Research for a competitive and sustainable battery value chain

This research call supports Sweden’s role in a sustainable European battery value chain. It focuses on relatively early-stage technology, scientific knowledge and research capacity in collaboration with industry. It covers the programme’s full breadth, including battery materials and chemistry, production, reuse and recycling, safety, modelling, system studies and policy analysis.

Four areas are particularly sought: more efficient production processes and materials, including AI and digital tools; resilient access to raw materials and components, including recycled materials; solid-state batteries with commercial potential; and scaling recycling processes for battery types expected to reach market within ten years. Collaboration with internationally leading researchers or companies is encouraged. The call’s table identifies preferred countries by research area, without restricting all applications to those countries or four topics. Where proposals otherwise rank equally, the sought topics and approaches receive priority.

Projects are encouraged to analyse market and customer needs, manufacturing readiness and scaling, value-chain resilience, environmental and economic performance, energy and material flows, recyclability and relevant regulation. These cross-cutting analyses are encouraged rather than mandatory for every proposal.

The published round offers up to SEK 10 million per project from an approximately SEK 70 million total budget. Non-economic work—work outside a market for goods or services—can receive up to 100% of a participant’s eligible costs. For companies, feasibility studies and industrial research have maximum rates of 70%, 60% and 50% for small, medium and large businesses. These mean assessing project potential or gaining new knowledge for products and services. Experimental development, using existing knowledge to develop and test improvements, has rates of 45%, 35% and 25%; routine changes are excluded. Basic research without direct commercial application can receive up to 100%.

Industrial research and experimental development can gain up to 15 percentage points for qualifying collaboration or wide dissemination, with a resulting ceiling of 80% for those categories. Company collaboration must include an SME unless conducted in at least two EU countries, and no company may bear more than 70% of eligible costs. In company–research-organisation collaboration, the research organisation must bear at least 10% of eligible costs and retain the right to publish its own results. Alternatively, results must be widely shared through conferences, publications, open databases or free/open software.

Eligible costs include recorded project staff time, equipment use, building depreciation and land costs, external research, knowledge, patents, consultancy and direct operating costs. Depreciation covers the share of an asset’s cost allocated to project use. Costs must be your own, reasonable, auditable and incurred during the approved period. Unpaid work and recoverable VAT do not qualify. Overheads are shared costs such as general administration, office supplies or IT systems that do not arise directly from the project. Actual overheads are normally capped at 30% of eligible salary costs. Universities and higher-education institutions use their full-cost method. A 45% ceiling on eligible salary costs applies to research organisations constituted as limited companies or partnerships under direct or indirect state legal control, research foundations with one or more government-appointed board members, and government agencies mandated to conduct their own research, excluding universities and higher-education institutions. To qualify, the organisation must receive funding by government decision for independent research and participate through its non-economic activity, such as independent research rather than commissioned research services. Only actual overheads qualify. Economic activity, including commissioned research, must be accounted for separately; project work within that activity uses the ordinary 30% ceiling.

SME innovation support can cover obtaining, validating and defending intellectual property; seconding highly qualified staff from a research organisation or large company into a newly created research and innovation role that does not replace staff; and innovation advice or support services such as testing, certification or specialist facilities. The normal maximum is 50%. Advice and support services can reach 100% if total aid for those services remains at most EUR 220,000 per company over three years. Declare previous aid under this service category. Patent-cost support is capped at SEK 250,000 per project and needs a separate work package; annual patent-office fees are excluded.

You cover the remaining costs and overruns. Another organisation’s unpaid contribution cannot count as your own cost. Report other public or EU funding sought, received or planned for the same costs; combined support must remain within the aid limits. Project parties cannot subcontract each other; separate related-company consultancy can qualify at the supplier’s actual salary cost.