Concept development for energy innovations
Develop an early energy innovation and its commercial potential with up to SEK 500,000 per project. The June 2026 intake is closed.
Tato příležitost je nyní dostupná v angličtině.
The grant helps develop product or service innovations with customer value, commercial potential and a credible contribution to a sustainable energy system. Activities can include testing a prototype or minimum viable product, assessing energy benefits, researching customers and markets, preparing business and financing plans, and developing an intellectual-property strategy.
Support can cover up to 100% of eligible costs, with a SEK 500,000 project ceiling. The actual rate depends on the activity and state-aid route. Show the entire project budget and finance costs above the award. University work that does not supply goods or services on a market can receive up to 100%; market activities such as commissioned research do not automatically qualify for that rate. For SME innovation aid, patent costs and eligible specialist secondments normally receive up to 50%; innovation advice and support services can receive up to 100% if that category of aid stays within EUR 220,000 per company over three years. Eligible secondments bring highly qualified staff from a research organisation or large company into a newly created research, development or innovation role, without replacing existing staff. Advice and support services can include intellectual-property advice, market studies, testing, laboratories and certification. Declare earlier aid for these services.
Costs must be actual, reasonable, auditable, incurred during the approved project period and separately recorded. Unpaid work and estimated costs do not qualify. Universities use their full-cost approach for overheads. For companies funded through start-up or de minimis aid, actual overheads are capped at 30% of eligible salary costs; other aid bases do not automatically allow overheads. Consultants must charge market rates; related-company services are limited to actual underlying salary costs. VAT qualifies only when it remains a cost you bear and cannot recover. A grant recipient cannot also finance another project participant.
Overheads are shared costs that do not arise directly from the project, such as general administration and IT; only actual costs within the applicable salary-based ceiling qualify. A project participant cannot act as another participant’s subcontractor within the project. The separate allowance for related-company consultants at actual underlying salary cost does not remove this prohibition.
Eligibility
Registered small and medium-sized companies that are legal persons, and universities or higher-education institutions, can coordinate a project. Only the coordinator and any participating university or higher-education institution may receive funding; other partners participate without a grant. Companies must own or have the right to use the solution. Universities must explain how they will handle those rights.
SME size depends on staff, finances and ownership links. A small company has fewer than 50 staff and annual turnover or balance-sheet total no more than EUR 10 million. A medium-sized company has fewer than 250 staff and turnover no more than EUR 50 million or a balance-sheet total no more than EUR 43 million. Linked companies and control relationships affect the calculation. Staff can include working owners and dependent consultants. Use the latest approved accounts; a threshold change normally requires two consecutive years.
At project start, the solution must be between Technology Readiness Levels 2 and 4: from a defined concept and application, through initial experimental evidence, to a small prototype validated in a laboratory. Basic principles alone (level 1), solutions already tested in realistic conditions (level 5 or above), routine improvements, ongoing operating costs and recurring marketing or adaptation of existing products are excluded.
For parallel publicly supported projects, show distinct activities and goals, sufficient resources and no dependence on unfinished results. If this proposal uses another project's results, provide and substantiate them at application even if that project is not formally closed. Actors without Swedish operations can receive support only exceptionally: unique expertise unavailable in Sweden, a project essential to the programme's goals and clear knowledge transfer to Swedish actors are all required. The agency may still refuse funding.
Companies may also receive support through the following routes. Under de minimis, or small amounts of public aid, the ceiling is EUR 300,000 before tax over three years, including only aid granted as de minimis from all Swedish public funders and, where relevant, the whole company group. Declare previous aid. This route excludes primary production: growing crops or raising farm animals without processing that changes the products, and catching or farming aquatic organisms, including preparation on a vessel or aquaculture site for first sale (such as gutting, filleting or freezing) and that first sale. Supplying energy technology to these producers is not itself primary production. The route also excludes aid directly linked to export volumes, establishing or operating a distribution network, or other ongoing export expenses.
The alternative start-up route is for small companies no more than five years old, normally measured from registration, which have not distributed profits and are not officially stock-exchange-listed. Listing on a multilateral trading facility (MTF), an alternative securities-trading venue that brings together buyers and sellers rather than an official stock exchange, is allowed where at least 50% of admitted financial instruments are issued by small and medium-sized companies. The company must not have taken over another business, unless its turnover was less than 10% of the applicant's turnover in the preceding tax year. It must not have acquired another company or arisen through a merger, except where the acquired company's turnover was below that same 10% threshold, or the merged company's turnover is less than 10% above the merging companies' combined preceding-year turnover. A merger of companies individually eligible for this start-up aid can qualify for up to five years from the oldest company's registration. The whole group must meet the conditions. Primary agricultural production is excluded. Declare previous start-up aid; the general EUR 500,000 start-up grant ceiling is separate from this call's SEK 500,000 project ceiling.
How to apply
- Stav
- uzavřeno
- Otevírá se
- Uzavírá se
- Omezení kola
- Closed intake. Project start between 15 October and 1 December 2026; duration at most 12 months.
The intake closed on 2 June 2026 at 23:59 Swedish time. A further intake is provisionally planned around October 2026; a firm opening or closing date has not been announced. Use the official page to check the next published call. The closed round allows starts from 15 October to 1 December 2026 and projects lasting no more than 12 months.
Applications use Mina sidor's “Finansiering av forskning och innovation” service with electronic identification. Request authority to represent the coordinator several days in advance. Companies may submit only one application per round. Attach “Ytterligare ansökningsfrågor”, at most 20 pages, and use the linked checklist. Give each work package dates, costs, measurable goals and deliverables; show energy effects, customer value, innovation, feasibility, team competence and relevant gender considerations. Include prior-aid declarations for the intended aid route.
Decisions for the closed round are planned for September–November 2026. The agency may request clarifications or credit checks. The decision sets payments; later payments may be withheld until at least 90% of earlier funding has been used. Report progress and final costs, notify other financing promptly and seek approval for project changes. Cost-category transfers above 10% require an amendment when the amount also exceeds SEK 50,000. Retain auditable records; an auditor's certificate may be specifically requested. Unused support must be returned, and incorrect awards or breached conditions can trigger recovery. Follow-up reports can be requested three times within ten years after completion.