Pilot and demonstration grants for energy innovations
Demonstrate innovative energy solutions in larger-scale projects with at least SEK 10 million in eligible costs. The June 2026 intake is closed.
Esta oportunidad está disponible actualmente en inglés.
The programme supports development and demonstration of energy products, services, production processes and systems with potential to accelerate a fossil-free energy transition. Product, service and production demonstrations must aim for commercialisation and involve a customer who sets requirements. System demonstrations combine innovations in their intended setting and involve the organisations that need and will use the results.
Projects need at least SEK 10 million in total eligible costs; this is a project-cost threshold, not a minimum grant. The call's maximum rates are 45% for small companies, 35% for medium-sized companies and 25% for large companies for research and development. SME commercialisation activities use the same 45% or 35% rate. Municipalities and other public organisations can receive up to 50%; other non-economic activities, meaning work that does not supply goods or services on a market, can receive up to 100%, but together are limited to 15% of the project's total grant. Universities and research institutes share that 15% limit. Companies and organisations using the results must carry out most activities and incur most costs.
SME commercialisation activities have a separate SEK 2 million eligible-cost ceiling per project and must be in their own work package. They can include business and market plans, financing strategy, initial marketing, internationalisation preparation and intellectual-property work. Annual patent-office fees are excluded. The appendix's broader legal ceilings do not replace this call's lower rates.
The grant funds project delivery costs; the call does not provide investment aid. Buildings qualify only for depreciation allocated to the project period: the part of the building’s cost written off during that time, rather than its full purchase price. Equipment qualifies only to the extent and for the time used in the project; where it is not used throughout the project’s life, only depreciation corresponding to that period qualifies; land can qualify at commercial transfer or actual capital cost. Staff, materials, research and externally bought expertise can qualify. Costs must be actual, reasonable, auditable, separately recorded and incurred during the approved period. For research and development, start-up aid and de minimis, company overheads are capped at 30% of eligible salary costs. Article 28 innovation support for commercialisation does not allow company overheads; universities use their full-cost approach. Research companies under state control, foundations whose boards are appointed partly or wholly by the government, and government agencies required to conduct their own research, with government funding for independent research can use actual overheads up to 45% of eligible salaries for non-economic work, accounted separately from economic activity. VAT qualifies only when it remains a cost you bear and cannot recover. Finance remaining costs and overruns, and declare other public or EU support for the same costs. Another organisation's unpaid contribution cannot cover costs not incurred by your company.
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. Bought consultancy must be priced at market rates. 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
Companies of any size that are legal persons with Swedish operations can lead product, service or production demonstrations. System demonstrations are for Swedish actors intending to use and implement the results. A customer or organisation defining the need must be involved. Routine improvements to existing products, processes or services are excluded. If the project builds on ongoing work, substantiate the necessary results and conclusions at application; the earlier project need not be formally closed.
At application, the technology must have completed activities at levels 5–8 on the Technology Readiness Level scale: from testing in realistic conditions to a fully developed system verified by end users, before commercial introduction. Customer readiness must be at least level 4, with several customers or users confirming the need. Business readiness must be at least level 4, with a complete initial business model including revenue and costs and first profitability and market forecasts. Team readiness must be at least level 4, with an expert and several necessary skills in place and a plan under way to recruit or secure other key resources. These are entry requirements, not goals to reach by the end.
Actors without Swedish operations can receive funding only exceptionally: they must offer unique expertise unavailable in Sweden, the project must be essential to programme goals and there must be clear knowledge transfer to Swedish actors. The agency may still refuse funding.
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.
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 the amounts calculated under this call's rates.
How to apply
- Estado
- cerrada
- Abre
- Cierra
- Restricciones de la ronda
- Closed intake. Start between 1 October 2026 and 1 March 2027; finish by 31 December 2030.
The intake closed on 1 June 2026 at 23:59 Swedish time. The next call is planned for the first quarter of 2027, without fixed application dates. Check the official page for a new call. Projects in the closed round must start between 1 October 2026 and 1 March 2027 and finish by 31 December 2030. Starting before an award decision is at your own financial risk; decisions are planned by December 2026.
Apply through Mina sidor's “Finansiering av forskning och innovation” service after requesting authority to represent the coordinator: the organisation that manages the project, receives the grant and passes funds to any other recipients. An SME may coordinate only one application; if it submits several, the latest is assessed. Attach the mandatory additional-questions document, a letter of intent from at least one requirements-setting customer using the agency's template, and the project leader's and key staff's CVs in one attachment. Other attachments together may cover at most five A4 pages. Put the project description in the form itself.
Provide evidence of all readiness levels, a comparison with competing solutions, energy benefits across production, use and end-of-life, quantified potential, intellectual-property information and funding that is confirmed or guaranteed versus funding still to be secured. State-aid declarations must cover the relevant prior de minimis, start-up or innovation-services support. Assessment weights energy and climate potential at 30%, market potential at 20%, innovation at 20%, feasibility at 20% and gender equality at 10%; the agency may also consider its overall project portfolio.
The award decision sets payments and reporting. Payments can be withheld until at least 90% of previous funding has been used. Notify other financing and material changes promptly and seek approval for project changes; cost-category transfers above 10% require amendment when the amount also exceeds SEK 50,000. A recipient receiving at least SEK 3 million needs an auditor's certificate with final reporting, and the agency can request one below that threshold. Keep records available for inspection and possible follow-up reports, up to three requests within ten years. Unused funds must be returned; incorrect awards or breached conditions can trigger recovery.