Impact Innovation - Relationships for future research expertise

This the call for proposals is part of a strategic effort to develop the role of doctoral students in the metals and minerals industry. The goal is to have a long-term usable model for how Sweden strengthens, integrates and develops doctoral students as future key players in the metals and minerals industry's knowledge and innovation system. The model will give doctoral students a holistic understanding of the value chain and the interaction between industry and society. It will also strengthen the exchange of knowledge between doctoral students, increase understanding of the industry's challenges and needs, and broaden their insight into how different perspectives are interconnected in the transition towards a sustainable and resilient metals and minerals supply.

The strategic initiative is intended to consist of a project with an actor constellation consisting of at least 10 participants. To give the project the breadth required to achieve the purpose of the initiative, the actor constellation should include at least 4 higher education institutions that conduct postgraduate education in relevant areas, as well as industrial actors that well reflect the value chain of the metal and mineral industry. Only legal entities can be participants.

The call for proposals is carried out within the framework of the Impact Innovation program Swedish Metals & Minerals.

Funding can be granted with a maximum of 80 percent of the project's total eligible cost and a maximum of SEK 12 million.

This the call for proposals is part of a strategic effort where a project will develop the role of doctoral students in the metals and minerals industry. The goal is to have a long-term usable model for how Sweden strengthens, integrates and develops doctoral students as future key players in the metals and minerals industry's knowledge and innovation system. The model will be based on tested and evaluated tools that aim to strengthen doctoral students' relationships with each other, the industry and society.

The project will document and disseminate methods and results and investigate the possibilities for long-term management of the model. Intended recipients of the results are research funding agencies, universities, companies and organisations in the sector's ecosystem that can use the model in future project and educational initiatives.

The model needs to give doctoral students both an understanding of how the value chain is interconnected and a sense of how the industry interacts with the places and communities where it is located. The doctoral students should develop a broader understanding of how industry, environmental issues, digitalisation and social development are interconnected in the transition to a sustainable and resilient metal and mineral supply. The effort should also contribute to doctoral students gaining insight into what it means to live and work in the regions where the metal and mineral industry is located.

The project will help answer these questions:

• What types of activities and working methods have the greatest effect on skills supply?
• How can relationships and learning between graduate students, industry and society create long-term benefits within, but also outside, the direct value chain?
• What factors determine whether knowledge and expertise stay in Sweden and contribute to the continued development of the metal and mineral industry?

To fulfill the purpose, a joint testing and learning process is required that extends across several fields of knowledge, disciplines and stakeholder groups. The methods and structures that are developed are expected to live on after the end of the project. Overall, the effort creates a joint pool of power that strengthens and complements other program activities within Swedish Metals & Minerals. For more information, see the Swedish Metals & Minerals website.

What is the project expected to result in?

The project is expected to meet the following performance objectives:

• A model or method for organizing and scaling up a national sector-specific doctoral initiative. The model should strengthen doctoral students' contacts, system understanding and insight into the role of industry in the transition. Relevant parts of the model or method should have been tested and at least partially evaluated.
• Improved and documented relationships between doctoral students, industry and society, both between individuals and between organisations.
• Preliminary proposals for tools, formats and recommendations for future initiatives.
• Documented experiences, guidelines and examples of effective activity types.
• Preliminary proposals for long-term ownership, funding and management of the model after the implementation of the intervention.
• Reported effect on networks and understanding of industry and societal needs as well as hypotheses about effects on doctoral students' employability.
• An analysis of responsible internationalisation and research safety, policy and legislation, and risk-based practical management. The Swedish Research Council and Vinnova have, on behalf of the government, produced guiding national guidelines for responsible internationalisation.

The ambition of the effort is long-term. This the call for proposals applies funding to a project with an implementation period of up to four years. After the end of the project, additional funding may be relevant in aim to build on the project's results and, among other things, achieve the delivery of a fully developed and evaluated model. The actor constellation that is granted funding through this the call for proposals may be offered new funding, depending on how well it delivers against the performance targets in this call for proposals.

Equalized funding by innovations

The effort should integrate gender equality both in the composition of the project organization and in the implementation of the project. This means that you need

• 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 innovative capacity and the project's results.

Gender equality as a tool for innovative social development

How the call for proposals contributes to Swedish Metals & Minerals objective

Access to skills is crucial for a continued competitive Swedish metals and minerals industry. Impact Innovation program Swedish Metals & Minerals is implementing, and will continue to implement, initiatives aimed at addressing identified challenges in the skills supply area.

Swedish Metals & Minerals has identified a need to complement the program's efforts with a long-term usable model for how Sweden strengthens, integrates and develops doctoral students as future key players in the metals and minerals industry's knowledge and innovation system. This is a system-wide issue that extends beyond individual needs and individual research and innovation projects.

The skills needs span the entire value chain – from exploration to recycling – and require collaboration between multiple fields of knowledge and stakeholder groups. Today's research education and industry collaboration often take place in separate initiatives, which means that systematically collected experiences about which forms of collaboration actually have an effect are missing. To achieve the program's mission "to enable a sustainable and resilient metal and mineral supply for society's transition" an in-depth understanding of how the cutting-edge expertise of the future is shaped in the meeting between academia, industry and society is needed.

The metals and minerals industry is looking for new ways to

• strengthen the connection between research and industrial needs for increased societal benefit.
• deepen understanding of industry's role in the climate transition.
• provide doctoral students with opportunities to collaborate and communicate across disciplines and sector boundaries.

Many doctoral students spend a large part of their time in confined academic environments. They therefore have limited direct contact with doctoral students in other research environments and with industry, with its challenges and conditions.

There is therefore a clear need for an effort that develops a model with methods and structures to strengthen relationships, for example between:

• doctoral student – doctoral student; to build knowledge sharing, collegial learning environments and attractive research environments.
• doctoral student – industry; to increase understanding of industry's challenges, enable future recruitment and strengthen industry's access to the research front.
• doctoral student – society; to develop decision-making skills and understanding among existing and future actors within authorities, academia and the innovation system.

The effort contributes to the program's mission by strengthening skills supply, attractiveness and knowledge flows, which are crucial conditions for the Swedish metal and mineral industry to continue to be a strong enabler of societal transformation.

Impact Innovation – Sweden's major innovation initiative

This call for proposals is carried out within the framework of the Swedish Metals & Minerals program, part of Impact Innovation – an initiative of the Swedish Energy Agency, Formas and Vinnova.

Impact Innovation is Sweden's major innovation initiative to tackle the challenges of our time and the future. In collaborations between actors in private, public and non-profit organisations, 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.

Impact Innovation will contribute to sustainable transformation for global competitiveness and societal benefit in line with the UN's global sustainability goals, defined in Agenda 2030.

About Impact Innovation

The intervention shall be implemented by a constellation of actors consisting of at least 10 participants, of which one is coordinating participant (coordinator). All participants participate actively in the implementation of the project and share risks and results.

Relationships for future research competence affect actors along the entire value chain. Examples of relevant actors could be:

• academy
• research institute
• mining company
• mining technology company
• steel company
• aluminum company
• foundries
• customers for steel, aluminum and foundry companies
• public actors within the innovation system
• regional development actors, including organisations working on location attractiveness and establishment issues

To give the project the breadth required to achieve the purpose of the initiative, the actor constellation should include at least 4 universities, which participants. The universities should conduct postgraduate education in relevant areas. Industrial actors should also be included, which well reflects the value chain of the metal and mineral industry. The expectation is that relevant participantsfind each other and create a broad actor constellation in a actors, instead of smaller constellations competing with each other in several project proposals.

Organisations can contribute to the effort in ways other than by being participant, for example as a subcontractor or as a member of a reference group or equivalent. Participation in ways other than formal participant can be valuable but does not count towards the requirement of at least 10 participants.

We fund activities that help build, test and establish a model for strengthening relationships between doctoral students, industry and society over time. The activities will contribute to an increased understanding of the effects that different forms of collaboration have on these relationships.

The activities should be designed so that the doctoral students develop a broader understanding of how industry, environmental issues, digitalisation and societal development are interconnected in the transition. Activities may include, but are not limited to,

• design and test concrete tools that aim to strengthen relationships between doctoral students, industry and society over time.
• analyze the tools' results and draw conclusions about the degree to which they strengthen the relationships between doctoral students, industry and society and are relevant to include in the model.
• conduct evaluations of effects in relation to the aim of strengthening, integrating and developing doctoral students as future key players in the metals and minerals industry's knowledge and innovation system. Examples of effects to investigate could be the extent to which the tools affect the doctoral students' employability, networks and understanding of the needs of the industry and society.
• compile and document experiences and examples of effective activity types.
• design a method description containing, for example, guidelines, tools, formats and recommendations.
• spread information about results and method.
• develop and anchor a plan for long-term management of the model.

The project will be based on the established state of knowledge about how initiatives to strengthen doctoral students and research environments are best designed. This means that the project will

• is based on research and documented experiences regarding doctoral education, mobility between academia, industry and society, and skills supply in technology-intensive industries.
• draw on lessons learned from previous national and international initiatives with a similar focus.
• clearly identify which methods, formats and collaboration models have already shown good effect and further develop them where they exist potential.

Follow-up research can be advantageously linked to the project to ensure learning and method development.

What costs can Vinnova finance?

Vinnova's funding is covered by rules about state aid. The rules govern what types of costs can be financed. 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 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 used under license from an external party. 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, Vinnova may accept a higher proportion. You must then justify this in your proposal, and the justification will be taken into account in the 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 not exceed 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 Vinnova can finance, see Instructions for eligible costs

Which eligibility requirements applies to costs financed by Vinnova?

In order for your costs to be eligible for support, the following applies, among other things:

• 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.
• A organisation may not claim another organization's costs as its own.

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

The rules on state aid govern how large a proportion of the costs Vinnova can finance. This is determined individually for each organisation. Vinnova therefore differentiates between how large a funding project can receive, and how much each participant organisation can receive.

How big funding can the project get?

Funding can be granted with a maximum of 80 percent of the project's total eligible cost and a maximum of SEK 12 million.

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
• which activities the organisation will carry out in the project.

Descriptions in the following sections about which support can be given are simplified. For complete information, see Support grounds and levels for funding.

Support to universities, university colleges and other public organisations

In this the call for proposals Vinnova gives support to organisations that do not engage in economic activities. This means that the organisation do not offer a service or product on a market. This usually includes universities and university colleges, research institutes and other public organisations.

This support is not covered by the state aid rules. Vinnova can therefore finance up to 100 percent of such an organization's costs. The support is often called "not state aid."

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

A organisation that offers any form of service or product in a market is considered to be engaged in 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.

Whether a organisation engages in economic activities is determined by their regular activities, not by the activities in the project.

Some organisations conduct both economic and non-economic activitiesactivities, such as research institutes. In that case, it is important that you know in which of these activities you are applying.

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

Support of minor importance to companies

In this the call for proposals Vinnova can provide de minimis-support, also called support of minor importance. Vinnova can finance 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 Vinnova to be able to grant this support.

Certificate of de minimis-support

In order for Vinnova to assess your proposal it must meet certain formal eligibility requirementsrequirements. If the requirements are not met, it will be rejected.

Eligibility requirements on participants

• All participants organisations must be legal entities. Individuals or sole proprietorships cannot participate.
• The coordinating party must be a Swedish legal entity and conduct activities in Sweden
• At least 10 participants must participate in the project. This includes the coordinating party. Different parts of a organisation are the same legal entity and are counted as one participant, for example two departments at a university.
• Foreign legal entities can also participate. However, foreign actors that receive funding from Vinnova must have a branch or establishment in Sweden, and the costs must be incurred by the branch or establishment.

Eligibility requirements on the project

• The project may apply for a maximum of 12 million SEK.
• The project must start on November 11, 2026 and be completed by October 31, 2030.
• The project must not have started before you submit your proposal.

Eligibility requirements on proposal

• Proposal should be written in Swedish or English.
• Proposal should follow the instructions under the heading "How to apply".
• Proposal should contain all requested mandatory attachments.

Applications that meet the requirements will be forwarded to assessment. They will assess how big potential your idea is, how realistic it is and who will implement the project.

Vinnova also looks at how well your project integrates gender equality, both in how your project group is composed and how you implement the project. By integrating sex and gender 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

What does Vinnova assess?

The assessment of applications is made according to three main criteria:

• Potential: What effects and what value can be expected from the project.
• Feasibility: How realistic and credible the project plan is, both for implementing the project and for achieving the desired results.
• Actors: The participants' competence and ability to implement the project and achieve the desired results and effects.

Potential

• How much potential the project proposal has to achieve the outcome of the intervention and contribute to the purpose of the call for proposals, according to section 2.
• How likely it is that the project proposal will lead to new knowledge and new skills that can be used to scale up or implement a national sector-specific doctoral initiative.
• How well the project proposal is based on the established state of knowledge about how relevant initiatives are designed.
• How well the project ensures learning and method development, according to section 4.
• How well the project proposal contributes to increased gender equality by integrating perspectives on sex and gender.

Feasibility

• How well the project plan and budget are judged to be in line with the project proposal's objective.
• How good the conditions are for the project's results to be taken forward and used after the end of the project.
• How well the project plan shows how the results will be anchored and disseminated to important actors within the area.
• How well proposal identifies risks in the implementation and describes an appropriate plan for managing these risks.
• How well gender perspectives have been integrated into the project plan.
• How well the need for consulting services and licenses is justified for any participants whose budget contains more than 20 percent consulting and license costs.

Actors

• How well the composition of the actor constellation reflects the breadth that the call for proposals demands, according to section 3.
• How good the conditions are for the constellation of actors to implement the project and ensure the use and utilization of the project's results.
• How well the project manager and other key people are assessed to be able to lead and implement the project.
• To what extent do women and men equally benefit from the contribution, participate in, and have power and influence over the project.

How are applications assessed?

Once Vinnova has received the applications, they will be reviewed. Applications that are incomplete or do not meet the requirements will be rejected.

The applications that are correct and complete are distributed among various external evaluator and assessed in competition with each other. The evaluators are appointed based on their expertise in the field.

The external assessors' overall assessment results in a recommendation to Vinnova regarding which applications should be granted.

How does it affect an organization's financial status?

Innan Vinnova decides whether funding a comprehensive assessment of the organizational and financial status of those who are relevant for fundingis also made.

Vinnova uses information from credit reports, currently from Dun & Bradstreet.

The assessment checks this:

• Organisations who are granted funding for salary costs must be registered as employers with the Swedish Tax Agency. If such registration does not exist when Vinnova makes a decision, you must be able to show that a notification has been made. Vinnova does not approve retroactive registration.
• Organisations must not be insolvent, or undergoing liquidation or corporate restructuring. They must also not have any significant unpaid debts with the Swedish Enforcement Authority.
• The project manager should be employed by a participant, preferably the coordinating party.
• Limited liability companies must not have used up half or more of their share capital.

Vinnova may also ask small and medium-sized companies to demonstrate that they have the financial capacity to carry out the project.

Based on the assessors' recommendation and Vinnova's assessment financial status, Vinnova makes a decision on which applications are granted funding and which are rejected. This decision cannot be appealed.

Vinnova notifies the coordinating project party of the decision. If proposal is granted, the decision states how large a proportion of the costs Vinnova will cover for each organisation.

Since applications are assessed competitively, you may be rejected even if you meet all eligibility requirements and criteria.

What happens if you are granted funding?

If your proposal is granted, you must follow both Vinnova's general terms and conditions for funding and the special conditions that apply to Impact Innovations calls for proposals.

Vinnova's general terms and conditions

The general terms and conditions include the following:

• 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 achievements 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. All parties must sign the agreement before you submit your first progress report. Since it can take time to develop and negotiate an agreement, Vinnova recommends that you start with this as soon as possible.
• How the results will be used and that scientific publication will be open access so that the results are made freely available to everyone.

See our general terms and conditions

Impact Innovations special conditions

Since the call for proposals is included in the Impact Innovation investment, these special conditionsalso apply:

• At least one participant will represent the project at Swedish Metals & Minerals conferences and activities, approximately once or twice a year. Your costs for such participation are eligible for support.
• You will have a continuous dialogue with Swedish Metals & Minerals' program office throughout the project. This includes separate reporting to the program office during the project's implementation, and the project being assigned a contact person at the program office who will assist the project and monitor it on behalf of the program.
• When information or results from the project is shared, it should be stated that the work was carried out within the Impact Innovation program Swedish Metals & Minerals, an initiative of the Swedish Energy Agency, Formas and Vinnova.
• When you submit your final report to Vinnova, you must also send a summary of the project results to the Swedish Metals & Minerals program office. See template on Impact Innovations website. The summary should be freely distributable and must not contain confidential or sensitive information.

Vinnova 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 Vinnova's term, you may be required to repay.

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

When the call for proposals is closed, you cannot change anything in proposal. Then you can only supplement if Vinnova asks for it.

Who can read you 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 Vinnova become public documents. This means that Vinnova must disclose them if requested. Men Vinnova classifies certain types of information as confidential if it can be assumed that disclosure would cause financial damage to the individual. This applies to information about business and operational conditions, inventions or research results.

Documents you send to Swedish Metals & Minerals are not covered by Vinnova's confidentiality regulations. Therefore, they should not contain confidential or sensitive information.

General documents and confidentiality