BioInnovation Hypothesis testing Step 1 - 2024

Call for proposals within the strategic innovation program BioInnovation

BioInnovation is part of Vinnova's, the Energy Agency's and Forma's joint effort on strategic innovation programs. The purpose of the investment in strategic innovation programs is to create the conditions for international competitiveness and sustainable solutions to global societal challenges.
More information about the program

Samtliga BioInnovations's efforts are based on an overall mission to increase the added value in the Swedish bio-based sector and thereby contribute to creating a more sustainable society.

Cross-border cooperation that creates competitiveness and new business opportunities is sought. Great importance is attached to the companies' interest and commitment. Products and services must fill a clear market need, be based on resource efficiency and meet relevant environmental eligibility requirements.

With this the offer we support smaller research and innovation projects that deal with an issue of a new and innovative nature. This means that the news value must, and the uncertainty factor should, be higher than in more traditional project.

The project form is not intended to solve a minor existing industrial problem, but rather an opportunity to confirm or reject a hypothesis before a more extensive project.

The call for proposals is primarily addressed to need owners in the form of manufacturers, suppliers and users of bio-based materials, products and services. Universities, university colleges, research institutes and other relevant actors are also covered by the offer, but the hypothesis test must then take place in collaboration with the owner of the need.

Proposal and funding

The call for proposals offers two application opportunities per year and has an indicative budget of SEK 3.5 million per application opportunity. Funding is granted with a maximum of SEK 500,000. The total funding from companies must be at least as large as Vinnova's funding. Expected project time for a project in this call for proposals is around 6 months.

BioInnovation has made the strategic choice not to finance project that primarily aim to develop animal feed, foodstuffs or pharmaceuticals, nor project that primarily work with primary raw material supply such as cultivation, care and harvesting of bio raw materials.

The call for proposals will collect, assess and decide on received applications on two occasions during the call's opening hours. Please note that the dates are preliminary. For current information see under important dates further up the page.

The following times apply to the first assessment:
Last application date: 2024-03-05 at 2 p.m
Latest decision date: 2024-04-26
Project start at the earliest: 2024-04-29
Project start at the latest: 2024-05-29

The following times apply to the second assessment session:
Last application date: 2024-09-03 at 2 p.m
Latest decision date: 2024-10-18
Project start at the earliest: 2024-10-21
Project start no later than: 2024-11-01

Samtliga BioInnovations's efforts are based on an overall mission to increase the added value in the Swedish bio-based sector and thereby contribute to creating a more sustainable society.

Cross-border cooperation that creates competitiveness and new business opportunities is sought. Great importance is attached to the companies' interest and commitment. Products and services must fill a clear market need, be based on resource efficiency and meet relevant environmental eligibility requirements.

The purpose of the call for proposals

The purpose of the call for proposals is to stimulate higher risk-taking and generate new visionary ideas that have potential to significantly contribute to and benefit from the transition to a bio-based economy.

The idea must be either:

• technologically innovative and ground-breaking with great market potential or
• commercially innovative and has a clear customer focus with potential to quickly reach the market.

The project must be part of and contribute to BioInnovation's work with external communication, portfolio analysis, dissemination of results and systematic learning.

With its project, BioInnovation wants to create development within the aspects of technology, market and sustainability in the area of the call. With the call for proposals BioInnovation wants to get more people to work together to develop their innovative capacity and create new solutions that contribute to the goals for sustainable development in Agenda 2030, within the framework of the call's priorities.

The projects are expected to contribute to equal social development. For example, by having both women and men equally share in the contribution, have influence over the project and participate actively in its implementation. The aspect is included in the assessment, see section 7.

Another gender equality 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. This question is mandatory to answer for all applicant and can be found under the heading " Project tasks", but the question is not the basis for assessment in this call for proposals.

Make results from research and innovation available

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.

The call for proposals is primarily aimed at manufacturers, suppliers and users of bio-based materials, products and services. Universities, university colleges, research institutes and other relevant actors are also covered by the offer.

The actors must have the ability and interest in collaboratively contributing to the goals of BioInnovation.

The project group must consist of at least two project parties, of which at least one is a company. Each party must have its own budget with its own costs, and not just finance the other party's costs. The project group must include companies with activities in Sweden.

Funding is only granted to Swedish organisations. Swedish organizations also mean foreign organizations that have a branch or place of business in Sweden.

In such cases, the costs in the project must be attributable to the branch's or establishment's activities. An organization that is not Swedish can, however, be participant that does not receive funding. Se BioInnovations Ansökningsguide for more information.

It is a clear ambition from BioInnovation to capture the concrete opportunities that different owners of needs see. It can be both manufacturers and suppliers as well as users of bio-based materials, products and services.

In this call for proposals priority is given to applications where the project manager is employed by companies owning the needs.

Many need owners may find it difficult to set aside time for application work, and it is therefore natural that collaboration takes place with research performers. However, the expectation is that customer needs and market value will be the focus, not the development and testing of new research results.

Activities for which funding can be applied for

Project in this call for proposals aims to verify, confirm or reject emerging innovative proposals for a more extensive project.

The project form hypothesis testing Stage 1 refers to a new, shorter project that deals with a question of a radical and innovative nature. This means that the news value must, and the uncertainty factor should, be higher than in more traditional project.

The project's questioning can originate from an unsolved problem or from an identified need. The project form is not intended to solve an existing, minor industrial problem, but rather an opportunity to confirm or reject a lookup for a more extensive project.

The project's activities must fall into one of the following categories, according to the European Commission's definitions:

• Industrial research
• Experimental development

More information on support levels and definitions for funding

This call for proposals is intended to be broad in as many ways as possible. Examples of concrete activities are not given to avoid them being perceived as limitations.

This call for proposals does not fund incremental product or process development or patent application costs. Costs related to the patenting of new solutions linked to the project cannot be financed in this call for proposals. However, buying patents or patent licenses are eligible costs.

BioInnovation has made the strategic choice not to finance project that primarily aim to develop animal feed, foodstuffs or pharmaceuticals. Nor do they finance project that primarily work with primary raw material supply such as cultivation, maintenance and harvesting of bio raw materials.

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. See Section 5 below for more information.

Basic prerequisites for a cost to be eligible for support are that it must:

• Carried by applicant company.
• Be attributable to the project.
• Have arisen during the project period.
• Be determined in accordance with the company's usual accounting principles and
  good accounting practice.
• Be in accordance with the company's internal policies and guidelines.

Accounting for project costs must be separated from the company's other transactions in the accounting.

Read more about government support on Vinnova's website

See general terms and conditions for funding

The call for proposals offers two application opportunities per year and has an indicative budget of SEK 3.5 million per application opportunity. Budget is also dependent on the quality of received project applications.

Funding is granted with a maximum of SEK 500,000. The total funding from companies must be at least as large as Vinnova's funding.

Expected project time for a project in this call for proposals is around 6 months.

Note that funding from parties that are not companies may be used to cover costs in the project, but does not count towards matching Vinnova's funding.

Vinnova's e-service for applications indicates the estimated aid intensity for the project, but that calculation also includes funding from any parties that are not companies. It is always the applicant's responsibility to check that only the total funding from companies is sufficient to match the requested Vinnova grant. Feel free to get in touch with the contact person at Vinnova to make arrangements before submitting proposal, so that accidental mistakes can easily be avoided.

Companies must be joint-stock companies or economic associations that conduct their own active business activities. In this context, the category of companies also includes private foundations. Corporatized research institutes, holding companies of universities and colleges, incubators and the like, are in this context excluded from the category of companies.

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 of funding that can be granted per party depends on, among other things, the type of activity and the size of the company.

Read more about support levels, definitions and term

For universities, university colleges and research institutes that do not conduct economic activities, funding is not granted as state aid but in accordance with regulation 2009:1101 with instruction for the Agency for innovation system.

Only applications that meet the following formal eligibility requirements will be assessed:

• The project manager must be employed by one of the project parties.
• The project group must consist of at least two project parties, of which at least one is a company.
• The total funding from companies must be at least as large as Vinnova's funding for the project.
• The project group must include companies with activities in Sweden, as defined in section 3.
• The project parties must be legal entities.
• Proposal must contain all mandatory attachments according to section 9.

Applications that do not meet all of these eligibility requirements will be rejected.

What is assessed?

Decisions about funding are made based on an overall, weighted assessment of the project with regard to potential, feasibility and actors based on the following criteria.

For Hypothesis testing projects, Potential will weigh the most heavily in the assessment.

Potential

• The project has potential to significantly contribute to and benefit from the transition to a bio-based economy.
• The project has potential to clearly contribute to the call's aim according to section 2.
• The project makes a clear shift in at least one of the aspects Technology Readiness Level (TRL), Market Readiness level (MRL) and Sustainability Readiness Level (SRL). Se BioInnovations Ansökningsguide for more information.
  
  

Feasibility

• The project's starting point in TRL, MRL or SRL is clearly described.
• How planned movement in TRL, MRL or SRL is to be carried out is
  clearly described.
• The project's activities are clearly described and justified.
• The project plan is realistic in relation to the budget and objective.
• Planned activities contribute to the achievement of expected results.
• The project plan describes relevant working methods for managing gender equality in the project.

Support for work with gender equality and gender aspects in the project can be found here

Actors

• Individuals in the project have the ability and credibility for the project's implementation.
• Owners of needs have a demanding role.
• The consortium represents relevant parts of the value chain that the project addresses, and the parties complement each other well.
• The project team's key persons are well composed with regard to gender distribution and the distribution of power and influence between women and men. An equal distribution is considered to have been achieved when the gender distribution as well as the distribution of power and influence in the form of work efforts and roles are within the range of 40 to 60 percent.

If assessment is otherwise equal, proposals with a need owner as project manager will be prioritized.

How does the assessment process work?

Proposal is assessed in competition with other applications received at each assessment occasion, and the assessment is based on the electronic proposal submitted to Vinnova via Vinnova's e-service for applications. See section 9 for more information.

Schematically, the decision process looks like this:

1. Proposal are submitted via Vinnova's e-service for applications.
2. The applications that meet the formal requirements will be assessed in relation to the assessment criteria by external evaluatorappointed by Vinnova. This results in a recommendation to funding.
3. Decisions are made by Vinnova and notified to applicant, and the management of BioInnovation is informed of the outcome.

Then you apply

BioInnovations Ansökningsguide aims to define certain central concepts so that they can be interpreted and used in a similar way in applications and by evaluator. It also provides suggestions for tools for describing the application's ambition regarding technology, market and sustainability. Read it carefully to create the most relevant proposal possible.

To apply for funding you fill in a web-based form in Vinnova's e-service for applications. There are also templates for the attachments that you need to include.

These attachments are mandatory for the call for proposals:

• Project description according to template
  Max 5 pages including any references.
  The text must be written in Swedish or English.
• CV attachment according to template
  It must include the project manager and all key people in the project team. A maximum of 1 A4 according to the template is used for each person.

At the same time as proposal is sent to Vinnova, the appendix Project Report according to the template must be sent to BioInnovation via e-mail: info@bioinnovation.se

Template for the project report can be found on the call's webpage. The project report must be able to be distributed and published freely and must not contain confidential or otherwise sensitive information. BioInnovation needs this data for project follow-up and statistics. That is the reason why the project report is requested.

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 fully unlock proposal and make changes at any time, right up until the last application date.

Mark proposal ready in good time 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 at the request of Vinnova.