Validate research within advanced digitalization in real environment

Testing, validating and demonstrating research results in a real environment in industry is an important step to minimize risks, create acceptance and shorten the time from research to application. This the call for proposals is aimed at actors who need to validate results from their research in advanced digitalisation in real or realistic environments. This refers to production facilities or realistic pilot-scale test and demo facilities. The validation is expected to form the basis for continued development and scaling of advanced digitization solutions to the benefit of Swedish industry and its role in the green transition.

Funding is not given for building or expanding infrastructure.

The project consortium must consist of at least two project parties, of which at least one is a Swedish company.

The call's total budget is preliminary SEK 20 million. Funding will be granted with a maximum of 50 percent of the project's eligible costs and a maximum of SEK 5 million per project.

The project duration may be a maximum of 18 months.

Testing, validating and demonstrating research results is an important step in minimizing risks, creating acceptance, promoting commercialization and shortening the time from research to application. When this is done, facilities intended for testing and demonstration in a laboratory or isolated pilot environment, so-called test beds, are often used, for example at the Swedish research institutes. In other cases, there is a need for research validation in more realistic industrial environments, such as industrial production plants or equivalent realistic pilot plants. By real-world environments, we mean engineered environments for system-level test and validation under realistic industrial conditions. Examples are test arenas for autonomous vehicles or collaborative robots.

There can be many advantages to validating research results in real-world settings. The results can be directly exposed to the conditions and limitations that apply within the current industry or field of application. They can then be validated in contexts where many industrial aspects are relevant, such as organization, operation and maintenance. In this way, the need for investment costs for certain new or modified test beds can also be avoided, and the time to validate research and bring new solutions to market is significantly shortened.

The focus of the call is to offer funding to validate research results in existing environments. Funding is not given for the construction of new facilities or the further development and expansion of existing ones. This is to effectively use existing infrastructure.

When research results are tested in real environments, new questions often arise. The call for proposals is to promote new collaborations between research actors and industry actors, and thereby both raise new questions about future challenges and create an opportunity to solve today's problems. Research actors can be both academic research groups and industrial research organisations.

The objectives of this call for proposals are to:

• Enable research actors to validate research in realistic environments to minimize risk and shorten the time from research to application.
• Promote new collaborations between research actors and industry actors that can lead to advanced digitalisation that renews Swedish industry.
• Contribute to the green transition.

The call for proposals is part of the program Advanced digitalisation, an effort from Vinnova in collaboration with industry that mobilizes actors from different parts of society towards common objective. 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.

Programmet Avancerad's digitalisation has the objective of:

• 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.

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.

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

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.

An aspect that Vinnova follows up and assesses is whether both women and men equally share in the contribution, participate in and have influence over the project, see the assessment criteria of this call.

Another aspect involves analyzing and deciding whether there are gender or gender aspects that are relevant in relation to the project's problem area, solutions and utilization. This question is mandatory for all applicant and can be found under the heading " Project tasks" in the application form. In this call for proposals the question is the basis for assessment under the potential criterion, see section 7.

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 where one or more research actors together with one or more parties from industry have identified common needs to validate their research results in a real environment. Research actors can be both academic research groups and industrial research organisations.

Consortia must include at least two participating project parties where companies, universities, university college, research institutes and other relevant actors can be included.

To ensure industrial anchoring , at least one Swedish company must be part of the consortium. Both large and small and medium-sized companies are welcome to participate.

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 establishment's activities.

The plant owner, the owner of the relevant infrastructure to be used for validation in the project, can either be a participant or a subcontractor to the project. The plant owner cannot therefore have both roles at the same time.

Activities for which funding can be applied for

The call for proposals offers funding to validate research results within
advanced digitalisation in a real or life-like environment. With such environments
refers to, for example, production facilities or test and demo facilities i
realistic pilot scale. This could, for example, be about researching new ones
ideas for data collection and analysis can contribute to increased industrial automation,
ensure that new research concepts for communication and data flows are
relevant to complex industrial environments or about validating that new models and algorithms are applicable in large-scale industrial systems of systems.

Test, validation and demonstration in what can be considered a laboratory environment or fully simulated environment cannot be funded in this call for proposals.

Funding is also not given for the construction of new facilities or expansion of existing infrastructure. However, modification and some adaptation of the current facility to enable validation can be financed.

Eligible costs

Vinnova's 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.

Please note that any costs for the use of a facility are only eligible if they are actual, auditable and incurred during the project, in case the facility owner is a participant. If the facility owner is instead a subcontractor to a participant, the market rate can be applied for the service of using the facility. The procuring project party's cost for this service then becomes an eligible cost in the project.

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 amounts to a maximum of SEK 5 million per project. The grant can amount to a maximum of 50 percent of the project's total eligible costs.

The total budget for the call for proposals is provisionally SEK 20 million.

Please note that the highest proportion of the project costs that Vinnova finances, so-called aid intensity, per project is not the same as the highest level of support per participant. Vinnova's funding is granted per party. Each participant is responsible for ensuring that funding received does not exceed the aid intensity permitted according to the rules for state support. The amount funding that can be granted per party depends, in the case of companies, on the type of activity and the size of the company, among other things.

Funding for parties that carry out economic activities is granted according to § 9 of the regulation 2015:208 on state support for research and development and innovation (the support scheme). By that is meant support for research and development projects according to article 25 of the EU Commission's Block Exemption Regulation number 651/2014, which is called GBER.

Both the support scheme 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 primarily assumed to fulfill the description for Industrial research. 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.

Depending on the nature of the projects with regard to project activities, funding may also be granted according to the support basis Experimental development.

Se Kapitel 1, Article 2 of GBER for definitions of the activities included in the respective basis for support:

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

Funding for parties that carry out non-economic activities is granted according to section 5 of the support scheme, for example to universities and university colleges, research institutes and public activities. Their maximum aid intensity is 100 percent.

Conditions for us to assess proposal

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 Swedish 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.
• Proposal must follow all instructions and contain all attachments according to section 9. Note that a mandatory attachment is a declaration of intent from the owner of the facility to be used in the project.

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.

Potential

• How well is it justified that the research results need to be validated in a real environment and have potential to contribute to the goals of the Advanced digitalisationprogram.
• The project's potential to, through collaboration between research actors and industry actors, develop knowledge and innovations that can promote advanced digitalisation that renews Swedish industry.
• The project's potential to contribute positively to the global goals of Agenda 2030, especially climate and gender equality. Please note that assessment of gender equality is based on the applicant's answer to the mandatory question under " Project tasks".

Actors

• The competence, credibility and ability of the project parties to implement the project.
• The consortium's anchoring in Swedish industry and ability to meet the industry's needs.
• 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 is the facility owner's commitment and opportunity to make available their infrastructure, which is at least of the nature of a production facility or realistic pilot scale.
• How well the project structure contributes to dissemination and future utilization of the results.
• 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 grant or refusal.
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 areas of application and size of the granted projects and reserves the right to apply a portfolio approach to granted project.

This is how you apply

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.
• 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. The appendix is not part of the assessment process. The project summary 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.
• Letter of intent from facility owner
  Regardless of whether the owner of the relevant infrastructure is a participant or subcontractor, a declaration of intent from the facility owner must be attached. An authorized representative of the facility owner certifies there that they have the capacity, resources and interest to let the infrastructure be used for the described project, and to the extent that proposal describes. Any template can be used.

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 until the last application date.

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, completion of proposal can only take place upon request from us.