Avancerad Digitalisering: Systemförändrande insatser, samverkansprojekt, etapp 1, 2025

Accelerate the industry's digital transformation

The call for proposals offers funding for collaborative projects within one of the following areas of focus:

• System changes for industrial electrification.
• Scalability and standardization for industrial data flows.
• Acceleration of applied industrial AI.
• World-leading applications of digital infrastructure within Swedish areas of strength.
• Test center for advanced applications on digital infrastructure.

Section 12 describes the conditions that apply to each individual area of focus.

The offer is implemented within the framework of the Avancerad Digitalisering research and innovation program, an industry-driven programme to accelerate and strengthen Sweden's and Swedish industry's ability to create and utilize advanced digital solutions of the future. In the long term, efforts implemented within the program will also strengthen the competitiveness of Swedish industry, and contribute to the image of Sweden as an attractive country for research- and innovation in advanced digitalisation.

Project funded under the program must be based on industry needs. Implementation can be done by other actors, but we prioritize project where industry participates as a needs owner and participant.

Read more about the program on the Advanced Digitization website

What do we mean by industry in this call for proposals?

Industry refers to the entire production chain – from the extraction of raw materials to finished products, as well as industry-related service and technology sectors that are needed for a production chain to function. This includes, for example, energy, logistics and transport, telecommunications, water/air/ventilation and recycling. The defense industry is also covered.

What do we mean by system-changing interventions?

By “system-changing initiatives” in this the call for proposals we mean strategic project with a broad range of actors that can contribute to changing structures in industry and society with support of advanced digital technology. This can involve developing and changing parts of the industry’s infrastructure, regulations and behaviors or reshaping value chains, forms of collaboration and business models.

The projects will enable and accelerate the digital transformation of Sweden and Swedish industry. They will contribute to a broader, more successful and lasting change than would otherwise have been the case. In this way, they will also help Swedish industry maintain or develop an internationally leading position in the area.

Broad collaboration with industry needs in focus

Meeting complex societal and industry-related challenges requires broad collaboration. Innovations developed within this call for proposals should be based on the needs of industry and business. The active participation of industry is crucial for innovations to be relevant, scalable and possible to use in practice. Industry is therefore expected to be an active party throughout the entire process – from needs analysis to testing and implementation.

The project is expected to:

• With the industry's needs in focus, develop solutions within the addressed focus area.
• Through broad collaboration, develop solutions that are relevant, scalable and possible to implement in practice.
• Demonstrate and test solutions in real or real-world environments together with stakeholders, using an iterative approach that promotes learning.

The project needs to have a systems perspective

Working from a systems perspective means seeing innovation as part of a larger context – an ecosystem of actors, structures, rules and behaviours. It is about understanding what changes are required in the surrounding systems for the solution to create value. System change, as we describe it in this call for proposals, requires more than technical innovation – it requires understanding how different parts of a system interact and influence each other. By working with the entire ecosystem, barriers can be removed and solutions can have a real impact.

The project is expected to:

• Involve a sufficiently broad range of actors, with a large impact on the system, who demonstrate commitment and willingness to invest in change.
• Identify systemic factors early, and work actively with obstacles and drivers, such as policy changes, new business models or digital resilience and cybersecurity.
• Ensure that the project's activities form a coherent whole that represents the system to be changed.

The project's national scope and international potential

To contribute to long-term impact and strengthen Sweden's competitiveness, innovations need to be able to be scaled up and spread – both domestically and internationally. This requires a global perspective right from the start. Therefore, it is important that project we fund within this call for proposals have an international perspective right from the start, combined with active monitoring of the world around us and understanding of global trends and needs. National reach and international potential here can be about the solution being relevant to several countries, that it can be exported, or that it arouses interest among international actors.

The project is expected to:

• Design solutions that can branch out, scale up, and attract future funding.
• Strengthen Sweden in an international perspective, therefore have a strategy and plan for how the solutions will be scaled up both nationally and internationally.
• Show that the project has developed commitment and recipient capacity among need owners to be able to implement the solutions within a few years.

Project funding for learning and value creation

Learning, in addition to spreading knowledge, is about systematically strengthening abilities in various areas, such as technology, processes and collaboration, which leads to the building of values over time.

The strength of programme like Advanced digitalisation lies in the interaction between parties that meet across organizational, industry and sector boundaries. This often presents challenges, as the parties have different prerequisites in terms of knowledge, cultures and driving forces. For the interactions to lead to long-term value, the parties involved must identify efficient and effective ways to work with learning and moving systems in a structured and follow-up manner. This includes identifying areas where capabilities need to be strengthened in order for the collaboration to develop.

The project is expected to:

• Continuously during the project's implementation, work on learning and value-building that contributes to system change.
• Actively and structuredly identify and bridge gaps in knowledge and skills to achieve the project's objective. This includes seeking contact with other initiatives working on similar challenges, to share experiences and lessons learned.

Project funding for a sustainable system transformation

Vinnova and the Advanced digitalisation program work for sustainable growth and system transformation. Therefore, your project is also expected to contribute to increased gender equality and climate change. We are based on the UN's global sustainability goals, defined in the 2030 Agenda. There, we focus on two perspectives: gender equality and climate change.

This means that gender equality and climate change should be integrated into both how your project group is composed and in the intended outcome of your project.

Equal funding of innovations

An innovative force in a sustainable world

Make available any scientific publications and results

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

This the call for proposals is aimed at actors who want to collaborate broadly and long-term within one of the call's five focus areas (see section 12 below). In order to apply for funding, you must have previously completed a feasibility study project within this the call for proposals.

The project should be based on industry needs (see definition above, section 2). Companies, in their role as needs owners, should therefore have a central and active role in the implementation of the project. This is important to ensure that the project is relevant to industry and that the results can be used in practice.

A collaborative project needs to bring together the actors who have the right skills, roles and mandates to be able to implement the project and create real change. It requires a breadth of actors, but it is not about getting as many as possible involved. It is about building a functioning constellation of actors that can drive the project and engage the system actors that are affected, over time and in several different ways.

There is a clear expectation that more actors than the formal project partners will be involved in the development work during the project period. The challenges that the project addresses should be relevant to more than just those participating in the project. Project that only benefit individual actors or lack spillover effects do not fulfill the purpose of the offer. Therefore, the project should seek different ways to engage a wider circle of project partners and stakeholders, for example via reference groups, focus groups, open workshops or other inclusive forms of collaboration.

Examples of actors in a collaborative project are:

• Larger industrial companies.
• Small and medium-sized enterprises.
• Research organizations such as universities, university college and research institutes.
• Public organizations such as regions, municipalities and authorities.
• Civil society and non-profit organizations.

Foreign actors may be relevant and necessary to include as project partners in the collaboration project. They are welcome to participate. However, a foreign actor that does not have a branch or establishment in Sweden cannot receive funding from Vinnova in this call for proposals. A foreign actor cannot also have the role of coordinator in a collaboration project.

The financing is carried out in three stages

The offer funding offer is implemented in three stages, with three separate calls for proposals. With a step-by-step process, we want to create the conditions for the projects to develop their consortium, project content and approach over time.

The three stages of the offer consist of:

1. Pre-study project (project period up to 6 months)
2. Collaboration project, stage 1 (project period up to 36 months)
3. Collaboration project, stage 2 (project period up to 36 months)

This call text describes the conditions for Vinnova's funding of thecollaborative project, stage 1.

Project activities for which funding can be applied for

The project we fund will, in broad collaboration and with the needs of industry in focus, develop solutions within the chosen focus area. The solutions must be relevant, scalable and possible to use in practice.

Examples of activities that we finance:

• Develop new or improved existing products, services and processes.
• Develop and implement testbeds, system demonstrators or similar that create conditions for demonstrating and testing solutions in real or realistic environments.
• Plan and conduct demonstrations, tests and verification in real or realistic environments.
• Identify needs for adaptation in physical and digital infrastructure.
• Analyze systems, system challenges and needs
• Investigate and develop conditions for implementation, such as business models, pricing and procurement.
• Investigate and influence structural barriers and opportunities, such as regulations, behaviors and infrastructure.
• Investigate sustainability aspects, primarily environmental and climate, but also social and economic perspectives.
• Mobilize actors and create conditions for collaboration.
• Disseminate knowledge and results to other actors, outside the circle of formal project parties involved in the project.

For Innovation Clusters, we can also finance activities, such as:

• Promote the project and its results to increase visibility.
• Plan and implement impactful learning activities, such as rotation programs and communities of practice.

Examples of activities that we do not fund:

• Research and development with weak connection to industry needs.
• Project and project activities where the benefit accrues to a single actor.
• Routine changes or recurring improvements to existing products or services.
• Activities to write proposal for funding for a continued phase of the collaborative project (phase 2).

Our funding is subject to state aid rules. 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?

The call's total preliminary budget for all focus areas in stage 1 is 510 million SEK.

Vinnova finances a collaborative project with a maximum of 50 percentof the project's total eligible costs during stage 1. In the following stage 2, the maximum support level is 40 percent.

Please note that the maximum support level for the project is not the same as the maximum support level allowed per participant.

The call for proposals provides the opportunity for successive funding

Since research and innovation projects involve uncertainty and often need to change over time, we want to create the conditions for a more agile working method and funding. To enable adaptations and meet any need to add new partners or activities during the initial project period, we will apply successive funding in this call for proposals.

At the time of application, the project can choose to apply for funding for its entire planned project ambition, or for part of it – however ,at least 75 percent. The project that seeks part of the funding will have the opportunity to apply for the remaining funds in 2027. The purpose is to give the project time to mobilize more actors during the initial project period.

The total contribution to the project cannot exceed the maximum allocated amount per project (see Table 2 above).

How much funding can a participant receive?

How much funding each participant can receive depends mainly on:

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

The following sections provide a summary of the support we can provide. For full details, please read funding Criteria and Levels.

Support for companies conducting research and development (Article 25)

In this the call for proposals we provide support for research and development based on the following support criteria:

• Industrial research,which can be briefly described as seeking new knowledge through planned research or critical analysis to develop or significantly improve products, processes or services.
• Experimental development,which can be briefly described as combining, shaping and using existing knowledge to develop new or improved products, processes or services.

Investment aid or operating aid to innovation clusters (Article 27)

We also provide support to innovation clusters in this call for proposals:

• Innovation clusters can be briefly described as structures or organized groups where several actors come together to stimulate innovative activities in various ways. This can include promoting the shared use of equipment, knowledge exchange, networking and information dissemination.

How much of the costs can we finance?

The table below (see Table 3) describes the proportion of the project partner's eligible costs that we can finance, i.e. the maximum level of support.

If project seeking funding under the industrial research or experimental development support category meet certain criteria that are bonus-based, we can finance a higher proportion of the costs.

Support for non-economic activities

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

We can finance up to 100 percent of such an organization's costs.

How is it determined whether an organization is engaged in economic activities?

An organization that offers any kind of service or product on a market is considered to be engaged in economic activities and cannot be granted this form of support. 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 business has, for example whether it is a limited liability company, a trading company, an economic association, a non-profit association or a foundation.

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

What costs can we finance?

The state aid rules also govern what types of costs we can finance. These are called eligible costs.

Below is a brief description of the types of costs we can finance with the support bases industrial research, experimental development and innovation clusters. For more detailed information about the costs we can finance, read Instructions for eligible costs.

Eligible costs for industrial research and experimental development

• Personnel costs: Salary costs, including employer contributions and other salary-related 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 an external party. Costs for consulting services may not exceed 20 percent of a project party's budget. We can accept a higher percentage than 20 percent in case of special needs. You must then justify the need for consulting services in proposal. This justification is taken into account in our assessment.
• Other direct costs: For example, materials, supplies and travel necessary to carry out the project.
• Indirect costs (overhead):Costs that are not incurred as a direct result of but can be related to the project, for example regular premises and cleaning. Indirect costs may constitute a maximum of 30 percent of personnel costs. Universities, university colleges and certain research organizations and government agencies have higher maximum limits depending on the type of activities.

Eligible costs for innovation clusters

We can only finance the following types of costs for innovation clusters:

• Investment support: Costs for investments in intangible and tangible assets
• Operating support: Personnel and administrative costs including general overheads

We can only finance operating support costs for these types of activities:

• Activation of the cluster to facilitate collaboration, information exchange and the provision or channelling of specialised and customised support services for businesses.
• Marketing the cluster to increase the participation of new companies or organizations and to increase visibility.
• Management of the cluster's equipment, organization of training programs, seminars and conferences to stimulate knowledge exchange, networking and cross-border cooperation.

To be granted support for an Innovation Cluster, it is required, among other things, that the cluster's premises and operations are open to multiple users and the fees need to correspond to market prices.

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 also not claim someone else's costs as its own.

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

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 for project parties

• All project partners must be Swedish legal entities. Natural persons or individual companies cannot participate.
  In this respect, a foreign organization that has a branch or establishment in Sweden is also considered a Swedish legal entity. The costs in the project must be attributable to the branch's or establishment's activities.
• The coordinating project party must be a Swedish legal entity and conduct activities in Sweden.
• At least one participant must be a Swedish company that has a concrete need in line with the focus of the project proposal and that drives development based on its own challenges, that is, participates in the role of need owner.

Eligibility requirements for the project

• The project will build on a feasibility study project carried out within the offer Avancerad Digitalisering: system-changing initiatives.

• The project manager must be employed by the coordinating party in the project.
• The project must start no later than 2026-06-01.
• The project may not begin before proposal is submitted.

Eligibility requirements on proposal

• Proposal must be written in Swedish or English.
  Please notethat a proposal written in Swedish may be translated into English if the assessment requires international reviewers. applicant will not be given the opportunity to contribute to or review the translation. It is the automatically generated English translation that will form the basis for assessment and decision of proposal.
• Proposal must follow the instructions given regarding the application format, content and requested attachments in section 9.

• Proposal must contain all requested attachments.

What do we assess?

Applications that meet our eligibility requirements will proceed to assessment. The project proposal described in proposal must be in line with the offer's aim and address one of the offer's prioritized areas of intervention.

When assessing applications, we look at three main criteria:

• Potential: We analyze what effects and what value we can expect from the project. The potential is analyzed in relation to the needs and challenges described in the focus area the project proposal addresses.
• Actors: We assess the participants' competence and ability to implement the project and achieve the desired results and effects.
• Feasibility: We assess how realistic and credible the project plan is, both for implementing the project and for achieving desired results.

Eftersom Vinnova is tasked with contributing to increased gender equality and climate change, and we always follow up and assess these perspectives.

Potential (weight 40%)

• The project's potential to contribute to the Advanced Digitalisation objective and aim of the programme as well as to the needs and challenges described within the focus area addressed in proposal.
• The project's potential impact and impact on Swedish business and industry, in relation to the needs and challenges described within the focus area being addressed.
• The project's potential to contribute to the industry's needs and benefits in relation to existing knowledge, solutions and ongoing major initiatives within the focus area being addressed, both nationally and internationally.
• The project's potential to mobilize relevant actors, in addition to the project parties that participate in the project from the start, in relation to the needs and challenges described within the focus area being addressed.
• The project's potential to contribute to the results described in the project proposal being used in the short and long term, both during the project period and after the end of the project.
• How well perspectives on sex, gender and climate change have been integrated into the project proposal, and what significance these have for the project's results.

Actors (weight 30%)

• The project partners' competence, credibility and ability to carry out the project and implement solutions for the needs and challenges described within the focus area the project proposal addresses.
• Stakeholder engagement and the project's anchoring in Swedish industry and business.
• The project manager's and other key personnel's competence, ability and prerequisites to lead and implement the project.
• How well the financial contribution, participation, power and influence are distributed in an equal manner in the project team.
• How well the need for consulting services is justified. This only applies if a project party's budget contains more than 20 percent consulting costs.

Feasibility (weight 30%)

• The credibility of the project plan and budget in relation to the set objective, methods, activities and budget.
• The participation and relevance of the specified project partners and key individuals in the project's various work packages and activities.
• How credibly the project plan describes relevant activities to mobilize and collaborate with key actors and stakeholders.
• How credibly the project plan describes relevant activities for disseminating results and lessons learned from the project.

• How credibly the project plan describes relevant activities for integrating gender equality aspects into the work.

• How credible the project plan's risk analysis and action plan for these risks are.

How do we assess?

Once we receive the applications, we review them. We screen out any applications that are incomplete or do not meet our eligibility requirements.

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

Once the evaluators have read and assessed the applications, we have an assessment meeting where the evaluators discuss and then recommend which applications should be granted or rejected. Vinnova makes the decision.

Those project applications that, in competition with others, are deemed to meet the assessment criteria to a particularly high degree will be invited for an interview.

How does it affect an organization's 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 seeking funding for personnel costs must be registered as employers with the Swedish Tax Agency.
• Organizations must not be insolvent, undergoing liquidation or corporate restructuring, nor must they have any significant unpaid debts with the Swedish Enforcement Authority.
• Organizations may not cover project costs in this the call for proposals with public funding or own funds intended for other project.
• Limited liability companies must not have used up half or more of their share capital.
• If requested, SMEs must be able to demonstrate that they have the financial capacity to carry out the project according to their budget in proposal.

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

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

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 regularly during the project period.
• If you are multiple parties, you must agree on your mutual rights and obligations in the project in an agreement. It can take time to get a project agreement in place, so it is a good idea to get this in place before the project starts.
• How the results will be used and how any scientific publication will take place.

For more information, read Vinnova's general terms and conditions for funding

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

• The project must be represented at activities called for by Vinnova and/or the Advanced digitalisation program.

• The project will, upon invitation from the Advanced digitalisation programme, participate in relevant events to inform about and disseminate results from the project's work. In this way, the project contributes, among other things, to learning and value creation within Swedish industry in accordance with the programme's aim.
• During the course of the project, the project partners will work with the project's effect logic (or theory of change) and follow up on results and effects. Activities and conclusions from this work will be reported continuously in the project's progress reports to Vinnova.
• In information about the project and in each publication of project results, it must be stated that the work was carried out with support from Vinnova (in English the name is given as Sweden's Innovation Agency) within the Advanced digitalisation program). Publication refers to, for example, publication, regardless of medium, and oral presentations.

We may also decide to add supplementary special conditions for individual project. In such cases, 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 required to repay.

To apply for funding you fill out a proposal in our e-service. In proposal you answer questions about the project, participating project partners, and budget.

You also attach these attachments to proposal:

• Project description
  The project description may be a maximum of 25 portrait A4 pages (excluding cover page and table of contents). The text must be written in Swedish or English with single-column 12-point black text.
• Project Summary
  The project summary should be able to be shared with the program's external program council and should therefore not contain confidential or other sensitive information. The appendix does not form the basis for assessment. The project summary may be a maximum of 1 portrait A4 page. The text should be written in Swedish or English with single-column 12-point black text.
• CV attachment
  The CV attachment should contain relevant CVs for the project manager and all key people in the project team. At least one CV from each participant should be attached proposal. Varje CV may be a maximum of 1 portrait A4 page, written in Swedish or English with 12-point black text.
• Budget appendix
  The text should be written in Swedish or English with single-column 12-point black text.
• Risk analysis
  The appendix to the project's risk analysis should describe risks that may affect implementation. The analysis should describe how these risks can be managed or reduced, so that the project has good prospects of achieving its objective. The text should be written in Swedish or English with single-column 12-point black text.
• Final report from the feasibility study project
  The final report shall relate to project financed within the call for proposals "Avancerad Digitalisering - system-changing initiatives, feasibility study project 2025" and follow the instructions regarding format and content previously communicated to the feasibility study project.

All appendices must follow the templates available on the call's website, include all specified parts and follow the specified format and content in headings and table headers.

Please note that no other attachments than those specified above should be attached to proposal.

How does the application process work?

The application process includes the following steps:

1. Proposal are submitted via Vinnova's e-service.
2. Proposal is reviewed and assessed by designated evaluator.
3. Applications that are judged to meet the assessment criteria sufficiently in the competition are invited to an interview.
4. Vinnova will send a decision in which we will announce whether we grant or reject your proposal.

How long does proposaltake?

Keep in mind that it takes time to make a proposal. Filling out templates can take several days, as it is based on the analyses you will do.

In our e-service you can start filling in the details and then continue at a later time. You can also give permissions to others who you want to contribute to proposal. When proposal is complete, mark it complete.

You can unlock proposal and make changes at any time, right up until the last application date. If you unlock proposal, you must then clear it again for it to be registered when the call for proposals closes.

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 make additions if we ask you to.

Who can read your proposal?

Your proposal will be read by Vinnova employees 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.

How we handle public documents and confidentiality

October 8, 2025 - new start date for project.

New text: The project must start no later than 2026-06-01.