Robust and resilient infrastructure and the built environment - Centre initiative within the national research programme for sustainable spatial planning

The centre must be composed of several project partners. Each organisation constitutes a single project partner. All project partners must have a clear and well-motivated role in the implementation of the project.

Number of partners

The centre must be composed of at least two (2) partners from a university, college or research institute, and at least two (2) partners from other societal organisations, i.e. at least four (4) different partners. The centre may include a maximum of 15 project partners including the main applicant organisation/coordinating organisation. The project must be implemented by the organisations and persons listed in the application.

Requirements for coordinating project partners

The lead applicant organisation submitting the application is called the coordinating project partner. It must be an academic partner with a Swedish organisation number that is an approved administrating organisation for all Formas calls. The coordinating partner becomes the administrating organisation if the application is approved. The administrating organisation receives and manages all funds paid by Formas to the centre.

The coordinating partner must attach a certificate confirming the hosting, confirming the priority and relevance of the centre to the organisation, and certifying that the necessary resources will be made available. The certificate is to be signed by the vice-chancellor or equivalent.

An administrating organisation can be the coordinating project partner for a maximum of two applications in this call. However, an administrating organisation can be a participating project partner in several applications.

Requirements for centre partners

To be eligible to participate as a partner in the centre, the organisation must

• Be added as a project partner in the application form.
• Have a clear, active and well-motivated role as a partner in the centre.
• Have its own budget that clearly shows the costs that will be incurred by the partner. The budget should include staff costs for the participation of all parties in the centre's activities and the partner must be registered as an employer. The partner's costs for participation in the centre can be financed via grants from Formas, via other funding, or through a combination of these. Other financing can be via participation with own financial means or via contribution of own working hours (so-called in-kind financing).
• Be registered for F-tax and VAT if the organisational form of the project partner requires it.
• Have sufficiently robust finances to receive funds (if the project partner seeks funding from Formas) and participate in the implementation of the centre.
• Attach a written letter of support, known as a "Letter of Intent", which shows that the centre formation is well anchored in the organisation's management. The letter must show that there is a long-term approach to the creation of the centre and that the partner supports the impact activities of the knowledge and solutions developed. The letter of support must be signed by the authorised manager. See also under Mandatory annexes.

Which organisations are not eligible for funding?

• Sole proprietors cannot be granted funding or participate as project partners in projects applying for funding from Formas.
• Newly established organisations cannot be funded or participate as project partners in this call. Organisations participating as partners in the centre must have been active for at least three years to ensure the capacity to participate in and implement activities during the lifetime of the centre. Active means that the organisation 1) was registered no later than 20 May 2023, and 2) has been active during this period.
• Companies, public sector, civil society, and similar organisations without a Swedish organisation number are not eligible for funding under this call, but can participate as project partners in-kind and through their own funding. Universities, higher education institutions, research institutes without a Swedish organisation number are eligible for funding under this call.

Centre coordinator requirements

All centres applying for funding from Formas must have a centre coordinator who serves as the responsible project leader. The centre coordinator must have an activity level corresponding to at least 60% of a full-time position in total, averaged over the project period. The role of centre coordinator may be shared between two individuals, but only one person can be the main applicant. If the role is shared between two individuals, at least one of them must be employed by the administrating organisation and hold a significant share of the position. That person must also be the main applicant. An individual can only be the centre coordinator for one centre funded by Formas.

Requirements for participating persons

Participating researchers and the centre coordinator may have other ongoing project funding from one of Formas' other calls, as long as an individual's total salary, distributed over the projects, does not exceed 100% funding.

The centre formation must include a communicator position, or equivalent, with an activity level of at least 75% over the project period. This role is responsible for facilitating internal exchanges of knowledge and experience, as well as developing and implementing the communication and utilisation plan. This role may be shared between two individuals. The position does not need to be located within the administrating organisation. Read more in the Communication and outreach section.

You can apply for funding for costs related to the establishment and implementation of the centre, such as coordination, research activities, and knowledge and skills development activities, including impact activities. When applying for funding for the centre, you can apply for funding for both direct and indirect costs. The costs must have a clear link to the centre and fund activities beyond regular activities.

Direct costs

Staff costs for the coordinator, researchers and doctoral students, technical and administrative staff to the extent that they are involved in the centre's activities. This applies to all project partners participating in the centre. Staff costs are defined as gross salary and non-salary costs, such as social security contributions, contractual pension contributions, contractual insurance and fees. Taxable benefits should not be included. For employees of universities, colleges or research institutes, the amount may never exceed 100 per cent of a full-time position. This also means that someone who already receives full salary funding from Formas or another funder cannot receive additional funds for salary. Researchers who are full-time retired cannot receive funding for their salary.

The item may include funding for doctoral student positions including supervision and administration totalling a maximum of SEK 3 million per year.

Equipment, land and buildings to the extent and for the duration that they are used for the centre's activities. If the instruments and equipment are not used throughout the lifetime of the centre, only the depreciation costs corresponding to the lifetime of the centre, calculated on the basis of generally accepted accounting principles, are considered eligible. For buildings, only depreciation costs corresponding to the life cycle of the centre, calculated on the basis of generally accepted accounting principles, are considered eligible. For land, costs of transfer on commercial terms or actual capital costs are eligible. The maximum amount you can be awarded for equipment, buildings and land, as well as their depreciation costs, is a maximum of 5% of the budget requested.

Consultancy and licence costs, etc. Costs of subcontracting consultancy services purchased or hired from external sources on market terms. Costs for consultancy and equivalent services may only be included if they are used exclusively for the centre's activities, and the activity and scope must be specified in the centre's description.

Other direct costs, such as materials, supplies and similar products, incurred as a direct result of the centre's activities. Other direct costs also include travel and conferences, and publication in open access journals and databases. Formas only grants funds for certain author fees. Project partners applying for funding equivalent to SEK 3 million or more may also apply for funding of up to SEK 30,000 for an auditor's certificate from an authorised/approved auditor. Auditor's certificates from internal auditors are accepted for municipalities, county councils, government agencies, universities and colleges.

Indirect costs

Indirect costs are costs that are not incurred as a direct consequence of the centre's activities, but which can nevertheless be related to them, for example for administration and IT. Indirect costs are sometimes referred to as overheads or general overheads.

As a general rule, each project partner may add indirect costs up to 30% of its eligible staff costs. Indirect costs are always calculated per project partner. Formas does not grant funds for overheads on costs that you write off for equipment or for premises.

• Universities and colleges may add indirect costs according to the full cost principle they apply. In their accounts, universities only need to itemise eligible costs corresponding to the amount of the grant.
• Some research institutes, foundations and government agencies with a research mission may mark-up actual indirect costs up to 45 per cent of their eligible personnel costs, if they are involved in non-economic activities. This category includes research organisations that are limited companies or partnerships in which the government directly or indirectly exercises a legal controlling influence. It also includes foundations where the government appoints one or more board members. It also includes government agencies (other than universities) that are required by their instructions to conduct their own research. The condition of a maximum of 45% applies provided that the organisation receives funds by government decision to conduct independent research.

More about what costs Formas funds

To apply for the right costs, it is important that you read detailed information about what costs Formas can fund:

• This is what you can apply for funding for External link..
• Costs Formas funds with the support scheme (pdf) External link.
• Terms and conditions for grants External link.
• Costs for publishing. External link.

Funding can only be applied for a four-year period (48 months).

It is possible to apply for more than SEK 12.5 million in one year as long as the amount applied for in another year is lower, it is not possible to apply for less than four years and it is not possible to apply for more than SEK 50 million in total.

The call has no co-financing requirement. Please note that companies and other organisations that conduct economic activities that receive grants from Formas are subject to state aid rules that affect the maximum level of support that can be granted. See the section Rules for state aid to companies and other economic activities.

The project start date in Prisma is 1 February 2027. This date is preset and cannot be changed. However, the centres may need time to start up and are expected to be fully operational in the autumn of 2027. The budget in the application must describe how the funds are planned to be used and applicants register budgets according to how the actual costs are expected to occur. For administrative reasons, Formas may set a payment plan that differs from the application's distribution of the budget over time.

Applications with a requested amount or scope in time that does not fall within the above ranges will be rejected by Formas at an early stage and not proceed to review.

Grants to companies and other organisations engaged in economic activities are subject to state aid rules. For a grant to constitute state aid, several criteria must be met. It must be state resources, favourable to the recipient and given selectively. The rules are in place to protect competition in the EU internal market.

Before applying, you should familiarise yourself with the state aid rules that apply to receiving funds from Formas:

State aid rules External link.

How do I know if my organisation is engaged in economic activities?

Under the state aid rules, an organisation that offers any kind of service or product on a market is considered to be engaged in an economic activity. It does not matter how the organisation is financed, whether it is public or private, or whether it is profit-making. Nor does it matter what legal form the organisation takes - that is, whether it is, for example, a limited company, a partnership, an economic association, a non-profit association or a foundation.

Rules for organisations carrying out partly economic activities

Organisations that carry out both economic and non-economic activities are partly covered by state aid rules. Aid for economic activities is covered by the rules. Support for non-economic activities is not, as long as the activities are accounted for separately and the support from Formas or funded activities does not favour the economic part.

Examples of organisations that can carry out economic and non-economic activities are certain research institutes, municipal companies and civil society organisations.

In order for Formas to grant funds to a project partner without it being subject to the rules for state aid, the project partner must certify in the application that they are seeking funds for non-economic activities and fulfil the requirements for separate accounting.

During the processing of the applications, Formas may ask additional questions or request certificates to ensure that the project partner is seeking funds for non-economic activities. If the review shows that separate accounting is lacking, Formas may request additional information or decide that the grant will not be paid. If it emerges that the support has in practice favoured economic activities without a valid basis in state aid law, Formas may demand repayment of the support paid with interest.

Certificate of separate accounting or subordinate economic activity External link. (in Swedish)

Industrial research

In this call, Formas will apply the aid basis Article 25 of the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER, EU Regulation No 651/2014). In this call, Formas assesses that the type of project will primarily fall within the category of industrial research.

The size of the activity will be assessed solely on the basis of the EU definition of large companies. Funding levels of up to 65 per cent can be applied as Formas assesses that all expected centres will meet the requirements for extensive dissemination of results, for example through conferences, publication, publications, open databases or open source software. This means that the partner needs to provide its own funding, either through participation with its own financial resources or through contribution of its own working time (so-called in-kind funding), of at least 35 per cent of its own costs, regardless of the size of the activity. Please note that public funds are not accepted as co-financing.

Depending on the project partner's activities and the activities that the partner will carry out in the project, Formas may decide on a lower maximum funding level than the one applied for.

Prior to making a decision, Formas conducts credit checks of the companies and others engaged in economic activities that may be eligible for funding.

Transparency reporting

Project partners who may receive state aid if the project is granted funds from Formas should be aware that the requirements for transparency reporting within the EU have been tightened from 2023. State aid exceeding EUR 100,000 (or EUR 10,000 for primary agricultural production and fisheries and aquaculture) must be publicly reported. Formas is responsible for this reporting. The applicant is deemed to have understood the requirement for transparency reporting and is deemed to have authorised such public reporting above the applicable thresholds.

During the first year, approved centres must submit a detailed plan for communication and utilisation to Formas. This plan must include the following

• identification of target groups and plan for dissemination of results
• development of a website to make the centre's results available and inform about planned activities
• plan for scientific publications with Open Access
• plan for the publication of interim reports, policy briefs or research briefs, or similar to make available and summarise results to different target groups
• plan for creating, implementing and making available the centre's activities and results in an inclusive manner

Granted centres are expected to participate in communication and exploitation activities at the request of Formas, such as seminars, dialogue meetings with other centres, and conferences and similar activities. The aim is to create synergies and platforms for learning and knowledge exchange between centres and with other relevant initiatives, and with different actors in the business community, public sector and civil society.

Due to the war in Ukraine, it will not be possible to obtain funding for projects involving research collaboration with state or federal research institutions in Russia and Belarus.

You should write your application in English, as the review panel that assesses the application consists of both national and international reviewers. If you choose to write in Swedish, the application will be translated into English before assessment. Please note that you will not be able to see or make changes to the translated text before the application is forwarded to the review panel. The popular science description should be written in Swedish, while the summaries should be in both Swedish and English.

Under Swedish law, your application (including appendices) is considered a public document once it has been submitted to us. This means that anyone can request and access your application. Information can only be concealed if it is covered by confidentiality under the Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act (2009:400).

Formas has limited opportunities to classify personal data as confidential. Therefore, the application should not contain personal data for anyone other than those participating in the application. Nor should the application contain sensitive personal data, unless it is clearly relevant to the project.

If the project is awarded funding, the popular science description and project summaries in Swedish and English will be published in open project databases without confidentiality assessment. Therefore, avoid writing sensitive information in these sections.

At present, we see no problem with you as an applicant using AI as an aid when preparing your application. However, it is important that you are aware that the responsibility for fulfilling the commitments you make in the application lies with you as the applicant. It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure that the content of both the application and the project plan is correct and that the research is carried out as described. You certify this when you submit your application. As an applicant, you must follow good research practice during the application process, which means that plagiarism, falsification or fabrication of content in the application must not occur.

Applications to Formas are made in our application system Prisma. There you enter the information needed for the application.

This is an organisational call. The organisation that will receive and manage the funds that Formas pays out if the centre is granted is called an administrating organisation in Formas' application system, and needs to have an organisation account at the time of application.

The call is listed under organisation account in Prisma, and is only visible when you log in to the organisation account. The call must be opened by the Prisma organisation account manager at your organisation (the administrating organisation). First, click on the organisation account tab and then go to the link for organisation calls. The organisation account manager will then invite you as a centre coordinator to fill in the application as usual. See Prisma user manual External link. for instructions on how to find the call in Prisma

The coordinating project partner (administrating organisation) is responsible for all administration in Prisma and fills in the information needed for the application for all parties. For you as a centre coordinator to be able to fill in the application, you need to have a personal account in Prisma. If the designated centre coordinator does not have a personal account, they must apply for one in good time before the call closes and no later than 2026-05-15.

Apply for a personal account in Prisma External link..

When the application is to be submitted, it is the organisation account manager who does this in Prisma. You can read more about organisational calls in Prisma's user support under the heading Apply for grants, organisation - Prisma External link. support.

Formas distinguishes between administrating organisations that can receive funds in all Formas calls, and administrating organisations that can be approved to receive funds for an individual project. This call is only open to administrating organisations approved for all Formas calls. Universities, colleges, most research institutes and authorities with research assignments are approved as administrating organisations for all Formas calls and already have an organisation account. Please note that the centre must include at least two project partners from the business sector, public sector and/or civil society, but these project partners cannot be administrating organisations in this call.

Character length, fonts and formatting

• All maximum character limits refer to characters including spaces.
• Please select the default font and font size for the information entered in the text boxes in Prisma.
• Text pasted into Prisma sometimes loses its formatting. Therefore, make sure to preview the application in PDF format before submitting it.
• Note that the maximum number of characters or file size for several items in the application has been increased compared to many other calls at Formas.

Framing and scope of the centre

Be sure to clearly describe everything needed for the reviewer to assess the centre's activities.

The application should present the centre's organisation, vision and goals for the four-year grant period. However, the description should allow for a longer time perspective, for example through a possible extension of Formas funding or a continuation through other initiatives and funds. The description should also include how the centre plans to link other national and international funding to its activities during the grant period.

Formas checks that the application fulfils the formal requirements set out in the call. If the application does not fulfil the requirements, it will be rejected. The following requirements will be checked in this call:

• That the focus of the application is within Formas' areas of responsibility.
• That the focus of the application is within the scope of the call.
• That the application is complete, i.e. that it contains all the mandatory information.
• The requirements for the centre coordinator, participants and organisations under Requirements for you and your organisation are met.
  • The coordinating project partner is an academic partner, i.e. a university, college, research institute or government agency with a research mission, which is the approved administrating organisation for all calls.
  • The centre is composed of
    • at least two (2) academic partners (universities, colleges, research institutes or public authorities with a research mission)
    • at least two (2) partners from business, the public sector and/or civil society
    • a maximum of 15 project partners including the coordinating project partner.
  • That all project partners are legal entities. Individuals or sole proprietorships cannot participate as project partners.
  • A certificate from the coordinating project partner clarifying and confirming support and commitment is attached to the application.
  • Letters of Intent from all participating project partners are attached to the application.
  • That the credit checks carried out by Formas on the project partners show sufficiently robust finances to receive funds (if the project partner is seeking funding from Formas) and participate in the centre's activities in accordance with the application and Formas' conditions for granted funds. Project partners must not be in financial difficulties or be newly established.
• That each administrating organisation is the coordinating project partner for a maximum of two (2) applications in this call.
• That no more than one application with the same content has been submitted to this call and to the call Crossroads for Climate - Centres under the national research programmes on climate.

Credit checks are carried out on all parties that are companies and other organisations with economic activities that may be eligible for funding. Verification of the Certificate of Separate Activity or Subordinate Economic Activity is done for those parties where this may be applicable.

The assessment process consists of two phases: (1) assessment of the quality of the application and (2) portfolio selection by Formas.

1. Each application is first assessed on its own merits. All applications are assessed by an external international review panel. The review panel consists of both active researchers and people working outside academia with the expertise to assess the relevance of the application. The review panel is appointed by Formas. The quality assessment is carried out in two stages. First, the application is assessed based on what is described in the application. It is therefore important that the application is clear and that all relevant information is included. Each application is assessed by at least four reviewers. In the second stage, the top-ranked centre applications will be invited to a hearing, which will be conducted by all or part of the review panel online or at Formas. The hearing will take place between 21 and 25 September 2026. After the hearing, an overall assessment and final ranking of the centre applications that participated in the hearing will be made.
2. Formas will reserve the right to apply a portfolio perspective in the selection of applications granted under this call. The portfolio perspective can only be applied after all applications have been assessed on their own merits and ranked. Taking the portfolio approach for this call means that we aim to fund centres that complement each other. The awarded centres are expected to address the breadth of challenges in relation to the purpose and objectives of the call, and to engage relevant research environments and societal actors. The approved centres should also complement major national initiatives already underway.

There must be no discrimination in the assessment of applications, for example on the basis of gender.

Applications are assessed on the basis of the following criteria on a scale of 1-7, where 1 is the lowest and 7 is the highest. All criteria must be addressed in the application, and applicants are encouraged to clearly relate their application to these criteria.

Relevance

• The centre is well justified in relation to the current state of research, policy and practice.
• The centre contributes significantly to the call’s purpose and objectives.
• The centre provides clear added value for addressing the identified challenges.

Potential

• The centre increases the competence and capacity of participating actors and target groups to address identified challenges.
• The centre demonstrates innovation and originality through advancing and challenging the current state of knowledge and maintains high scientific quality from a Swedish and international perspective.
• The expected results of the centre include methods, ways of working and scalable solutions that enable development and change in society.

Implementation

• The centre's work plan and division of labour are clear, realistic and appropriate.
• The centre's interdisciplinary approach is based on a relevant combination of disciplines and research fields.
• The respective roles of the parties and their involvement in the various phases of the centre formation are well justified and appropriate.
• Dialogue with and mobilisation of target groups in society is well justified and appropriate.
• The risk analysis is clear and appropriate.

Organisation

• The centre's organisation, management and governance structure are clear, well justified and appropriate.
• The centre's overall competences and experience are well justified and appropriate for achieving the centre's purpose and objectives.
• Key individuals, in particular the centre coordinator, have the experience and expertise required to achieve the centre's purpose and objectives.
• Gender equality and equity aspects are integrated into the organisation of the centre.

Our reviewers are currently not allowed to use AI tools to support the review of applications. There are several reasons for this. First, there is a high risk that uploaded information will be disseminated further. There are also risks related to confidentiality and the processing of personal data. Uploading an application or information from an application to any form of AI tool constitutes unauthorised dissemination of information. This applies not only to AI tools but also to many other services and tools for storing and sharing data.

Formas' Research Council is expected to decide which centres will be awarded grants on 21 October 2026. We will publish the decisions no later than the following day on Formas' website, and the centre coordinator will receive an email when it is possible to view the decision in Prisma. Decisions on grants cannot be appealed.

For centres that receive funding in the call, the project parties must, individually and after notification of award, sign a written commitment to run the centre and its activities in accordance with Formas' decision to award funds. A prerequisite for the first payment of funds is that a copy of all project parties' approval has been received in time and that any requested supplements have been received.

Formas' terms and conditions for granted funds External link.

An agreement between the parties involved is drawn up during the first year of the centre formation. A copy of the agreement must be sent to Formas.

All approved centres must report back to Formas through periodic financial reports as well as progress and final reports in accordance with the agreement signed after the decision.

Read about what information is needed for the financial reporting here: Financial reporting in Prisma External link..

After two years, a progress report for the centre, as well as a description and justification of any changes, must be submitted to Formas. This operational follow-up also serves as a basis for future evaluation.

Formas may set requirements on how the centre should report content and results, to facilitate dissemination and outreach. During the current grant period, Formas will monitor all centres to support their work on learning, goal attainment and outreach in accordance with the purpose and goals of the centres. Formas may impose requirements in this regard, and the requirements are set out in the decision and associated conditions for any funding. For example, Formas may require the centre to participate in conferences or similar activities to promote collaboration, learning and knowledge exchange.

The centres will undergo a summative evaluation after almost four years of operation. This evaluation will compile and analyse all the achievements and results of each centre in relation to its objectives and theory of change. The conclusions and recommendations of the evaluators will be shared with the centres. A more detailed description of the approach to the summative evaluation will be provided in an evaluation plan, which will be appended to the decision in the event of funding.

Formas plans to give funded centres the opportunity to apply for a possible extension through a so-called closed call after the summative evaluation, where only centres that have been granted funding in the current call may apply for funding. Renewal applications will be reviewed by an external panel of assessors. If an extension application is rejected, phase-out funds may be allocated. Any extension is subject to a positive outcome of the summative evaluation and the availability of budget within the national research programmes for sustainable spatial planning.

Read more about reporting External link.

Results from research funded by Formas must be published with open access.

You must also have a data management plan for the data produced in the project. If you receive funding from us, you must prepare such a plan. The plan does not need to be submitted to us, but you must be able to present it on request. By signing our terms and conditions for grants, you certify that a data management plan will be in place before the research begins and that it will be maintained.

Open access to research results and data External link.