Swelife - Collaborative projects for better health autumn 2023

This call for proposals is within the strategic innovation program Swelife, which 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.

With this the call for proposals we want to finance more innovative and sustainable life science solutions. The solutions must have great potential to make care more efficient and contribute to sustainable growth.

See more information about Swelife

The call for proposals is aimed at the following actor types:

• healthcare
• business
• Academy
• research institute
• idea-driven sector such as a patient organization.

The projects must consist of at least three project parties representing at least two different of the aforementioned actor types. Applicant actors must cooperate in the project.

Funded project must lead to products, services, processes or other solutions that create benefit, quality and value for patients, care providers and society.

We expect that the solutions lead to better prevention of ill health, or to diseases and injuries being diagnosed, monitored or treated more effectively than today.

The solutions must be value-creating, which means that:

• be innovative or significantly better than those already on the market.
• enriched by cross-border cooperation between the project's various actors.
• be developed together with end users, for example patients.
• have a clear commercial focus with a developed business plan.

You must clearly describe in the project application that the relevant and market conditions for the solution have been confirmed.

In this call for proposals Vinnova can finance project from SEK 500,000 up to SEK 3,000,000. A maximum of 50 percent of the project's total costs can be financed. The costs must be eligible for support, i.e. of the type that Vinnova can finance. The project duration may be a maximum of two years. The call for proposals has a total budget of SEK 25 million.

The call's aim and objective

With this call for proposals Swelife wants to finance innovation projects that in the long term contribute to:

• improved health and well-being or more efficient care.
• sustainable growth within life science in Sweden and strengthened international competitiveness and attractiveness for both business and academia.
  
  

The call for proposals is aimed at project that meet the following:

• The project parties must cooperate in a way that creates both high quality and great value for patients, owners of needs and society.
• Patients or other end users must clearly contribute to the project.
• The project must develop innovative products, services, processes or other solutions that deliver benefit, quality and value for patients, end users and society.
• The project must have a clear commercial focus with a realistic business plan.
• The concept must be scalable for an international market.
• The business idea must be innovative with clear competitive advantages in the intended market.
• Swelife's funding must be of great importance to the implementation and continued success of the project.

The purpose of the call for proposals is to contribute to the fulfillment of Swelife's objective, such as these
described by the program's effect logic.

Areas

Innovation projects in this call for proposals can, for example, be active in the areas:

• medical technology
• drug
• in vitro diagnostics
• digital health
• food for medical purposes.
  
  

sustainability

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.

Project funded in this call for proposals must both work actively to promote social, economic and environmental sustainability within the project. The project must also contribute to reaching the national and global sustainability goals formulated in Agenda 2030, within the framework of the call's priorities.

The proposal must therefore clearly state how the project works with sustainability internally, as well as in what way the project contributes to Agenda 2030.

Read more about our work to contribute to the goals of Agenda 2030
See compiled support for sustainability work in small businesses

We urge applicant project to adapt the design of the product, service or process early on so that it has as few resource needs as possible right from the start.

It could be about:

• move from offering a product to instead offering a service.
• develop offers where several users share the same product.
• digitize a physical product.

It is also important to look at the product as a whole and its life cycle. This applies to the entire chain, from the selection of constituent materials and components, via construction and manufacturing, to destruction and waste management. For example, in this call for proposals we encourage that the product be made easy to maintain, repair or upgrade. Parts should ideally be able to be reused or recycled when scrapped, and any waste should be manageable.

The call for proposals must indirectly contribute to a more equal development of society, which means that all funded project must have an equality perspective.

Think especially about equality aspects when you:

• select project manager.
• puts together a project group, possible steering group or focus group and invites other project participants.
• plans division of labor, participation, power and influence in the project so that both women and men equally share in the contribution, participate in and have influence over the project. See section 7 under the actor criterion.
• examines which gender or gender aspects are relevant linked 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 this call for proposals the question is the basis for assessment under the potential criterion in section 7.

Handboken Inkluderande's innovation is designed as a guide for the actors who are in the initial phase of their work with gender equality and inclusion.
Download and read the manual Inclusive innovation

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 aimed at the following actor types:

• healthcare
• business
• Academy
• research institute
• idea-driven sector.

The idea-based sector means, for example, patient associations and non-profit organizations, which can complement and nuance the requirement specification of the owner of the need.

The actors must collaborate in the project. The project consortium must consist of at least three parties representing at least two different actor types.

End users must be actively involved in the project, for example as a participant or as an advisor in one of the proposed activities. By end user is meant, for example, patient, user, relative, customer or representative of a healthcare provider.

How you include the end user must be clearly stated in the Project Description under the heading End User. The most common is to think of, for example, a nurse, hospital or region as a customer.

We want to encourage patients, users and relatives to be involved early in the project, regardless of the type of solution involved. This is to ensure that the need and the solution match each other well.

An organization that will be participant must:

• be a legal person.
• be involved in designing the project.
• contribute to the implementation of the project.
• be involved and share risks and results.

International parties are welcome to participate in the project, but cannot be the project's coordinator or beneficiary. It must be clear that the parties in question create added value for the project based on the priorities of the call.

Vinnova only grants funding to Swedish organisations. Swedish organizations also mean foreign organizations that have a branch or place of business in Sweden. In addition, the costs in the project must be attributable to the branch's or establishment's activities.

Eligibility requirements on turnover or equity for small and medium-sized enterprises

In order to ensure the company's ability to finance its share of the project cost, all small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must demonstrate a net turnover or equity amounting to at least 25 percent of the company's total eligible costs for the project. This applies to the project parties who are small and medium-sized companies at the time of application.

Se EU's definition of SMEs

The total eligible project cost is the amount that the organization seeks in funding and self-financing.

Example:
Company Y seeks SEK 500,000 in funding and enters with SEK 500,000 in self-financing. The total eligible cost is then SEK 1,000,000 and the company must demonstrate that it meets the financial requirement of 25 percent of total eligible costs, that is, SEK 250,000.

At the time of application, the annual report from the year 2022 must be attached, where it must be stated that the company meets the requirement for net sales or equity.

If the requirement is not met at the latest annual report, an auditor's certificate must be attached showing that the requirement is met at the time of proposal. Only the auditor's certificate issued by the auditor or by an authorized accounting consultant is valid as a document.

The ideas in the projects must be innovative and have potential to develop into commercial innovations. It can be products, services and processes that create quality and value for patients, care providers and society.

We expect that the solutions will either lead to better prevention of ill-health or to the diagnosis, monitoring or treatment of diseases and injuries more effectively than today.

In order to receive funding, there must be a significant need and strong demand from the patient, healthcare provider, customer, user or relative. You must clearly describe in the project application that you have confirmed the relevant market conditions for the solution.

To receive funding in this call for proposals, the technical solutions within the projects should have reached a certain level of technical maturity, but they should not be so far developed that all risks are eliminated. This level of technical maturity is measured using the Technology Readiness Level-skalan, TRL.

Technical solutions developed within the projects must be at TRL 4 to TRL 6 at the time of application. This means that all the activities needed to achieve TRL 4 must have been completed at the time of proposal.

To get a better understanding of what the different TRL levels mean, you can download a full description from the call's webpage.

During the project period, the project must lead to a clear step forward in the commercialization process and towards the practical use of the solution.

The project application must clearly state which results need to be achieved in order to attract follow-on funding after the end of the project.

This call for proposals is not aimed at project such as:

• aims at gradual development of existing products, that is to say that the project's results will be a fine-tuning of an existing product.
• aimed at non-commercial process improvement.
• has a purely academic research focus.
• too much designs a solution or improvement that is locked to an activities, region or municipality and thus does not produce solutions that are scalable.

Activities for which funding can be applied for

In this the call for proposals you can apply for funds for the following activities:

Industrial research or experimental development

• Investigate technical and design conditions.
• Develop prototypes or demo versions of services. This can consist of pilot work, testing and validation.
• Investigate and develop production methods.
• Plan and conduct clinical studies.
  
  

Feasibility study

• Investigate market conditions. For example, it could be to identify customers, customer needs, possible collaboration partners and competitors.
• Carry out a feasibility study for a development project.
• Implementation of news review and freedom-to-operate regarding the intellectual rights of the solution.
• Investigation of the regulatory prerequisites for the solution.

Funded activities must be relevant for the project to be implemented. They must clearly contribute to achieving the project's objective and results.

Activities for which it is not possible to apply for funding

In the call for proposals routine or recurring changes to existing ones are not funded:

• goods
• manufacturing methods and manufacturing processes
• services.

The call for proposals also does not fund:

• pure marketing and sales.
• ongoing operation.
• investments in equipment and tools.
• the cost of intellectual property protection, for example patent application, consulting costs and other application fees.
• costs for certification or equivalent, for example CE marking.
• quality assurance.
• educational initiatives and courses.
  
  

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.

The recipient may be obliged to repay the grant, if it was granted incorrectly or with an amount that is too high. It is important that each participant himself makes an assessment as to whether the current activity is covered by the state aid rules.

Read more about government support on Vinnova's website

Se Vinnovas general terms and conditions for funding and eligible costs

In this call for proposals Vinnova can finance project from SEK 500,000 up to SEK 3,000,000. Each project can be granted a maximum of 50 percent of the project's total eligible costs. The project must therefore finance at least half of the total project budget in other ways.

This applies to the individual actor types:

• Swedish small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can be financed with up to 50 percent of their eligible costs.
• Large companies can be financed with up to 20 percent of their eligible costs.
• Research organizations, health care organizations and other public organizations can receive funding with up to 100 percent of their eligible costs in their non-financial activities.

Economic activities refer to activities that involve offering goods or services on a market. If the project party carries out both financial and non-financial activities, it is required that costs and funding in the respective activities can be clearly separated from each other. If there is no separate accounting, the organization is considered a company.

The fact that an organization is not profit-making has no significance in the question of economic or non-economic activities. What matters is whether you offer a product or service on a market.

Non-profit and economic associations with economic activities can apply for funding with up to 100 percent of their eligible costs. This is provided that they can receive minor support and attach a minor support form at the time of application.

See rules for government support

Prerequisites for proposal to be assessed

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

• Proposal must have been made in the web form in Vinnovas Intressentportal and have been submitted no later than 2 p.m. on 20 November 2023. We are unable to accept applications after the call for proposals has closed.
• Proposal must be designed according to the instructions under section 9.
• No attachments other than the mandatory ones may be included. See section 9.
• The project consortium consists of at least three parties from at least two of the following actor types: healthcare, companies, academia, research institutes and actors within the idea-driven sector.
• All project parties are legal entities.
• All project parties that are a small or medium-sized company must attach the most recently registered annual report. It must show that net turnover or equity corresponds to at least 25 percent of the company's total eligible costs. If this eligibility requirements is not met in the annual report, an auditor's certificate must be attached showing that the company meets the requirement. See under section 3 which type of certificate is approved.
• The level of support in proposal for each party is in accordance with what is stated in
  section 4.
• Certificate of minor support if such funding is sought. It only applies to non-profit and economic associations that conduct economic activities.
• No foreign parties apply for funding, that is, parties that do not have a Swedish branch or place of business may not apply for funding.
• Proposal is written in Swedish or English.

What is assessed?

All applications that meet the formal requirements, as described in the section before, are assessed based on the assessment criteria below. Each criterion consists of a number of sub-criteria.

Potential

• To what extent the project fulfills the call's aim and objective.
• To what extent the project's solution is innovative with clear competitive advantages, and how it responds to a need or a demand.
• To what extent the project has a commercial focus with a realistic one
  business plan. This should include a regulatory strategy, a strategy regarding who is the payer and a description of how the project results will become procurable.
• The project's potential for scalability, dissemination and follow-on funding.
• The project's potential to contribute to increased gender equality.
• The project's potential to contribute positively to the global goals in Agenda 2030, as well as minimize the negative effects.
  
  

Actors

• To what extent the end user is involved in the project and its results.
• To what extent the project consortium is judged to be purposefully and credibly composed in terms of clinical, academic and industrial competence and experience.
• Access to skills, experiences, networks, contacts and commitment. As well as the degree of, and the quality of, cooperation between the project parties in the project.
• To what extent potential international collaborations create added value for the project, the consortium and growth in Sweden
• The project parties' involvement in the project, with working hours and other resources.
• How well the project team is composed with respect to gender distribution, including the distribution of power and influence between women and men.
  
  

Feasibility

• To what extent appropriate activities are defined in the project plan so that the set project goals can be achieved.
• To what extent the project's planned activities are judged to be capable
  implemented in accordance with budget and schedule.
• How crucial Swelife's funding is for the project's implementation and continued success.
• How well gender equality aspects are integrated into the project plan.
• How the project works to meet its own sustainability goals.

How does the assessment process work?

The assessment process consists of the following steps:

• Applications received are reviewed to see if they meet the formal requirements under Section 6.
• All applications that meet the formal requirements are then assessed by Vinnova's specially appointed evaluator and by Vinnova's internal evaluator.
• At an evaluation meeting, the evaluators discuss the projects. They then recommend which project move forward in the assessment process.
• In some cases, supplementary interviews can be conducted.
• Vinnova then makes decisions about which project are granted funding.

Then you apply

To apply for funding, you fill in a web-based form in Vinnova's application service Vinnova's eservices portal, which is accessed via Vinnova's website. There you also upload the attachments mentioned below.

See templates for the attachments on Vinnova's website

Mandatory attachments for all applicant:

• Project description
• Project economics
• Project layout
• CV attachment. Max 10 A4, at least one CV per participant.

The following attachments must be uploaded in the cases indicated below:

• For all small and medium-sized companies, the annual report for the year 2022 must be attached. Alternatively, an auditor's certificate that the company meets the requirement for annual turnover or equity can be attached. See section 3 for more information.
• Certificate of minor support if such funding is sought. Applies only to non-profit and economic associations that conduct economic activities.

If any of these attachments are not filled in correctly, are missing completely or other attachments are included, proposal will be rejected for formal reasons.

See rules for government support

Project description

Project description must be written in the template that can be downloaded from the call's webpage. It must contain the specified headings, cover a maximum of 10 vertical A4 pages and must be written in Times New Roman 11 point, unless otherwise stated in the instructions in the project description template.

Project economics

Project finance is filled in according to the template on the call's website.

Project layout

Project plan can be a Gantt chart or a similar figure, which shows the project's activities in relation to each other in time. The appendix may cover a maximum of 2 A4 pages.

CV attachment

The CV attachment must consist of CVs for the project manager and other key people in the project team. It must be written according to the template that is downloaded from the call's webpage.

Please note that each person's CV may cover a maximum of one A4 page. At least one key person from each participating participant must be represented in the appendix.

In total, the appendix may consist of a maximum of 10 vertical A4 pages. The text must be written with Times New Roman 11 point.

Checklist

Checklist for applicants where the answers must be Yes:

• Does the project meet all the formal eligibility requirements described in section 6 of the call text?
• Should you, through research, innovation and cooperation, contribute to utilizing and improving the individual's conditions for increased health and well-being?
• Has the project developed a realistic business plan?
• Procurement: In the event that a public actor is participant. Do you have knowledge of how the development of services can be operated in cooperation without distorting or blocking the competitive situation for private actors?
• If the project concerns a digital service, product or process: Is the solution designed in accordance with FAIR14 and RUT15 regarding the handling and sharing of health data?
• Is the project in the TRL 4 to TRL 6 range?
• Does the project include patient participation or user participation?
• Does the project need approvals or permits to be implemented?

Se FAIR principles

This is how RUTworks

When the application period has expired, proposal can only be completed at the request of Vinnova.

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. 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 at the request of Vinnova .