Impact Innovation: Digital product passports - Swedish Metals & Minerals

The strategic effort is intended to consist of a project containing at least three pilot studies, which demonstrate with clear concepts different parts of how digital product passports (DPP) can be implemented effectively and provide insights into technical, organizational and environmental aspects of the implementation. To ensure participation from a wide range of actors, at least one pilot study is expected to concern the steel industry and one the aluminum industry or the foundry industry.

The project will also include a work package for coordinating the pilot studies as well as for sharing experience and disseminating relevant information to and from the project, with aim of contributing to broader interaction with relevant ongoing activities in, for example, standardization.

The project is expected to contribute to all of the following outcome objectives:

1. At least three completed pilot studies – of which at least one concerns the steel industry and one the aluminum industry or foundry industry – that together demonstrate how digital product passports could be implemented and provide insights into technical, organizational and environmental aspects of the implementation.
2. Broad collaboration and partnerships to streamline the introduction of digital product passports. Key elements should be networking, skills-building efforts and the creation of a forum where the industry can gather around common inputs and identify key issues for the mining and metals industry. Standardization, competition law and internationalisation are important parts.
3. A competence base that is prepared to be able to develop data for DPP based on scientific foundations and actual conditions within the metals industry with the goal of strengthening the competitiveness of companies.
4. Knowledge dissemination within and outside the project to ensure that both larger and smaller companies are well prepared and that the introduction of DPP can be carried out as efficiently as possible.
5. Increased understanding of the technical requirements for the function of the product passport and what information about the current product should be included in the passport.

By preparing for and facilitating the effective implementation of digital product passports, the project contributes to the following sub-objectives of the program:

• Fossil-free process chains for mineral and metal production by 2045.
• A significantly reduced environmental impact from the production and use of minerals and metals by 2040.

Background to the operation

The EU Green Deal and Circular Economy Action Plan emphasise the importance of making information available to promote sustainable consumption and production. The transfer of information on specific products is crucial to empower consumers, manufacturers and authorities to make fact-based decisions.

A central part is the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), which provides the opportunity to set eligibility requirements on information and environmental performance. Digital Product Passports (DPP) are an important component of the regulation. Digital Product Passports are a digital representation of a physical product that should provide reliable sustainability data about the product's entire life cycle. The aim is to increase traceability and facilitate a circular economy. Digital Product Passports can make it easier for authorities to carry out checks and for companies to sell and handle products. DPP can also help promote consumer and product safety. DPP requires digital information transfer and traceability along the entire value chain. This will affect large parts of companies' activities, from digitalisation and process development to reporting, legal compliance, marketing and material selection.

Iron, steel and aluminium are among the first product groups to be covered by the ESPR. The general technical requirements for DPP are expected to be established in 2026, as are the product-specific rules for iron and steel. The industry will have to adapt to the new rules by 2028 (tentative).

Swedish Metals & Minerals now sees a need to implement a strategic effort aim prepare and facilitate the effective introduction of digital product passports along the Swedish metals industry's value chain.

Impact Innovation is Sweden's major innovation initiative to tackle the challenges of our time and the future. In collaborations between actors in the private, public and non-profit organizations, Impact Innovation meets real technical and societal needs with groundbreaking solutions. On the way to a sustainable and competitive Sweden, attractive to live in for everyone. Together we show what is possible, and are ahead internationally.

Read more about Impact Innovation here

This the call for proposals within the joint effort of the Swedish Energy Agency, Forma and Vinnova is linked to the programs' need for so-called strategic transition efforts.

The purpose is to finance project with defined activities or results needed to achieve stated objective and milestones that contribute to the program's mission.

What characterizes strategic initiatives within Impact Innovation?

Strategic efforts for transformation within Impact Innovation:

• Responds to specific needs that Swedish Metals & Minerals' program office has identified in collaboration with the actors in the program and that are important to the program's mission and the transformation that the program wants to achieve.
• Consists of activities that contribute to identified objective or bridge critical knowledge or development gaps. The result is beneficial to the entire program and mission and not primarily to individual actors. There should be clear added value at the system level and activities that involve joint learning and dissemination of results to actors even outside the project.
• The purpose can be addressed by one or a few project and is therefore not suitable for a traditional call for proposals. It is positive when actors find each other and create a consortium for the task.

What should the strategic effort achieve?

The purpose of the strategic effort is to prepare and facilitate the effective introduction of digital product passports along the Swedish metal industry's value chain.

What is important in Impact Innovation?

Every offer to implement a strategic effort is unique, but below are listed some points that are generally important for the Impact Innovation effort as a whole.

The importance of a systems perspective and foresight

Problems that have a clear solution are not in Impact Innovation's focus. The challenges of the programs can be difficult to grasp, change over time, difficult to describe completely or seemingly self-contradictory. Having a systems perspective is therefore important: that is, avoiding "split-pipe thinking" by looking at the whole and not just at the parts without considering their mutual connections. The systems perspective is a prerequisite for social impact.

In order to make the decisions required for system transformation, we need tools that can help us try to imagine what lies ahead. Foresight can prepare for possible events in the future, how to handle them and create a basis for strategic decisions. Interesting future images or future scenarios can, for example, concern changed behaviors, new business models or new services and technologies.

The importance of active participation, user involvement and policy development

In order to influence the whole of a system, actors with different perspectives and working in different sectors, industries and parts of the value chain need to be involved. The actors need to participate actively with both authority and responsibility. Not only are the creators and enablers needed, but also users need to be involved early. This is to ensure that the right solutions are developed but also to create sustainable financing models over time and management structures for the solutions. In this way, the solutions can be scaled up, spread and utilized for the greatest effect in the system.

In addition, active work is required to remove any obstacles to the implementation of solutions through policy development, for example to adapt laws and regulations. This means that it is important to involve, for example, system administrators and developers, problem owners, suppliers and users already in the formulation of the challenge.

The importance of having internationalisation as a starting point

Impact Innovation programs have a strong international perspective, in order to contribute to their missions and objectives. Solutions or contexts may exist internationally, or future new solutions may create international interest or competitiveness and the need to connect with international actors. The programs within Impact Innovation therefore work with an international perspective and active monitoring of the world around them.

The importance of sustainable system transformation

Impact Innovation will contribute to global competitiveness through transition for sustainable development. Through its efforts, the program contributes to the global commitment to achieving the goals of Agenda 2030. To achieve sustainable system transition, it is important that project in the design of new solutions manage goal conflicts and minimize the risk of unintended negative effects.

One aspect that Impact Innovation follows up and assesses is whether both women and men equally benefit from the contribution, participate in and have influence over the project, see the assessment criterion Actors in section 7.

Another aspect is to analyze and decide whether there are sex or gender aspects that are relevant to the project's problem area, solutions and utilization. This question is mandatory to answer for all applicant and is found under the heading " Project tasks". In this the call for proposals the answer to the question does not form the basis for assessment of proposal.

Gender-equal innovation – what it means for those seeking funding from us

An innovative force in a sustainable world | Vinnova

More information about Swedish Metals & Minerals

Swedish Metals & Minerals' mission is to enable a sustainable and resilient supply of metals and minerals for society's transition. Read more on the Swedish Metals & Minerals website.

For questions about the background, aim and desired effects of the initiative, contact Swedish Metals & Minerals' program office at programkontor@swedishmetalsandminerals.se. You can also contact Rasmus Östlund, 08-679 17 24, or Helena Malmqvist, 070-664 50 51.

Free access to scientific publications/ results

Results from research and innovation that are made freely available increase the opportunity for more people to contribute to solutions to societal challenges. This the call for proposals will contribute to making more results freely available to everyone. Therefore, all scientific publishing should be open access.

The effort will be implemented by a project consortium. Consortium members applying together do so as project partners, one of whom acts as a coordinating participant ( coordinator). A participant is actively involved in the project and shares risks and results. It is important that project partners and key individuals participate with active commitment.

Foreign actors are welcome to participate in project on the following term:

• A foreign actor cannot be coordinator.
• In order for foreign actors to be granted funding, they must have a Swedish business registration number and the costs of participating in the project must be processed at a Swedish branch or a Swedish establishment.

There are other ways for organizations to contribute to a strategic effort, for example by being a subcontractor or reference group member.

Digital product passports affect actors along the entire value chain. To prepare and facilitate the effective implementation of digital product passports, the project consortium should therefore include organizations that reflect the breadth of actors in the metals industry value chain. Examples of relevant actors could be:

• steel company
• mining company
• aluminum company
• foundries
• suppliers to mining and metal companies
• customers of steel, aluminum and foundry companies
• mining engineering company
• companies active in digitalisation
• trade associations
• research institute
• standardization body
• Academy

The project shall be implemented by a consortium consisting of at least 10 project partners. In order to give the project the necessary breadth to fulfil the objective of the action, the consortium should include at least two steel companies, one mining company, one aluminium company or foundry, one end-user representative (for steel, aluminium or foundry), one SME and one research institute or academic institution. Only legal entities may be project partners.

It is desirable to collaborate with relevant authorities and international organizations, for example in the field of standardization, by having them either participate as project partners or be associated with the project as members of a reference group or in some other way.

The strategic effort consists of a project containing at least three pilot studies that demonstrate with clear concepts different parts of how digital product passports can be implemented effectively and also provide insights into the technical, organizational and environmental aspects. To ensure a breadth of actors, at least one pilot study is expected to concern the steel industry, and one the aluminum industry or the foundry industry.

The project will also include a work package for coordinating the pilot studies as well as for sharing experience and disseminating relevant information to and from the project, with aim of contributing to broader interaction with ongoing activities in, for example, standardization.

Activities that can be included in the pilot studies include, for example:

• production of sustainability information for example products that provides knowledge about how to meet upcoming eligibility requirements for information.
• development of data that can contribute to ongoing or upcoming standardization work.
• comparison and mapping of which level of information (e.g. article, batch or model) can give Swedish products cost and/or business advantages.
• development of the practical management of digital product passports along the value chain or the entire product lifecycle.
• testing the traceability of a specific product.
• Coordination and coordination for experience sharing and information dissemination in aim to ensure a wider dissemination and utilization of ongoing activities both from and to the project.

What activities do we want to finance?

Within the framework of this call for proposals project activities that fall within the definition of experimental development according to the EU Commission Regulation (651/2014) on General Block Exemption (GBER) are funded, see section 5.

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:

• Personnel costs: Salaries, social security contributions and other personnel costs.
• Equipment, land and buildings: Instruments, equipment and rent for premises other than regular business premises.
• Consulting and licensing costs: Consulting services, knowledge and patents purchased or licensed from a third party. Costs for consulting services from third parties may not exceed 20 percent of a project party's budget.
• Other direct costs: For example, materials, supplies and travel necessary to carry out the project.
• Indirect costs (overhead):Costs that are not incurred as an immediate consequence of but can be related to the project, for example regular premises and cleaning. Indirect costs must be actual, so it is not a question of a flat rate.
  A project party's indirect costs may constitute a maximum of 30 percent of the project party's personnel costs. Universities, university colleges and certain research organizations and government agencies have higher maximum limits depending on the type of activities.

What eligibility requirements apply to costs we finance?

For a cost to be eligible, it must be:

• necessary for the activities in the project.
• recorded correctly and separately from the organization's other costs.

An organization may not claim someone else's costs as its own.

For more detailed information about which eligibility requirements, limitations and exceptions apply, see Instructions for eligible costs.

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

How much funding can the project receive?

Funding can be granted up to a maximum of 50 percent of the project's total eligible cost and a maximum of SEK 10 million.

How much funding can a participant receive?

How much funding each participant can receive depends mainly on

• which activities the party will carry out in the project.
• project party size and activities.

In this the call for proposals we can provide support to both organizations that engage in economic activities and organizations that do not engage in economic activities.

How do you determine whether an organization is engaged in economic activities?

An organization that offers some kind of service or product on a market is considered to be engaged in economic activities. It does not matter how the organization is financed, whether it is public or private, or whether it has a profit motive. It also does not matter what legal form the activity has, for example whether it is carried out in a limited liability company, a trading company, an economic association, a non-profit association or a foundation.

Contact call manager if you are unsure whether an organization in your project is conducting economic activities. However, the organization itself is responsible for assessing whether it is conducting economic activities.

Not state aid

In this effort, we provide support to organizations that do not engage in economic activities. This usually includes universities and university colleges, research institutes that engage in non-economic activities and other organizations that do not offer a service or product on a market. Funding to such organizations does not count as state aid and we can finance up to 100 percent of such organizations' eligible costs.

State aid

In this initiative, we grant funding in accordance with the Regulation (2015:208) on support for research and development and innovation. Organisations carrying out economic activities can receive support for experimental development according to Article 25 of the EU Commission Regulation (651/2014) on General Block Exemption (GBER).

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

For a full definition, see funding bases and levels of support

The size of the organization determines how large a proportion of the costs we can finance, i.e. the maximum level of support.

We grant funding in accordance with Article 25 of the EU Commission Regulation (651/2014) on General Block Exemption (GBER).

In order for us to take a position on and assess your proposal, it must meet certain formal eligibility requirements. If the requirements are not met, proposal will be rejected immediately.

Eligibility requirements for the composition of the project consortium

• The applicant consortium must contain at least 10 project partners. Different workplaces or workplaces within an organization, for example different departments at a university, are counted as one participant as they constitute one and the same legal entity.

Eligibility requirements on organizational form of project parties

• All project parties must be legal entities. Natural persons or individual companies cannot participate as project parties.
• The coordinating project party must be a Swedish legal entity and conduct activities in Sweden.

Eligibility requirements for the project

• The project manager must be employed by the coordinating project party.
• The project must not have begun before proposal is submitted.
• The project description contains at least three pilot studies and a coordinating work package.
• Costs for consulting services from outside parties may constitute a maximum of 20 percent of a project party's budget.

Eligibility requirements on proposal

• Proposal must be written in Swedish or English.
• Proposal must follow the instructions given in section 9.
• Proposal must contain all requested attachments.
• Proposal should not contain any attachments beyond those requested in section 9.
• The appendices must be written on the templates provided, meet formatting requirements and not exceed the maximum number of pages according to section 9.
• Statements of intent from all project parties must be attached, completed in full and signed by an authorized person. Research organizations must also submit a statement of intent.

What do we assess?

Your proposal will be assessed based on the criteria potential, actors and feasibility as follows:

Potential

1. The project's potential to meet the intervention's performance objectives and contribute to the intervention's aim.
2. The project's potential to contribute to Swedish Metals & Minerals' mission to "enable a sustainable and resilient supply of metals and minerals for societal transformation."
3. The project's novelty value and level of innovation.

Actors

1. The extent to which the organizations in the project have the resources and capacity to implement the project.
2. To what extent the project manager and other key individuals have the skills and shared ability to implement the project.
3. How well balanced the project group (key individuals) is in terms of gender distribution and to what extent women and men equally benefit from the contribution, participate in and have influence over the project.
4. How well the composition of the project consortium reflects the metal industry value chain.
5. Degree of commitment from and involvement of relevant actors that are not directly part of the metal industry value chain, such as standardization bodies.

Feasibility

1. The proposal is clear, open and designed in a way that allows actors outside the project consortium to follow the project's progress and take advantage of results.
2. To what extent does the project description show that the time and activity plan
   - contains activities that comply with the definition of experimental development (see section 5).
   - is appropriate in terms of the possibilities of achieving the intervention's results.
   - is logical and reasonable in terms of available resources (budget, skills, equipment, project time, and so on) in relation to what is to be accomplished.
3. The plan for coordination, experience sharing and information dissemination as well as the degree of relevant collaboration between participating actors.
4. How well aspects related to gender equality are integrated into the project plan.

How do we assess?

Applications that meet the formal requirements are assessed and funds are granted to the proposal that is valued highest in relation to the assessment criteria.

The applications are assessed by a group consisting of external evaluator and programme manager from the funding authorities. The external the evaluators are appointed by Vinnova and work under the same confidentiality and non-disclosure obligations as the administrators. The assessment is based on the electronic proposal submitted via Vinnova's e-service (see section 9).

Schematically, the decision-making process looks like this:

• Applications received are reviewed against the formal eligibility requirements set out in section 6.
• Applications that meet the formal requirements are evaluated in relation to the assessment criteria stated above under the heading "What do we assess?".
• The assessors' overall assessment results in a recommendation to Vinnova.
• Based on the reviewers' recommendation and taking into account the assessment of financial status (see below), Vinnova makes a decision on which proposal will be granted funding and which applications will be rejected. This decision cannot be appealed.
• Decisions will be communicated to those who have applied funding.

We also assess financial status

Before deciding on funding, we also conduct a comprehensive assessment of the organizational and financial status of those receiving funding. We use information we obtain from credit reports, currently from Dun & Bradstreet.

In order for us to grant funding the following applies:

• Organizations that budget for personnel costs must be registered as employers with the Swedish Tax Agency.
• Organizations must not be insolvent, in liquidation or in corporate restructuring, nor must they have any significant unpaid debts with the Swedish Enforcement Authority.
• Limited liability companies must not have used up half or more of their share capital.

SMEs must be able to demonstrate, upon request, that they have the financial means to carry out the project according to their budget in proposal. They cannot use public funding or their own funds intended for other project to cover the costs of participating in the current project.

When the selection process is complete and Vinnova has made a decision to either approve or reject your proposal, Vinnova will notify the coordinating project party of the decision. The Swedish Metals & Minerals Program Office will be informed of the outcome. Our decision cannot be appealed.

The approval decision states how much funding each party in the project is granted.

What happens if you are granted funding?

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

• That each participant, in connection with the start of the project, must sign a special document in which the project party approves their participation and undertakes to implement the project.
• That you should regularly report the project status, including costs and achieved results to Vinnova during the project period.
• That the members of the project consortium must agree on their mutual rights and obligations in the project in a project agreement.

funding rules

General terms and conditions multiple project parties

You also need to follow the special conditions that apply to this the call for proposals:

• The project must be represented by at least one participant at conferences and other activities organized within Swedish Metals & Minerals, approximately once or twice a year. The costs for such participation are eligible for support.
• The project shall, during the duration of the project, participate in and maintain a continuous and active dialogue with the program office for Swedish Metals & Minerals. This includes separate reporting to the program office during the project's implementation, and that a contact person at the program office shall be co-opted to the project's steering group or equivalent body.
• Instead of paragraph 7.3 of General terms and conditions the following applies:

When communicating about the project, regardless of channel, and when publishing project results, it must be stated that: the work is/was carried out within Swedish Metals & Minerals, a joint effort by the Swedish Energy Agency, Formas and Vinnova within the framework of Impact Innovation.

• When reporting the final project, the project results must be summarized according to the template available at impactinnovation.se. This summary must be uploaded as an attachment to the final report to Vinnova and at the same time sent to the program office for Swedish Metals & Minerals via e-mail programkontor@swedishmetalsandminerals.se. The summary must be freely distributed and published on the websites of the Swedish Energy Agency, Forma, Vinnova, Impact Innovation and Swedish Metals & Minerals and must not contain confidential or otherwise sensitive information.

We may also decide to add supplementary special conditions, which in that case will be stated in the decision.

Could you have to pay back funding?

If you do not follow our term, you may be required to repay the amount. This also applies if you have been granted funding incorrectly or for an amount that is too high.

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 of the coordinating project party. Please contact us if you have not received a confirmation within 24 hours of the call for proposals closing.

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

Who can read your proposal?

Your proposal can be read by employees at the Swedish Energy Agency, Formas and Vinnova and the external 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 confidential information that we believe could cause financial harm to the individual if disclosed. This could include information about business and operational conditions, inventions or research results.

How we handle public documents and confidentiality