service or process responds to a need or demand in the market.
• How innovative the project proposal is in relation to existing solutions and ongoing major initiatives in the area.
• Competitiveness, that is, how the project result will affect the participants' knowledge, networks and/or business conditions, for example in the form of increased market shares or new competence / new long-term collaborations.
• The consortium's plan for continued funding after the project period, risk analysis and that the intended commercialization process is credible and has potential to lead to the market.
• The intended product, service or process has potential to contribute to environmentally and/or socially sustainable growth.
• How well the project proposal contributes to increased gender equality by integrating perspectives on sex and gender.

Assessment criterion: Actors

• The composition, participation, competence and ability of the actor constellation contribute to project objectives and implementation.
• The project manager and other key people have the conditions to lead and implement the project.
• potential of the international consortium/collaboration to provide clear added value during and after the project (compare with a national project).
• The company(ies) has the potential to reach the role and position in the industry/value chain required to exploit the project results.
• The composition of the project team and how the financial contribution, participation, power and influence are distributed equally between women and men in the project team.

Assessment criterion: Feasibility

• Budget, approach, project plan, risk analysis for project implementation are credible and relevant.
• Collaboration between the parties in both countries is necessary/important for the implementation of the project and for the parties to clearly benefit from the collaboration.
• The gender distribution in the project team and perspectives on sex and gender have been integrated into the project plan.
• The conditions for the project's results to be taken forward and used after the end of the project
• The project's strategy for managing intangible assets is credible

Applications that meet our formal eligibility requirements will proceed to assessment. In the assessment, we look at how much potential your idea has, how realistic it is and who will implement the project.

How do we judge in Sweden?

Once we have received the applications, we review them. Vinnova assesses the application documents that the Swedish coordinator has submitted. No additions or completions of application documents are permitted. We will discard all applications that are incomplete or do not meet our eligibility requirements.

The applications that are correct and complete are distributed among different evaluator and assessed in competition with each other. The evaluators are appointed by us based on their expertise in the field. Each proposal is assessed by at least three evaluator.

Please note that our German partner in this call for proposals the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy in Germany (here represented by AiF Projekt GmbH), has an assessment process that differs slightly from Vinnova's assessment process and the documentation requested. AiF Projekt GmbH does in some cases provide feedback and allows for additions during the decision-making process. Vinnova and AiF Projekt GmbH follow our respective guidelines regarding the assessment process.

When the evaluators have reviewed the applications in Sweden and Germany, Vinnova and AiF Projekt GmbH have a joint meeting to discuss which applications could be co-financed based on the evaluators' recommendations.

AiF Projekt GmbH and Vinnova carry out the evaluation of all applications received, based on each country's procedures, which differ in terms of which documents are accepted and the assessment process.

AiF Projekt GmbH and Vinnova carry out the evaluation of all applications received, based on the respective country's routines, which differ in terms of which documents are accepted and the assessment process. For Vinnova, the assessment is carried out by using internal and/or external experts appointed by Vinnova as evaluator. These assist Vinnova with qualified recommendations regarding the quality of the applications. Based on the outcomes of the respective national assessment process, AiF Projekt GmbH and Vinnova then make a joint decision on which project are to be financed.

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 that are granted funding for payroll 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 a 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 large a proportion 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 happens if you are granted funding?

If we grant your 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 several parties, you must have a written project agreement that regulates your mutual rights and obligations in the project in Sweden. All Swedish 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 with this as soon as possible.

See our general terms and conditions

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

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.

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

Who can read your proposal?

Your proposal will be read by employees at Vinnova and the evaluator participating 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.

General documents and confidentiality