Water Wise Societies: system-changing water innovations
Grants for groups of organizations to develop and test water solutions with broad societal use, alongside an active partner that needs the solution.
Tämän rahoitusmahdollisuuden kuvaus on toistaiseksi englanniksi.
Develop and test water solutions that can change how water is managed and used. Projects must contribute to at least one Water Wise Societies mission; these include adapting society to flooding and drought. The scope covers drinking water, stormwater, wastewater, lakes, rivers and groundwater from source to coast; marine issues are excluded.
The solution must have potential to change the surrounding system, rather than simply replace an existing product. Explain how development and tests connect with the infrastructure, business models, rules and behaviour needed for broad use. Describe the path to ownership, management and continued use after the project. Broad rollout need not occur during the funded period. Where the necessary conditions already exist, explain that in the application; work in those dimensions is then unnecessary.
For the closed 2026 round, the project grant was capped at SEK 10 million and 70% of eligible project costs for up to 36 months. Projects had to start on 1 June 2026. Applicants could request all planned funding initially, or at least 75%, with an opportunity to request the remainder in 2027; total funding still could not exceed SEK 10 million.
Individual partner limits differed from the project limit. Industrial research means seeking new knowledge to develop or significantly improve products, processes or services: the maximum rates were 80% for small companies, 75% for medium companies and 65% for large companies. Experimental development uses existing knowledge to develop new or improved products, processes or services: the corresponding rates were 60%, 50% and 40%.
Non-economic work, such as independent research or education without market sales, could receive up to 100% of eligible partner costs. Selling goods or services on a market counts as economic activity regardless of legal form or profit motive; organizations doing both must separate their accounts. The call also allowed de minimis aid up to 100% of a partner's costs, subject to the organization's cumulative EUR 300,000 ceiling over three years across funders and projects. These partner routes do not remove the 70% overall project limit.
Eligibility
- Apply jointly with at least two legal entities. Include a needs owner: an organization with a concrete problem the solution can address, which participates actively, contributes its own resources and makes a significant project contribution. Needs owners and users must be involved in development, tests and preparation for use. All project partners must participate actively and share project risks and results. Individuals and sole traders cannot be project partners.
- The coordinator must be a Swedish legal entity operating in Sweden. Foreign organizations may participate but cannot coordinate. To receive a grant they need a Swedish organization number, with project costs incurred in a Swedish branch or establishment.
- Projects must be relevant in Sweden and have international potential. Testing abroad is allowed. The project leader normally works for the coordinator; employment by another partner can be accepted if justified in the application. Shared project leadership is allowed.
- The solution must differ from existing initiatives in the field, including internationally. It may draw inspiration from international examples and can be a model or process rather than a technology.
- Routine development, projects focused primarily on research, projects benefiting only isolated actors, and establishing new platforms, forums or testbeds are excluded. Research may support project goals, and further development of an existing testbed may qualify, including new functions, improved working or business models and adaptation of test infrastructure.
- Costs must be actual, evidenced, separately recorded and incurred for the approved project during its project period. Eligible categories include personnel, proportionate equipment and premises costs, external consultancy and licences, necessary materials and travel, and overheads. Consultancy and licences normally must be bought on market terms from independent suppliers. Companies in the same group or with the same individual owners, and companies owned or controlled by a partner’s senior officers, employees or their close relatives, do not count as independent suppliers. In exceptional cases Vinnova may approve a connected supplier, for example where a large group assigns research responsibility to a separate legal entity. State and justify the intended connected purchase in the application. If approved, eligible costs are limited to the supplier’s actual gross wages and employment costs; market consultancy rates cannot be claimed. Report these costs as consultancy costs. Partners cannot buy goods or services from another partner within the project. Preparing the project agreement is not an eligible cost.
- Consultancy and licences are normally limited to 20% of each partner's budget. Vinnova may accept more for special needs justified in the application. Most partners may claim actual overheads up to 30% of eligible personnel costs. Universities use their full-cost principle. A 45% ceiling applies to non-economic work by state-controlled research companies or partnerships, foundations with government-appointed board members, and state authorities tasked with their own research, provided they receive government funding for independent research. Economic activities must be accounted for separately and use the 30% ceiling.
- Partners claiming personnel costs must be registered as employers with Skatteverket. Funding recipients must not be insolvent, in liquidation or company reconstruction, or have substantial unpaid enforcement debts. Limited companies must not have used half or more of their share capital; SMEs may be asked to demonstrate financial coverage for their project budget. Project costs cannot be covered with other public grants, or with own funds earmarked for other projects.
- Municipal water utilities may qualify for non-economic support where the project concerns their legal-monopoly operations and economic and non-economic costs, funding and revenues are separated. The call notes that this legal classification has not been tested in Sweden; it is not automatic eligibility.
How to apply
- Tila
- haku päättynyt
- Haku päättyy
- Hakukierroksen ehdot
- Closed 2026 round. Projects had to start on 1 June 2026 and could last at most 36 months.[^c1][^c31][^c14]
The 2026 round is closed. Consult Vinnova's official call page for this round's rules and application materials.
Applications were submitted in Swedish or English through Vinnova's electronic service, covering the project, partners and budget. Mandatory templates included a project plan of at most 20 pages, CVs of at most one page per key person, a freely publishable non-confidential summary, and a de minimis declaration where needed. Extra attachments and excess pages were not assessed. Mark the application complete to submit it; if reopened for changes, mark it complete again before closure.
All project partners must sign their participation approval and a project agreement covering their obligations and rights to results. The agreement is due by the first progress-report deadline, or by the start-report deadline if no progress report is required. Submit reports and a special 2027 report on the potential for system change. Scientific publications must be open access.
At least one partner must represent the project in Water Wise Societies activities, estimated at two to four occasions per year, at most two in person. Respond to programme-office requests, acknowledge the programme and its funders when communicating results, and send a non-confidential results summary to the programme office with final reporting. A recipient awarded at least SEK 3 million must attach an auditor certificate to the final report; universities are exempt unless the decision or special conditions require one. Overpayments or failure to meet conditions can trigger repayment.