FORESTPathways research grant for Swedish partners
Grants for Swedish organisations joining international research on innovative wood products and sustainable forest value chains.
Tato příležitost je nyní dostupná v angličtině.
Swedish participation in FORESTPathways supports topic 3, timber and innovative wood-based products, and topic 4, forest value chains, markets and governance. Examples include replacing carbon-intensive materials with wood products and improving circular forest-based value chains. Sweden funds neither topic 1 nor topic 2. The call expects funded projects collectively, where relevant, to contribute to climate mitigation and adaptation; this is a collective ambition rather than a guaranteed result of each project.
Projects last 36 months. The Swedish grant limit is EUR 300,000 per project, rising to EUR 400,000 when a Swedish organisation coordinates the international project. These limits cover the Swedish participation in the project, rather than each Swedish partner separately. Funding percentages depend on the applicable state-aid rules and the designated national funder.
Eligible categories include personnel, equipment, land and buildings, consulting and licences, other direct costs including travel, and overheads. Costs must be necessary, be your own and be separately accounted for. The national funder’s cost rules apply; the category list does not promise full purchase-price reimbursement. Exclude VAT from the call budget.
Eligibility
Universities, research institutes, companies, public authorities and NGOs can receive Swedish funding. The recipient must be a Swedish legal entity with a Swedish organisation registration number. Sole traders cannot apply.
Form a consortium of at least three independent legal entities from three different participating EU Member States or associated countries, including at least two countries eligible for EU funding. The international coordinator must request funding from a participating funder. Self-funded associated partners do not count towards the minimum, and their contributions must not be essential to completing the project. They must provide a letter of intent at the pre-proposal stage and a letter confirming their funding at the full-proposal stage. The same person cannot coordinate more than one proposal.
Show the added value of international cooperation, with real cooperation and a balanced allocation of work and budget. The proposed work must not overlap with or receive parallel funding for the same whole or partial project.
Offering goods or services on a market counts as economic activity and brings state-aid rules into play. Companies seeking small or medium enterprise status must submit a size declaration. Small enterprises or NGOs seeking de minimis aid, a form of limited-value public support, must declare previous aid of that kind.
Existing FOREST Partnership beneficiaries may apply only if listed in Annex VI. That annex imposes no additional restriction on organisations outside the Partnership.
If Formas is assigned to your project, participants undertaking economic activity under the Swedish Tax Procedure Act must have Swedish F-tax approval, the tax registration for businesses responsible for their own tax payments.
Include an ethics self-assessment explaining potential ethical issues and compliance with applicable law. Obtain any required ethics approvals before starting the affected work. Your project must meet the EU “Do no significant harm” principle: consider environmental effects throughout the project so that benefits in one area do not cause significant harm to other environmental objectives.
How to apply
- Stav
- uzavírá se 2. 12. 2026
- Otevírá se
- Uzavírá se
- Podmínky daného kola žádostí
- Mandatory pre-proposal; full proposals only by invitation.[^c12]
Contact the relevant Swedish funder before submitting to confirm national eligibility; the call strongly encourages contact by 17 November 2026. Formas, Vinnova and the Swedish Energy Agency jointly provide the Swedish funding.
The international coordinator registers in the submission system, invites partners and submits the mandatory pre-proposal: a short account of the project idea and consortium. Submit it in English through the FOREST Electronic Submission and Evaluation System (ESES). The system is open to new proposals. Only invited applicants may submit a full proposal, due 2 June 2027 at 13:00 CEST. The scientific scope in the pre-proposal is binding; substantial changes to objectives or activities are not allowed at the full-proposal stage.
Enter costs in EUR for both international stages. If selected, Swedish partners are assigned one Swedish funder and asked to apply in its national portal in SEK, using the Riksbank exchange rate from the pre-proposal closing date. If there are multiple Swedish partners, one acts as national coordinator.
Plan for a data management plan within six months, joint reports at months 18 and 36, and budget for five mandatory joint network meetings. The designated funder’s reporting and grant conditions also apply.
For Formas funding, submit annual financial reports for projects longer than 18 months and normally a final financial report within three months after the funds’ availability period. Retain project information for ten years from submission of the final report. Repay unused funds within 30 days of instructions, except that a surplus up to half the Swedish price base amount may be retained for similar research. Project-description changes require Formas approval.
For Vinnova funding, amendments require written approval and participants joining or leaving need approval unless the decision says otherwise. Records must remain available for audit during the project and ten years after final payment. Repay excess funding within 30 days of notification after final-report approval.
For Energy Agency funding, apply for project changes in advance. Budget shifts of up to 10% are accepted; approval is required for shifts exceeding 10% where the amount exceeds SEK 50,000. Unused funds must be repaid. The agency can request follow-up reports on three occasions within ten years after project end.
An auditor’s certificate is normally required when a participant’s grant reaches SEK 3 million, or when specially required. Formas and Vinnova exempt universities and higher education institutions unless otherwise stipulated; Formas accepts internal auditors for municipalities, regions and state agencies. The Energy Agency accepts internal auditors for those bodies and also for universities and higher education institutions.
Grant payments can be stopped and funding reclaimed for misuse, incorrect awards or breached conditions. Vinnova can recover funding with interest; Formas’ recovery and interest provisions apply to recipients of state aid. The Energy Agency also recovers unlawful state aid with interest from payment.