Innovative Startups 2026

The call for proposals is aimed at young, knowledge-intensive limited companies with innovative business ideas. Companies should build on the founders' unique knowledge and experience, as well as have the ambition and prerequisites to grow and develop.

The business idea should be based on a unique strength, such as knowledge, technology, data, intangible assets, business model, method or creative ability, that is difficult for others to develop or copy.

The company is expected to be in an early stage, where the business model is still being tested and developed.

The innovation should have potential to contribute to a sustainable social development and that creates benefits both in Sweden and internationally.

You can apply up to SEK 500,000 for an innovation project that strengthens the company's competitiveness. The maximum duration of the project is nine months and will start in March 2027.

The purpose of the call for proposals is to create better conditions for young knowledge-intensive companies to take the next step in their business development, especially when they face uncertainties or risks that need to be managed to reach the market.

Vinnova's support will contribute to companies getting closer to customer collaborations, customer revenue, investments and necessary partnerships. 

Compared funding of innovations

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

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

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

Gender equality as a tool for innovative societal development

The call for proposals is aimed at small Swedish limited companies that are no more than 10 years old.

The company must have no more than 10 employees and a turnover or balance sheet total of no more than SEK 10 million.

The company must not have distributed profits during the last financial year and must not be listed on the stock exchange.

What degree of maturity are we looking for?

Innovative solution

The project should have passed the idea stage. The basic research and development should already be done, and the focus should be on developing, testing and validating the solution.

You also need to be able to explain why the solution is difficult for others to copy and how to compete in the market. This may include, for example, unique knowledge, research results, data, technology, methodology, patents, copyright, design, strong domain knowledge or other intangible assets.

Business model and competitiveness

You should be able to describe which customers or users the solution is aimed at, what needs they have and why they would be prepared to use or pay for the solution.

It is also important to show how the solution can stand up to competition, even internationally, and how you intend to protect or take care of the intangible assets on which the company is based.

Financing strategy

You should be able to describe which funding paths may be relevant after the project. This may include investments, customer revenue, loans, public support, r&d funding, industrial partnerships or other financing opportunities.

What costs can we finance?

Our funding is subject to state aid rules. The rules govern the types of costs that we can finance. These are called eligible costs.

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

• Remuneration costs: Gross wages paid, employer's social security contributions and other non-wage labour costs.
• Equipment, land and buildings: Costs of instruments, equipment and rent for premises other than regular business premises.
Consultancy and licensing costs: Costs of consultancy services, knowledge or patents purchased or used under licence from an external operator. You should justify all consulting and licensing costs in proposal. The justifications are taken into account in the assessment of your proposal.
• Other direct costs: Costs such as materials, supplies and travel necessary to carry out the project.
• Indirect costs (overhead): Costs linked to the project but not directly incurred, such as premises and cleaning. Indirect costs may not exceed 30% of wage costs. 
  For more detailed information on which costs we can finance, see Instructions to eligible costs

What eligibility requirements applies to costs we finance?

For your costs to be eligible, this applies:

• They must be actual, reasonable and necessary for the activities of the project.
• They must be correctly recorded and on a separate project code in the accounts.
• You may not include anyone else's costs as your own.

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

The rules about state aid determine how much of the costs we can finance. Descriptions in future sections about which support we can give are simplified. For full details, see Grounds and support rates for funding

Vinnova can grant a maximum of SEK 500,000 in funding to project in this call for proposals. We can finance up to 100 per cent of the company's project costs based on two alternative grounds.

1. Companies that are under 5 years of age and fulfil the formal eligibility requirements of the call (see section 6) can be granted funding in accordance with Article 22 of the European Commission's General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER).
2. Companies that are between 5 and 10 years old, and fulfil the formal eligibility requirements of the call (see section 6), can be granted support in accordance with the support de minimis Regulation (EU 2023/2831). This type of support is also called de minimis-support. A organisation can receive a maximum of 300,000 euros over a three-year period on this basis, regardless of the financier and project. This means that if the same organisation received support of minor importance in other project from other financiers earlier, it affects how much support can be received in this the call for proposals. Certificates of de minimis-support will be requested by Vinnova from the companies that will be considered for funding based on this basis for support.

For us to judge your proposal, it must meet some formal eligibility requirements. If the requirements are not met, we reject proposal directly.

Companies that are part of a group may apply, but then the entire group must meet the requirements regarding listing and size, see eligibility requirements 3 and 4 below.

Eligibility requirements of the company and proposal

1. Applicant company must be a Swedish limited liability company and operate activities in Sweden.
2. Applicant company must not have distributed profits in the last financial year.
3. Applicant company, or the entire group if applicant company is part of one, may not be listed.
4. Applicant company, or the entire group if applicant company is part of one, may have a combined net turnover or balance sheet total of not more than SEK 10 million in the last financial year. One of these may exceed SEK 10 million, but not both.
5. Applicant companies may have a maximum of 10 employees, calculated as full-time equivalents.
6. Applicant companies may not have been granted funding in the call for proposals Innovativa Startups 2025.
7. Applicant companies may not be more than 10 years old by Vinnova's decision date 2027-03-23. The age is calculated from the date when the company was registered with the Swedish Companies Registration Office.
8. Applicant company must not have taken over another business, purchased another company or formed through a merger.
9. Proposal must be written in Swedish or English.
10. Applicant company may submit a maximum of one proposal per call.

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

What do we assess?

Potential

• In what way the solution is more innovative and better contributes to solving a problem or challenge in society than existing solutions in the field.  
• In what way the business idea and solution can create growth in Sweden.
• In what way the business idea and solution have potential in an international market.
• In what way the company's unique and worthy knowledge assets give the company a competitive advantage.

Implementability

• That the budget, plan and approach for the project are relevant and realistic to reach the project's objective.
• That the company has a credible plan for commercialization and funding after the end of the project.
• That the need for funding from Vinnova is well justified in relation to the company's current financial situation.
• How well the need for consulting services and licenses is motivated.

Team

• That the company has the necessary knowledge, competence, experience and entrepreneurial ability to implement the project.
• That the founders have control over the limited liability company and are themselves driving forces in the development of the limited liability company.
• That the project team is composed according to the needs of the project and has a strategy for equal distribution of power and influence between women and men.

How does the assessment go to

All applications that are complete and meet the formal requirements are assessed by three specially appointed expert evaluators.

After the experts assessment, the applications are divided into three groups:

1. Refusal: Applications that are deemed to meet the assessment criteria to a low degree are directly rejected.

Randomisation:

1. The applications that are deemed to meet the call's assessment criteria to a high and equal degree are placed in this group. Which of these applications are awarded to funding within the framework of the call's budget is decided via randomisation.

Why is partial randomisation used as a selection method?

Innovative Startups receive a very large number of applications from different areas and sectors. Many applications meet the call's assessment criteria to a large extent. We receive more high-quality applications than we have the budget to finance.

Despite a well-established expert assessment, it is often difficult to distinguish between equivalent applications when the budget is not enough.

From 2026, Innovative Startups therefore introduces a method that combines expert assessment with drawing lots to give equivalent applications exactly the same chance of getting funding within the call's budget.

The method of partial randomisation is already used nationally by both the Swedish Research Council and Formas, as well as internationally in the British Academy's call for proposals Small Research Grants. Examples can also be found in Ireland, Denmark, Switzerland and Norway.

How does the financial status of an organisation affect?

Before deciding on funding, we also make an overall 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 can also ask small and medium-sized enterprises to show that they have financial coverage to carry out the project. In our assessment, we check the following:

• Organisations granted to funding for wage costs must be registered as an employer with the Swedish Tax Agency. If such registration does not exist when we make a decision, you should be able to show that a notification of registration has been made.
• Organisations should not be insolvent, or undergo liquidation or company reorganisation. Nor shall they have unpaid debts of significance to the Swedish Enforcement Authority.
• The project leader shall be employed by the coordinating party in the project.
• Shareholders shall not have consumed half or more of their share capital.

When we have assessed all applications, we will send you a decision in which we either approve or reject your proposal. Since the applications are assessed in competition, you may be rejected even though you meet all eligibility requirements and criteria.

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 and conditions include:

• That you sign a special document in which you agree to your participation and undertake to carry out the project.
• That you report to us on the progress, costs and achievements of results during the project period.
• How to use the results.

See our general terms and conditions

We may also decide to add additional special conditions for individual project. If so, they are set out in the decision.

Please note that Vinnova only pays funding to bankgiro or plusgiro.

Can you have to repay funding?

If you have received more money than you are entitled to or if you do not follow our term, Vinnovas general terms and conditions for funding, you may be liable to repay.

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

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

Who can read you proposal?

Your proposal will be read by employees at Vinnova and the 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 have to disclose them if they are requested. However, we treat certain types of information as confidential if it is likely to cause economic damage to the individual if they are disclosed. It concerns information on business and operational conditions, inventions or research results.

General documents and confidentiality