Advanced and innovative digitalization 2024 - first call for proposals

A call for proposals within the program Advanced digitalisation

Programmet Avancerad digitalisation is an industry-driven programme to promote Sweden's and Swedish industry's ability to create the digital solutions of the future. The program has a program council with representatives from Swedish industry, who participate in the design of calls for proposals and provide input on industrial needs to fulfill the program's objectives.

This the call for proposals is aimed at consortia that, in collaboration, can contribute to the development of components and system solutions that will be required for the next generation of digital solutions, but also for new products and services to be developed in Sweden.

Read more about the program

The projects must be driven by industrial needs and relevant within the call's technical focus areas:

• End-to-End AI in development, production and services.
• Secure digital platforms for efficient development, production and support.
• Data-driven development and safe exchange of data between processes and actors.
• Model- and simulation-driven development and optimization, including the use of digital twins.
• Autonomous systems (development, optimization and architecture for reliability and interoperability).
• Edge computing, joint and cloud technology as well as 5G networks and software-defined networks for industrial applications.

The call for proposals is aimed at consortia with at least two project parties which may include companies, universities, university college, research institutes and other relevant actors. At least one company must be part of the consortium to ensure that the project is industrially anchored. All participating parties can be companies.

Funding: SEK 2 – 15 million.
A maximum of 50 percent of the project's total eligible costs

Project duration: 12 – 36 months.

Preliminary budget for this call for proposals is SEK 30 million.

Important dates

Opening date: November 7, 2023

Last application date: 14 February 2024 at 2 p.m

Date of decision: 18 April 2024

Earliest project start date: 19 April 2024

Date of latest project start: 13 May 2024

Please note that the dates are preliminary.

The call for proposals is part of the program Advanced digitalisation, an effort in collaboration with industry that mobilizes actors from different parts of society towards common objective. In this case, towards objective linked to the digital structural transformation, the competitiveness of business and societal challenges.

The program wants to strengthen Swedish research. It should make Sweden more attractive in terms of research and innovation investments and stimulate the development of advanced digital technology. The program must be implemented with a long-term perspective and contribute to innovative, enabling technologies and the development of central competence areas that meet the needs of the industry.
Read more about the program

objective of the program is to:

• Contribute to the next generation of advanced, powerful and secure digital solutions - developed in Sweden.
• Strengthen Sweden's attractiveness in terms of research and innovation investments.
• Contribute to raising the competence and implementation ability of Swedish business in the area of advanced digitalisation.
• Ensure increased competitiveness for the industry operating in Sweden.
• Form a collaboration platform and act as a knowledge hub for other Swedish initiatives in the field of digitization.
• Contribute to society's digital transformation, sustainable development and the work to achieve the Swedish environmental goals.

This call for proposals focuses on fundamental and enabling technologies and capabilities for the digital solutions of the future. The overall theme for the call for proposals is: Digitalisation and integration of sustainable value chains for interconnected systems and between business areas.

The call's aim is that the project that are financed should contribute to the program's overall objective.

The projects shall:

• Develop new knowledge that can promote advanced digitalisation that renews Swedish industry in one or more application areas.
• Give results with impact and good potential to be spread. In this way, they can provide a competence-enhancing effect in Swedish industry in addition to the participating parties.

Technical focus areas

This call for proposals also has six technical focus areas. The proposed projects must be relevant to one or more of these areas:

End-to-End AI in development, production and services

Technologies are addressed here that include all steps from the initial phase of data collection to the final model dissemination, as well as the feedback of model quality in a model development project.

The development of AI-based smart products and services on an industrial scale is more than just a collection of a number of independent smart algorithms. A successful and scalable solution also requires integrated tools and platforms for data management, from collection, cleaning, annotation, training and model development to continuous update and maintenance after dissemination. A key issue is flexibility and compatibility between various different systems and platforms.

Secure digital platforms for efficient development, production and support

All activities in society are becoming increasingly connected. There is an increased need for digital platforms where data is exchanged as a service through open communication platforms, and where there is trust and interoperability all the way between connected equipment as well as between suppliers and customers. For example, if monitoring and control can take place on a large scale and with reliable connections, secure and reliable platforms are needed.

This area includes:

• High availability in the communication service.
• Support for various eligibility requirements on connection. For example, long battery life or extreme performance in the form of bandwidth or response times.
• High security regarding the devices that are connected to the network through identification, authentication and a high degree of data security.
• Development environments that support application development in connected environments.

Data-driven development and secure exchange of data between processes and actors

The systems and applications of the future will increasingly be based on the analysis and processing of large amounts of data, for example through machine learning. Exchange of data in the value chain should address the possibilities for increased degree of automation, improved and optimized planning and thus increased quality, reduced waste and more. The strategic value of data will increase and partly form the basis of all types of product development.

This area includes:

• Handling large amounts of data at a high rate from many different sources.
• Management of quality, security, integrity, ethics and more.
• Data mining. That is, search in large data sets.
• Data analysis. That is, process, interpret and compare data to improve models and create better decision-making bases.
• Business models for access and exchange of data and for new services and applications based on data.

Model- and simulation-driven development and optimization, including the use of digital twins.

The complexity of future products is expected to increase through the accelerating digitization, i.e. increased use of software and interconnection of "smart" adaptive cyber-physical systems. At the same time, the demands on quality, lead time and cost are increasing. An important strategy to meet these challenges is to increase the use of modeling and simulation in development work.

This area includes:

• Modeling and simulation in all phases and within all disciplines of the development work. From models used in the concept phase to explore the design space to models used for verification and validation.
• Model validation and model improvement with measurement data from physical samples.
• Use of digital twins to analyze deviations during test and in operation.
• Automation of testing and evaluation.

Autonomous systems such as development, optimization and architecture for reliability and collaboration

This area includes a systems-oriented approach and knowledge from several disciplines to build systems with a higher degree of autonomy. Systems that can act autonomously in physical reality augmented via reliable and smart built-in models. An autonomous system requires distributed intelligence all the way to the edge of the network, built on an efficient computer architecture for, among other things, machine intelligence in embedded systems. The communication between all these systems needs to be reliable, so that the systems are safe and robust. It is also important that people's interaction with these systems is natural and comfortable.

Edge computing, joint and cloud technology as well as 5G networks and software-defined networks for industrial applications

The starting point here is that an ever greater variety of tools will be required in terms of tools that are made available for the development of services. Edge computing is needed both for eligibility requirements for short response times and for local survival in the event of major system failures. Cloud technology enables the utilization of shared resources, not least in terms of computing capacity for AI-intensive applications. The networks will also need to be able to be dynamically "configured" to meet specific eligibility requirements from applications, for example regarding capacity, response times, security or redundancy.

Two central sustainability perspectives

In addition to the above, Vinnova is tasked with promoting sustainable growth and community development. Genom Agenda 2030, the countries of the world have agreed on a global agreement and understanding of what characterizes sustainable development. Through our efforts, we contribute to the global commitment to reach the goals.

In Inom Agenda 2030, Vinnova has specifically identified climate and gender equality as two central sustainability perspectives to which our funded investments should contribute positively. Project financed by Vinnova are therefore expected to take special account of the climate and gender equality aspects.

One aspect that Vinnova follows up and assesses is whether both women and men share in the grant in an equal way, participate in and have influence over the project. See section 7 under the actor criterion.

Another aspect involves analyzing and deciding whether there are gender or gender aspects that are relevant in connection with the project's problem area, solutions and utilization. In this call for proposals the question is not the basis for assessment but is mandatory for all applicant to answer in the application form.

Results from research and innovation that are made freely available increase the opportunity for more people to contribute to solutions to societal challenges. The call for proposals should contribute to making more results freely available to everyone and scientific publication should take place with open access.

Read more about our work to contribute to the goals of Agenda 2030

Read more about what our work for equal innovation means for those of you who seek funding from us

The call for proposals is aimed at consortia with at least two participants, which may include companies, universities, university college, research institutes and other relevant actors.

The projects must be driven by the needs of the industry and at least one company must be part of the consortium. All participating parties can be companies.

Participant seeking funding must be a Swedish legal entity. In this respect, a foreign organization that has a branch or place of business in Sweden is equated with a Swedish legal person. The costs in the project must be attributable to the branch's or operating location's activities.

Activities for which funding can be applied for

It is possible to apply for funding for activities that are part of research and innovation projects with a focus that meets the call's aim according to section 2.

Examples of eligible activities:

• Investigation of technical and design conditions.
• Development of prototypes or demonstration versions of products or services. This may also include pilot work, testing and validation.
• Research and development of production methods.
• Planning and conducting studies or tests to verify an innovation.
• Investigation of market conditions such as identifying customers, customer needs, possible collaboration partners and competitors.

We do not finance routine or recurring changes to existing products, services, manufacturing methods or manufacturing processes. Neither are educational efforts, courses, marketing, sales, ongoing operations, quality assurance, certification, investment in equipment and tools, and intellectual property strategies and protection.

The length of the projects can be between 12 and 36 months.

Eligible costs

Our funding takes place through funding. Funding for organizations that carry out economic activities is covered by rules on state support. The rules govern, among other things, which types of costs and what proportion of them may be covered by funding.

You will find information on eligible costs in the document "Instructions for Vinnova's term on eligible costs 2023". In section 2, the general prerequisites for a cost to be eligible for support are described, and in section 4, a detailed description of each type of cost is given. You can find the document under the heading Eligible costs on the website
Vinnova's general terms and conditions for funding

Vinnova's funding can amount to between SEK 2 and 15 million per project. It can amount to a maximum of 50 percent of the project's total eligible costs.

Funding to parties that carry out economic activities is granted according to § 9 of the regulation 2015:208 on government support for research and development and innovation. This means support for research and development projects. This is described in Article 25 of the EU Commission's Block Exemption Regulation number 651/2014, known as GBER.

Both the regulation 2015:208 and GBER are described in more detail on the website about State support for economic activities. There are also links to the regulations themselves.

The nature of the projects is expected to meet the description for Industrial research, which has the following term of maximum aid intensity to an individual beneficiary based on organization type:

• Small companies are companies with 1-49 employees and a turnover of a maximum of EUR 10 million. They can have a maximum of 70 percent of their costs covered by funding.
• Medium-sized companies are companies with 50-249 employees and a maximum turnover of EUR 50 million. Their funding can amount to a maximum of 60 percent of the costs.
• Large companies have more than 250 employees and a turnover of more than EUR 50 million. For them, a maximum of 50 percent in fundingapplies.

All types of companies can receive an additional 15 percent support, up to a maximum of 80 percent, if they meet certain term. More information can be found in the document "Support levels, definitions and more for funding according to Vinnova" on the website about State support for economic activities.

Funding will preferably be granted for Industrial research, but in individual cases also for Experimental development.

Se Kapitel 1, Article 2 of the GBER for definitions:

• Item 85 for Industrial research.
• Item 86 for Experimental Development.

Please note that the support levels for different organization types above only apply to Industrial research. All details about support levels for different purposes and organization types can be found in a table in the document "Support levels, definitions and more for funding according to Vinnova" on the website State support for economic activities. There you will also find the GBER regulation.

Non-state aid is granted to parties that do not carry out economic activities, for example universities and university colleges, research institutes and public activities. Their maximum aid intensity is 100 percent. Regulation 2009:1101 with instruction for the Agency for innovation systemapplies here.

The total grant budget is provisionally SEK 30 million for this call for proposals.

We will only assess applications that meet the following formal eligibility requirements:

• The project must have at least two project parties, of which at least one party must be a company.
• All project parties must be legal entities.
• Proposal must be written in Swedish or English.
• The project must not have started before proposal is submitted.
• funding sought is between SEK 2 and 15 million.
• The project duration is a maximum of 36 months.
• Proposal must follow all instructions and contain all appendices according to section 9.

What do we assess?

Proposal must be in line with the call's objective and aim stated in section 2 and will be assessed according to the criteria below. In addition to an individual assessment of each project, Vinnova strives to also achieve a certain size-wise spread of granted project.

Potential

Potential to contribute one or some of the call's six technical focus areas.

Potential to further contribute to the program's objective by:

• contribute to the next generation of advanced, powerful and secure digital solutions - developed in Sweden.
• strengthen Sweden's attractiveness in terms of foreign research and innovation investments.
• contribute to raising and strengthening the competence and implementation ability of Swedish business in the area of advanced digitalisation.
• clearly contribute to increased competitiveness for the industry operating in Sweden.
• constitute a collaboration platform and function as a knowledge hub for other Swedish initiatives in the field of digitalisation.
• contribute to society's digital transformation and sustainable development in order to reach the sustainability goals in Agenda 2030.
  
  As well as
• Potential to develop knowledge and skills that can promote advanced digitalisation that renews Swedish industry.
• The project's potential impact and impact on Swedish industry.
• The project's potential to contribute positively to the global goals in Agenda 2030, as well as minimize the negative effects.
  
  

Actors

• The competence, credibility and ability of the project parties to implement the project.
• The consortium's anchoring in Swedish industry.
• The project parties' ability to spread, utilize, commercialize and further develop and spread the knowledge generated in the project, both within their own organizations and outside the consortium.
• How well the project team is composed with regard to gender distribution, as well as the distribution of power and influence between women and men.
  
  

Feasibility

• The realism of the project plan in relation to set objective, methods, activities and budget.
• The participation and relevance of the specified project parties in the project's various work packages and activities.
• How well the project structure contributes to the utilization and dissemination of the results, both within the own organizations and outside the consortium.
• How well risks are described and managed in the implementation of the project.
  
  

How do we judge?

The applications will be assessed in competition and the assessment is based on the electronic proposal submitted via Vinnova's e-services.

Schematically, the decision-making process looks as follows:

1. Proposal are submitted via Vinnova's e-services.
2. The applications that meet the formal requirements will be assessed based on the criteria stated above by Vinnova's appointed evaluator. The assessment results in a recommendation for funding.
3. Vinnova makes decisions about which project are to be financed and decisions are communicated to applicant. Vinnova strives to achieve a certain spread of the challenge area and size of the granted projects and reserves the right to apply a portfolio approach to granted project.

To apply for funding, you fill in a web-based form in Vinnova's e-service for applications, which you can find via the button Apply here.

There you also upload the following attachments:

• Project description
  May include a maximum of 10 vertical A4 pages with single-column 12-point text. The project description must follow the template found further down on this web page.
• CV attachment
  Relevanta CV for the project manager and all key people. The attachment is expected to include at least one CV per participant. Varje CV may be a maximum of 1 A4 page with 12-point text. The CV attachment must follow the template found further down on this web page.
• Project summary
  Attached in a separate appendix. May cover a maximum of 1 vertical A4 page. The project summary must be able to be shared with the program's external program council and must therefore not contain confidential or other sensitive information. It is not included in the assessment process. The project summary must follow the template found further down on this web page.

Only requested pages and attachments will be assessed. References to web pages will not be considered.

Keep in mind that it takes time to make a proposal. You can start filling in information, save and continue at a later time. When proposal is ready, you mark it as done. You can unlock proposal and make changes at any time, right up to the application deadline.

Please mark proposal well in advance before the call for proposals closes.

When the call for proposals has closed and proposal has been registered with Vinnova, a confirmation will be sent out by e-mail to you who are responsible for the user account, project manager and company signatory or head of department. It may take a few hours before you receive the email.

If you have not received a confirmation by e-mail within 24 hours after the call for proposals has closed, please contact us.

When the application period has expired, proposal can only be completed upon request from us.