Grants for energy-saving design and behaviour research
Grants for interdisciplinary projects combining design, behavioural science and energy research to help people use less energy and cope with supply disruptions. The September 2026 round is closed.
Design för energieffektiv vardag funds user-centred research and innovation. Projects must combine energy, design and behavioural perspectives, have a clear energy- or resource-efficiency link and contribute to programme goals. Work can build knowledge, develop market solutions or combine both.
Topics include understandable and accessible flexible-energy services, households’ energy knowledge and preparedness, low-energy everyday routines, cooperation between communities and local organisations, and practical design methods for lasting behaviour change. The work should support energy and climate goals and account for different groups’ needs and living conditions.
Funding depends on each participant’s activity and size. Non-economic work, such as independent research by a university, research institute or municipality, can receive up to 100% of eligible costs. For businesses, feasibility studies and industrial research—developing new knowledge for products, processes or services—have base ceilings of 70%, 60% and 50% for small, medium and large companies. Experimental development, such as testing and improving a solution under realistic conditions, has ceilings of 45%, 35% and 25%. Routine product or process changes do not qualify as experimental development.
Industrial research and experimental development can receive up to 15 additional percentage points for effective collaboration or wide publication of results, with an overall ceiling of 80%. Business collaboration must include an SME unless carried out in at least two EU countries, and no business may bear over 70% of eligible costs. For collaboration with a research organisation, that organisation must bear at least 10% and retain the right to publish its results. Alternatively, results must be widely shared through conferences, publications, open databases or free or open software.
A separate de minimis route uses the EUR 300,000 gross public-aid ceiling over three years, counting aid from all Swedish public funders for the whole corporate group. It excludes primary agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture production and aid tied to export volumes, export distribution networks or ongoing export expenses. Submit the declaration of previous de minimis aid.
Eligible young companies can instead receive start-up grants up to EUR 500,000, with previous public start-up aid taken into account. This is a ceiling for that route, not a grant available to every applicant. Its company-age, ownership and trading conditions are described below.
Research costs can include project staff, equipment and building depreciation for the project’s use, eligible land costs, market-priced external research, knowledge, patents and consultancy, and project materials and operating costs. Costs must be your own, reasonable, auditable, separately recorded and incurred in the approved project period. Unpaid work and recoverable VAT do not qualify. Project parties cannot subcontract each other; separate related-company consultancy is limited to actual salary cost.
Actual overheads normally have a ceiling of 30% of eligible salary costs. Universities and higher-education institutions use their full-cost method. A 45% ceiling applies to research organisations constituted as limited companies or partnerships under direct or indirect state legal control, research foundations with government-appointed board members, and government agencies mandated to conduct their own research, excluding universities and higher-education institutions. They must receive funding by government decision for independent research and participate through non-economic work, rather than providing research services on a market. Only actual overhead costs qualify. Economic activities must be accounted for separately and use the ordinary 30% ceiling.
Finance the balance and any cost increases with your own funds or other funding; a business needing private co-finance must use its own resources or private cash. Another party’s work cannot count as your cost. The agency may require more co-financing than the legal minimum, including for non-economic participants. Disclose other public and centrally managed EU funding sought, received or planned for the same costs, so combined funding respects the applicable limits.
Eligibility
Businesses including design agencies, public bodies, universities across design, social sciences, humanities and technical disciplines, research institutes, civil-society organisations and associations can apply. Including organisations that need or will use the results through active participation or co-financing is viewed positively.
A participant without activity in Sweden can receive funding only exceptionally: its expertise must be unique and unavailable in Sweden, the project essential to programme goals, and knowledge must clearly transfer to Swedish actors. The agency may still refuse funding.
For business funding, economic activity means supplying goods or services on a market, regardless of legal form. A small company has fewer than 50 employees and annual turnover or balance-sheet total at most EUR 10 million. A medium company has fewer than 250 employees and turnover at most EUR 50 million or balance-sheet total at most EUR 43 million. Use the latest approved accounts; a threshold crossing upward or downward counts after two consecutive years. Include relevant linked and partner enterprises when assessing size and control.
The start-up route requires a small company no more than five years old and not listed on a stock exchange. A qualifying alternative trading platform is allowed where at least half the admitted instruments are issued by SMEs. Age normally runs from registration; for an unregistered business it runs from starting economic activity or becoming liable to tax, whichever comes first. The company must not have distributed profits. Taking over another business is allowed only if the acquired activity’s turnover is below 10% of the applicant’s turnover in the preceding tax year. A company acquisition must meet the same below-10% test; after a merger, turnover must be less than 10% above the participants’ combined previous turnover. A combination of otherwise eligible companies can qualify for five years from the oldest company’s registration. The whole group must meet the conditions; primary agriculture is excluded. Declare previous Article 22 start-up aid.
For this round, projects may start from 1 February 2027 and must finish by 31 December 2030.
How to apply
- Status
- closed
- Opens
- Closes
The round opened on 28 May 2026 and closed on 9 September 2026 at 23:59 Swedish time. Decisions are planned for December 2026.
Applications use Mina sidor’s “Finansiering av forskning, innovation och affärsutveckling” service and the call “Nya lösningar för en energieffektiv och resilient vardag”. First request authority to represent the coordinator, which receives and distributes funding; this can take a few days. Deadline-day support ends at 16:00.
Put the project description in the application form. Attach CVs for the leader and other key people, at most two A4 pages each, and any figures referenced in the form. Attachments should complement, rather than repeat, the form. Explain energy relevance, design and behavioural expertise, originality, measurable goals, methods, resources, collaboration, communication and use of results. Address gender and sex perspectives where relevant and equality in the team and work.
Assessment uses the application submitted before closing; the agency can request additional information and credit-check companies, partners, owners and board members. Communications and case tracking use Mina sidor.
If awarded, follow the payment and reporting plan, retain participants’ commitments and obtain approval for material project changes. Further payments may be held until 90% of earlier payments have been used. A participant receiving at least SEK 3 million needs an authorised or approved auditor’s certificate at final reporting. Municipalities, regions, government agencies, universities and higher-education institutions may use an internal auditor. The agency can require a certificate below the threshold. Return unused funds; incorrect awards or breached conditions can lead to recovery, with interest on unlawful state aid.