Net Zero Industry grants to deliver manufacturing advice
Grants for organisations with a public mandate to help small and medium-sized manufacturers in Sweden reduce emissions through practical innovation advice.
Your organisation receives a grant to deliver advice, coaching, mentoring, training or access to expertise and infrastructure to a portfolio of 5–10 manufacturers. The whole grant's value passes to these companies through services; the companies are the beneficiaries of the state aid. Your organisation must report which companies received it.
The 2026 pilot allows at most SEK 150,000 of aid value per company during the project. A project with ten companies can therefore request up to SEK 1.5 million. Vinnova reimburses only the intermediary's actual delivery costs. Value the service at its market price or, if none exists, delivery cost plus 4%. That 4% is used to value the company's aid, not an extra cost you may claim in your grant budget.
Each company must qualify for either innovation advisory aid under Article 28 or de minimis aid. Article 28 can cover up to 100% of service value within a EUR 220,000 total over three years. De minimis aid has a EUR 300,000 limit over three years across funders and projects, so earlier awards reduce the remaining allowance. These are company aid limits, not extra project funding. The call's SEK 150,000 company cap still applies.
Eligible work helps manufacturers introduce innovative technology and solutions, assess emissions and progress towards net zero, or access relevant networks and testing facilities. General business development and development of the intermediary's own organisation are excluded. The grant can cover actual staff costs, external advice and licences, necessary materials and travel. Instrument/equipment and additional-premises costs are restricted to de minimis funding. Consultancy and licences may not exceed 20% of a project partner's budget.
Actual overhead is normally capped at 30% of eligible salary costs. Universities and higher education institutions use their full-cost method. A 45% cap applies to state-controlled research companies, research foundations with government-appointed board members, and other government agencies required to conduct their own research, provided they receive government funding for independent research. They must separate economic activities; work supplying goods or services on a market uses the 30% cap. Costs must be actual, necessary and separately recorded; you cannot claim another organisation's costs.
Eligibility
- Apply as one organisation or a consortium of intermediaries: organisations that deliver the advice between Vinnova and the manufacturers. Service providers must be research institutes, knowledge-dissemination organisations, research infrastructures, testing and experimental infrastructures or innovation clusters.
- Each intermediary must be a Swedish legal person with at least two years of documented Swedish operations. Its mandate from a Swedish public body, such as the state, a region, municipality or university, must cover companies' net-zero transition in whole or part, with higher requirements for resource efficiency and resilience to disruption. It must not have paid dividends in the last two years and must not intend to do so in the next four years. Individuals and sole traders cannot participate.
- Build a portfolio of 5–10 EU-defined SMEs with production in Sweden, significant emissions and potential to reduce them. They must manufacture identifiable products, or carry out the related design, services, product-as-a-service or circular manufacturing activities described in the call. Food and pharmaceutical companies are excluded. Each company must qualify for state aid; companies in financial difficulty do not qualify. Group and 25–50% ownership links count in the SME assessment.
- Demonstrate each company's initial readiness: a responsible person and understanding of its business model's environmental effects, identified emissions and project scope, operating management/improvement processes, and measurable savings, emissions reductions and performance indicators. Your organisation needs established processes to select eligible companies, support and assess their progress, and end advice when completed or no longer viable.
- The project leader must be employed by the coordinator. The project must not start before the application is submitted. The 2026 timetable requires it to start on 1 June 2026: this is both the earliest and latest start date. Projects may last at most 18 months.
- Organisations reporting salary costs must be registered employers. They must not be insolvent, in liquidation or restructuring, or have significant unpaid enforcement debts. Limited companies must not have used up half or more of their share capital. Do not use public grants or own money earmarked for other projects to cover these costs.
- Select companies through transparent, objective rules. Advisers and consultants must have no direct commercial relationship with them. Sign a separate agreement with each SME covering services and its duty to provide financial/results information; the call waives a separate project agreement. Report service costs and aid values, join programme activities and up to three mandatory workshops, maintain dialogue and provide a publishable final summary. Excess funding or breaches may lead to repayment.
How to apply
- Status
- closed
- Opens
- Closes
- Round restrictions
- 2026 pilot selection of advice providers; these are the pilot terms.
The 2026 intermediary application round is closed. Applications were submitted in Vinnova's e-service in Swedish or English. Complete the form and mark it as complete; after reopening it for edits, mark it complete again before the deadline.
The required attachments are the project description (up to 20 pages), a public non-confidential summary (up to two pages), CVs (one page per key person), an SME declaration and letter of intent for each company (the letter up to one page), the latest annual report, operating plan or public-mandate directive, and the applicable Article 28 or de minimis declaration. Send the two-page public summary to utlysningar@netzeroimpact.se at the same time as the Vinnova application. Extra attachments and excess pages are not assessed.