Land-use policy labs for climate goals
Grants for public organisations and researchers developing land-use policies together for a specific Swedish place to cut emissions or adapt to climate change.
Tämän rahoitusmahdollisuuden kuvaus on toistaiseksi englanniksi.
A policy lab brings decision-makers, researchers and people affected by land use together to develop policies and ways of working. Climate goals must drive the project. Every application must also address a fair transition, resilience and preparedness, and soil health and biodiversity. The call funds policy development, rather than new research, research summaries for academic publication, technology or method development, or carrying out already identified land-use measures.
The 2025 call offered SEK 3–6 million per project for 12–24 months. Projects could start on 1 November 2025 or during the first six months of 2026. Activities outside economic activity could receive full eligible cost coverage. Offering goods or services on a market counts as economic activity, regardless of legal form or profit motive.
For economic activity, Formas expected to classify the work as experimental development: using existing knowledge to develop new or improved products, processes or services. The call's maximum contribution was 60% for small businesses, 50% for medium-sized businesses and 40% for large businesses, assuming qualifying cooperation or wide dissemination of results. Size is assessed under the EU business-size definition using staff numbers and turnover or balance-sheet totals (the total assets in the accounts). Each partner's own eligible costs are the basis for its rate.
Qualifying cooperation means independent partners jointly define the work and share implementation, risks and results; buying research services is not enough. Cooperation between a business and research organisation requires the research organisation to bear at least 10% of eligible project costs and have the right to publish its own results. Cooperation between businesses must include a small or medium-sized business, or take place in at least two EU member states or in one member state and an EEA country, and no business may bear more than 70% of eligible costs. Alternatively, results must be widely shared through conferences, publication, open-access databases or open-source software.
Formas could also award de minimis aid, a form of small-value public support. All such aid from public funders counts towards a EUR 300,000 ceiling over three years for the business, or the whole group if it belongs to one. An authorised representative must sign the aid declaration included with the application. Formas checks the creditworthiness of potential recipients carrying out economic activity.
Costs must relate to extra work for this project beyond normal operations. Eligible categories include staff, project use of equipment, buildings and land, consultants, licences and other direct costs, plus eligible overhead. Universities use their full-cost accounting method. Research organisations that are state-controlled companies or foundations with government-appointed board members, and government agencies other than universities with a research mandate, may claim actual overhead up to 45% of eligible staff costs for non-economic work, provided a government decision funds their independent research; all other partners are limited to actual overhead up to 30% of their eligible staff costs. Economic and non-economic accounts must be separate. Costs of concluding the consortium agreement and licences between project partners are excluded. One partner cannot finance another within the project, and the same costs cannot receive support twice.
Each partner must sign its commitment before the first payment. Partners must agree their responsibilities and rights to results in a consortium agreement by the first financial-report deadline; they share responsibility for delivery. Reports on finances and results are due three months after the period for using the funds ends, with annual financial reports for projects longer than 18 months. A partner awarded at least SEK 3 million must provide an auditor's certificate with its final financial report; Formas may also request one below that amount. Internal auditors are accepted for municipalities, regional authorities, government agencies and universities; eligible certificate costs are capped at SEK 30,000. Funded projects are expected to join Formas knowledge-sharing activities. Research results must be open access, and a maintained data-management plan must be ready before research begins.
Eligibility
- At least one public organisation and one university, higher-education institution or eligible research institute must be active project partners. Research institutes must be state-controlled companies, foundations with government-appointed board members, or government agencies required to conduct research. The team must include a researcher affiliated with a Swedish research organisation and at least one participating researcher who held a doctorate by the deadline.
- The lab must concern a specific place in Sweden and include an actor with control or influence over the land. A researcher affiliated with a Swedish research organisation or a person from a public organisation must lead the project. The lead must be affiliated with the coordinating organisation, which must be an approved Formas fund administrator.
- Businesses, civil-society organisations and other stakeholders may join as partners. Sole traders cannot receive funding or be project partners. Funded organisations need a Swedish organisation number; organisations without one may contribute in kind, without receiving the grant.
- Organisations combining economic and non-economic activity can apply for non-economic work only if they keep its costs and financing separate and do not use the funded results in their economic activity. An authorised representative must sign the separation declaration.
- Each lead individual could submit only one application. Participation in other applications and existing Formas grants was allowed if total salary financing stayed within 100%. Submitting the same project with different leads was prohibited.
How to apply
- Tila
- ei saatavilla
- Haku päättyy
- Hakukierroksen ehdot
- The 2025 call is closed.
The 2025 call is closed. Consult the official Formas call page for the published funding decisions.
Applications were submitted in Prisma in Swedish or English. The lead needed a personal account and the coordinating organisation needed an organisation account and approval as fund administrator. Organisations needing project-specific approval had to contact the named Formas administrator; an existing account or an earlier project approval was not sufficient. A new organisation-account request had to be made by 31 March 2025. Other partners did not need Prisma accounts.
The lead registered the application before 14:00 on 10 April 2025, after which the fund administrator had to sign digitally within seven calendar days. Late additions were allowed only if Formas requested them. Notify Formas immediately if another funder offers or provides funding for the same or a similar purpose.