Smart Built Environment: Digital built environment in practice

Throughout society, a digital transformation is underway that is already affecting processes and stakeholders in the built environment sector. The sector consists of a considerable number of stakeholders, about 250,000, who play an important role in the transition to a sustainable society. The Smart Built Environment strategic innovation programme is a platform that brings together stakeholders from across the sector, offering them the opportunity to drive progress together. The programme focuses on how the built environment sector can increase the pace of this transition through digitalisation and industrial practices and processes. How can sector stakeholders help to achieve society’s goals around reducing carbon emissions, enabling a more efficient use and reuse of materials, and adapting society to current and future changes in the climate while creating attractive living spaces? Projects awarded funding by Formas within Smart Built Environment address the processes and activities needed to plan, produce and manage the built environment. Equity is a vital aspect of spatial planning, since projects in the programme can promote increased equality and an inclusive approach as part of achieving a more egalitarian society. Equity should also permeate how the programme is governed and led through board and programme management staffing. A vital part of equity involves Formas’ equitable distribution of project grants.

To meet the major challenges facing the built environment, the sector needs to accelerate the transition to new work approaches and methods. Digitisation and industrial processes are key enablers. For example, they can promote resource efficiency, reduce dangerous work steps, speed up processes like building permitting and detailed planning, and provide better decision support with more analytics solutions and the capability to quickly choose good products. The necessary changes take time to implement, and a key part of the development is thus to implement and scale up many of the research-based solutions already under development or available as prototypes. In this respect, knowledge dissemination, experience exchange and a long-term perspective in the change process are crucial.

The pace of digital transformation is high, while built environment processes are relatively slow. New forms of cooperation, value chains and business models, as well as new roles and organisational structures, are needed to truly leverage new technologies, along with digitalisation and industrial processes.

Through the Smart Built Environment programme, Formas funds projects that focus on digitalisation and industrial processes in spatial planning. Applications must address at least one of the four thematic areas described below and the impacts in the programme’s impact logic. Applications must describe how the project can boost equity in spatial planning. The programme intends to encourage more stakeholders to develop their innovation capacity and deliver innovative solutions that contribute to the programme’s overall vision and impact targets. Digitalisation in spatial planning is taking place both nationwide and worldwide, and a global outlook as well as knowledge acquisition should be included in the projects if relevant.

The projects must also have a clear plan or description of what is required for long-term development or management of the results after the project is completed. If the project intends to produce immediate research uptake, the application should specify who the end users are and how the results are intended to be applied. If the project’s results will require continued development efforts, the application must describe a development plan including which stakeholders are expected to drive this development.

The call covers all of the four thematic areas of the programme, of which at least one must be addressed. Each area is briefly described below. More information about thematic areas and previously awarded projects in each area can be found on the programme’s website External link..

Innovations and new areas of application

An application that addresses the thematic area “Innovations and new areas of application” describes ideas and initiatives that can be developed into innovations and new areas of use for products, services or processes in the built environment. The focus of this thematic area is on breaking ingrained patterns and work approaches, and finding new solutions and ways to organise and collaborate in the industry. Your project should challenge these patterns and preferably contain disruptive elements. Examples here include projects that test previously identified standards in combinations with a view to create continuous digital information flows.

Value chains and business models

Value chains, incentives, and business and operational models are interrelated and must be studied and developed in order to harness the power of digitalisation and industrialisation. This theme also addresses questions about stakeholder roles, skills, work methods and the organisation of projects and processes. It also relates to questions about how digital innovations in the thematic area “Innovations and new areas of application” enable new business models. Projects that address value chains with areas of application in the built environment sector that involve stakeholders from across the value chain are included in this thematic area, as are projects that identify and develop new skillsets or new forms of collaboration.

Information infrastructure

This thematic area is about the common information infrastructure the sector needs for digital and industrial development. It includes standardisation for data exchange and information integration in spatial planning processes, including life cycle information structures as well as questions of data accessibility and ownership.

International collaboration is also gaining in importance, particularly in the development of collaborative value ecosystems within spatial planning. This thematic area also includes legal issues related to property restructuring, detailed zoning plans and building permits, as well as procurement and contractual forms for the optimal use of digitalisation. Continued strategic investments will also be made in this area, and applications that address this area involve projects for testing established information infrastructure, testing identified standards in a real-world environment or similar activities.

Knowledge and skills

Harnessing the power of digital transformation in both the private and the public sectors requires a knowledge leap. This thematic area should contribute to raising awareness and building knowledge at private companies and public organisations, both at the management level and in daily operations. It also relates to how we can create and make use of new knowledge. This area includes applications that involve reviews and syntheses that can, for example, provide input for further testing in business operations or contribute to educational efforts. It also includes applications that contain skills-enhancing initiatives in addition to pure training initiatives, such as support for small and medium-sized enterprises to digitalise their operations.

The section “How does the assessment process work?” describes the criteria used to assess the applications.

In this call, two main types of projects can be funded. Applicants should clearly address one of the following types:

1. Research, development or innovation project

Projects that focus on research, development or innovation in the programme’s areas, preferably with the goal of achieving disruptive structural change in the development of the built environment. Examples of such projects include:

• Projects at different levels of applied research or development, or that focus on innovation. Research projects can be run as doctoral projects or by senior researchers.
• Skills development projects that can demonstrate innovative thinking around knowledge enhancement, with activities that help reach the large number of stakeholders and businesses in the built environment sector. The project should preferably complement traditional education.
• Test bed and demonstration projects that create virtual or physical environments for demonstrating results from research and development projects, for example from previous projects in the programme. We particularly welcome applications for system demonstrators, which means that several previous results are demonstrated in a common environment.

2. Next-step project

Projects that leverage results and insights from completed or ongoing projects in Smart Built Environment. Examples of such projects are as follows:

• Projects that address designated directions or efforts in developed strategies and roadmaps.
• Construction projects that bring together the sector’s stakeholders around the long-term management of a project result or a designated area.
• Efforts for implementing the results of completed or ongoing projects with a view to real-world application or increased commercialisation.
• 
  

The call is targeted to private companies, public-sector organisations, higher education institutions and research institutes. At least two parties must participate in the application. At least one of the participating parties must work at either a private company or a public-sector organisation.

We welcome applications from all interested organisations and companies, preferably in collaboration with new partners. Especially interesting for this call are consortia with start-ups that can help to develop new work approaches, business models and technology and that involve end users such as property owners, municipalities or construction companies.

Project participants from outside Sweden are welcome to contribute in-kind, with their time or other resources as a project co-funder. However, organisations outside Sweden are not allowed to receive funding from Formas in this call.

Smart Built Environment and Formas strive for an equitable, gender-balanced and inclusive built environment. This means that grant applicants should design the project so that its results can benefit a diverse group of people and build a project team that takes into account gender distribution and different backgrounds. You should consider not only the number of people, but the distribution of power and influence in the project.

The coordinating party must be a Swedish organisation, meaning a legal person that has a corporate identity number. Sole proprietorships will not be awarded a grant, so any applications with a sole proprietorship as a party will be rejected.

The coordinating party’s organisation must be able to receive and administer the funds that Formas pays out to an awarded project. Formas distinguishes between administrating organisations, who can receive funds in all Formas calls, and administrating organisations who are approved to receive funds in an individual call. The coordinating party’s must be approved as an administrating organisation in one of these two forms. Learn more under “How to apply”.

All projects seeking funding from Formas must have a responsible project manager. The project must be carried out by the individuals stated in the application. An applicant is not allowed to submit the same application with different main applicants. Applications that have the same content will be rejected.

Businesses that are sole proprietorship cannot be granted funding under this call or be a participating party in projects that are applying for a grant in Formas’ calls. Companies that do not have a Swedish corporate identity number cannot receive funding in this call, but they can participate in-kind if applicable.

The requirement for co-funding from projects seeking funding is at least 50% of the total project budget. Private companies and other organisations engaged in economic activity that want to apply for a grant from Formas are subject to state aid rules; see the section “State aid regulations for companies and other organisations engaged in economic activity”.

At least two organisations must participate as project parties in the project, of which at least one must come from either a private business or the public sector. It is up to the project to put together the most suitable project team. This is part of the assessment criteria for Implementation and Project Organisation (see those criteria under “How does the assessment process work?”).

State aid regulations for companies and other organisations engaged in economic activity

Private companies and other organisations engaged in economic activity that want to apply for grants from Formas must follow specific regulations on state aid. The regulations are based on the principle of EU law, which states that aid to private enterprises normally distorts competition but that certain exemptions are allowed. Two bases for granting aid are applied in this call, the General Block Exemption Regulation EU 651/2014 and de minimis provisions from Regulation EU 1407/2013.

The Formas website contains more information about the state aid regulations External link..

Prior to any decision, Formas conducts credit checks on all companies and economic activities that may be relevant to awarding a grant.

Provisions under general block exemption regulation EU 651/2014

The aid intensity that Formas can offer depends on the size of the organisation and the type of activities in the project. The organisation’s size is assessed using the EU definition of small and medium-sized enterprises. Activities will primarily be assessed on the basis of Article 25 of the General Block Exemption Regulation EU 651/2014. In this call, state aid is granted mainly on the basis of the category “industrial research” in the EU’s state aid regulations. Aid intensity depends on the eligibility and the size of the company; learn more in Aid intensities and definitions for grants under Formas’ aid scheme (In Swedish) External link..

Provisions under the de minimis regulation EU 1407/2013

Formas can also grant aid under the EU’s de minimis regulation. The Formas website contains information about de minimis aid rules, Regulation EU 1407/2013, as well as the terms and conditions that apply for companies and other organisations engaged in economic activity.

At a later stage of the process, companies and organisations engaged in economic activity must submit proof of de minimis aid in order to qualify for a grant in this call. Formas will notify the relevant organisations of when this statement of proof is due. The statement should indicate the extent of the de minimis aid received, including the amount sought in the call. The statement must indicate the aid received in the current and the two preceding tax years (so, for the last three tax years). Organisations must then report that all de minimis aid received during this period in total does not exceed EUR 200,000, or roughly SEK 2 million.

Costs that qualify for funding

• Staff expenses: Eligible staff expenses for project parties not affiliated with a university, college or research institute may be allowed at a maximum of 800 kronor per hour. Higher education institutions or research institutes are not subject to this limitation.

• Equipment, land and buildings.

• Consultancy and licensing costs.

• Other direct costs including travel.

• Indirect costs (overhead). Higher education institutions and research institutes may charge a markup for indirect costs according to the applicable full-cost pricing method. Other project participants may charge a markup for indirect costs of up to 30 percent of their eligible staff expenses.

Grant amount and project duration

The total budget for the call is approximately SEK 40 million. In this call, you can apply for funding of between SEK 500,000 and SEK 4 million. The requirement for co-funding from projects seeking funding is at least 50% of the total project budget.

The duration of the research, development or innovation projects must be 12-48 months. Projects must start sometime between 1 June 2023 and 1 December 2023. Projects must be completed by 30 November 2027.

Applications with a different requested amount or a project duration that does not fall within the above range will be rejected.

Projects have an availability period of three months after the end of the project duration. The availability period is the specified period during which the awarded funds can still be used even though the project is officially completed. This is to allow for the extra time a project runs beyond its approved completion date. The project duration can be extended in specific cases if there are special circumstances that are approved by the project manager and administrating organisation, such as illness or parental leave.

For projects that are 18 months or longer, a periodic financial report must be submitted each year. The form opens every year on 1 January, and the project manager then has three months to submit the report.

After the availability period for the grant is over, the project manager has an additional three months to submit a final financial and scientific report. The manager must use the template provided by Formas to do this.

Language

We recommend that you write your application in Swedish, since the review panel that will assess your application is Swedish-speaking. You can write your application in English, but it will then be translated into Swedish prior to assessment. Abstracts should be available in both Swedish and English.

Who can read the application?

According to Swedish law, your application and its appendices are considered as general public documents once they have been submitted to Formas. This means that anyone can request and read your application. Before Formas discloses any applications, it always conducts a confidentiality assessment but can only hide information as legislated for in the Public Access and Secrecy Act (2009:400).

The popular science description and project abstracts in Swedish and English will, if the project is awarded funding, be published in open-access project databases without a confidentiality assessment. Therefore, the contents of these fields should not contain sensitive information. The purpose of these texts is for use by Smart Built Environment’s programme office in external communication about the project.

Environmental considerations when planning your project

We at Formas are eager to fund projects that maximise positive and minimise negative impacts on the environment and climate. We therefore encourage grant applicants to design their projects so that collaboration takes place primarily through online meetings and that any necessary travel takes place in a climate-smart way. We also suggest that you include measures that minimise energy use and other resource consumption, emissions and waste in project planning. However, this will not be part of the assessment of your application at this time.

Please read about Formas’ own sustainability work External link..

The coordinating party is responsible for all administration in Prisma and must be stated throughout as the coordinator and administrating organisation in the application.

The organisation that receives and manages the funds Formas pays out to an awarded project is called an administrating organisation in Prisma.

At the time of application, the organisation must have an organisation account.

Formas distinguishes between administrating organisations that can receive funds in all Formas calls, and administrating organisations that can be approved to receive funds in an individual call.

Higher education institutions, most research institutes and government agencies with research assignments are approved as administrating organisations for all Formas calls and already have an organisation account.

Most other public and private organisations must be individually approved as administrating organisations in this call. These organisations must have an organisation account with Formas. If the organisation already has an account in Prisma, contact our research officer Anna Gellerstedt (anna.gellerstedt@formas.se) to add the organisation to the list of possible administrating organisations in the call. This applies even if the organisation has sought funding in other Formas calls. Also contact Anna if you do not know whether the organisation has an account.

If your organisation does not have an account in Prisma, an appropriate representative should apply for the organisation account on the Prisma website. Apply for this in good time, but by 27 January 2023.

Apply for an organisation account in Prisma External link.

Select “Formas”. In the reason for the application, state that you are applying under the Smart Built Environment call, and state the type of organisation and the organisation’s corporate identity number.

The application should be initiated through the coordinating party’s organisation account. The person responsible for the organisation account then automatically becomes the project manager. The manager can change this by inviting another person to become a project manager. If another person should be the project manager, that person must have a personal account in Prisma. If the manager of the organisation account should be the project manager, then no personal account needs to be connected to the application.

See more information on the Prisma support page External link.

To be able to register the application, the organisation must specify its domicile. The organisation’s structure must have at least one domicile. Domicile refers to the department, institute or unit within the organisation applying for funding. Information on domicile is mandatory when the applicant submits the application.

The person who manages the organisation account must create a structure of units and sub-units (domiciles) in two levels. This is done in the drop-down menus for Administrating organisation and Project domicile.The domiciles that the applicant can select are retrieved from the organisational structure based on the organisation account settings defined by the person in charge of the organisation account.

If the organisation does not have departments, specify a subunit that has the same name as the organisation. Prisma’s user support contains information about how to do this.

Describe the structure of your organisation External link.

The call is located on the Organisation account tab in Prisma. Click that tab, and then go to the link for organisation calls. See Prisma’s user support for instructions on how to find the call in Prisma.

All limits for the maximum number of characters refer to characters including spaces. We recommend that you choose the Arial font in font size 12 for the information you enter in all text boxes.

Your application must include a clear description of the project under the following sections:

Basic information

• Number of months applied for.
• Start month (Project start must be between 1 June 2023 and 1 December 2023).
• Estimated project duration: The project duration is calculated automatically in Prisma, based on the start date and the number of months filled in.
• Project title in Swedish and English (max. 200 characters including spaces).
• Which type of project are you looking funding for?
  
  • a. A new research, innovation or development project
  • or b. a next-step project that clearly leverages the results and insights from completed or ongoing projects within Smart Built Environment.
• Thematic area: Identify the theme or themes within Smart Built Environment that the project will primarily contribute to. At least one theme should be specified.
  • Innovations and new areas of application
  • Knowledge and skills
  • Information infrastructure
  • Value chains and business models
    Read more about these themes on the Smart Built Environment website External link..
    

• Popular science description in Swedish (max. 4,500 characters including spaces).
• Popular science description in English (max. 4,500 characters including spaces).
• Abstract in Swedish and English (max. 2,000 characters each, including spaces).
  

The popular science description and project abstracts for awarded projects will be published in open-access project databases without a confidentiality review. Therefore, the contents of these fields should not contain sensitive information.

Project description

Maximum 20 pages. The project description should be uploaded as a file with a maximum size of 4 MB. Please do not include any budget in the project description.

Template Project description (word) , 68.6 kB.

Read the background and the call’s purpose and focus carefully. Also take note of the assessment criteria under “How does the assessment process work?” before completing the description. Address all the criteria in your application.

The project description should clearly describe the project based on the assessment criteria set out under “How the assessment process works”.

List of references

Maximum 2 pages. This part of the application is optional and can be used to list references that substantiate the project description. The list of references should be uploaded as a file with a maximum size of 4 MB.

Budget and other information

You state the project budget and other information about all participating organisations in Prisma. In Prisma, write out the total amount you are applying for in kronor using digits. For example, 1 million kronor should be written as: 1 000 000 kronor.

The budget itemises the costs and funds for the entire project (not just funding requested from Formas). The administrating organisation must fill in the information and budget for the coordinating project party and each project party. Prisma automatically totals these costs and funds for the project as a whole.

The following information must be stated in the project budget:

The administrating organisation and each project party

The information should be collected and filled in by the main applicant. The coordinating party must be the same as the administrating organisation. This is mandatory information and must be completed for each party in the project.

• Name of the organisation
• Corporate identity number
• Address, postal code, city, country
• Annual turnover (the total sales or turnover of the higher education institution, research institute, company or organisation during the previous fiscal year), stated using digits. Example: 3 500 000.
• Balance sheet total (the sum of either the assets page or liabilities and equity from the company’s or organisation’s balance sheet), stated using digits. Example: 5 500 000.
• Number of employees
• Contact person
• E-mail of contact person
• Name of the workplace, address, postal code, city and country where most of the work will be carried out.

Costs

• Staff expenses: Eligible staff expenses for companies and other organisations conducting economic activity may be estimated at a maximum of 800 kronor per hour. Higher education institutions or research institutes are not subject to this limitation. The amount that employees of higher education institutions or research institutes may be awarded must not exceed 100% of full-time employment. So, someone who already has full salary funding from any funding source cannot receive additional salary funding. Researchers who are full-time pensioners cannot receive funding for their own salary.

• Equipment, buildings and land: The maximum amount you can be granted for equipment and equipment depreciation costs is SEK 500,000.

• Consultancy and licensing costs: For the costs of consultancy services and licenses to be eligible for funding, they must be purchased or licensed from external actors at market prices, and their services and scope must be stated in the project description.

• Other direct costs: Other direct costs can include the cost of consumables, travel, conferences and publication fees for open-access journals and databases.

• Indirect costs (overhead): Higher education institutions and research institutes may charge a markup for indirect costs according to the applicable full-cost pricing method. Other project participants may charge a markup for indirect costs of up to 30 percent of their eligible staff expenses. Formas does not grant funds for overhead on costs that you write off for equipment or for premises.

Funding

There are four types of funding an applicant can specify in the application:

• Requested grant from Formas: Indicates the amount requested from Formas under the call. The amount cannot exceed the total costs. If the amount sought is less than the total costs, the remaining amounts will be automatically calculated and reported under “Self-funding”.
• Other aid (state): If Formas or another public funder has provided funding for related projects.
• Other aid (private): If another private company or organisation has provided external funding for the project.
• Self-funding: Indicates the project parties’ own contributions in terms of time, money and other resources. If the project party contributes its own funding, this is calculated automatically and displayed in the field for self-funding.

Requested grants from Formas may constitute a maximum of 50 percent of the total project budget. If other aid from state funders is included in the project budget, this aid together with the requested grant may constitute a maximum of 50 percent of the total project budget.

Self-funding and other aid from private funders together constitute the project’s co-funding. This part must amount to at least 50 percent of the total project budget. Public-sector project parties contributing self-funding can be included in the co-funding. Contact Johan Hansson (johan.hansson@formas.se) if you are unsure about what counts as co-funding.

The project consortium can itself determine how to distribute the grants, costs and co-funding levels as long as the project as a whole is co-funded to at least 50 percent and complies with state aid regulations (see “State aid regulations for companies and other organisations engaged in economic activity”). A participating project party can thus:

• only apply for a grant from Formas,
• only provide self-funding, or
• apply for a grant and provide self-funding.

Funding from other sources (public or private) and self-funding must be secured when the application is submitted under this call.

Justification of staff expenses in the budget (max. 500 characters including spaces)

Here, you specify the average hourly cost for budgeted staff expenses. Staff expenses refer to salaries including social security contributions and other mandatory charges associated with salaries. Eligible staff expenses for companies and other organisations conducting economic activity may be estimated at a maximum of 800 kronor per hour. Higher education institutions or research institutes are not subject to this limitation.

Other costs that require explanation can also be entered here.

Prisma automatically calculates the aid intensity and co-funding level. The calculated aid intensity is preliminary and can be adjusted prior to Formas’ award decision.

Budget specification (max. 2,000 characters including spaces)

In your own words, explain the budget and state the overhead costs included in the application. Formas does not grant funding for overhead costs that you write off for equipment or premises.

You also specify any consultancy costs and the scope of the consultant’s participation. Also specify which project participants will pay for the consultancy costs. The applicant is encouraged to clearly describe all costs related to the project activities.

Ethical considerations

You should specify whether or not there are specific ethical concerns in your project. If so, state what these ethical concerns are and how you plan to manage them. Examples include research that uses personal data or research involving experiments on humans or animals.

If you are conducting research on people, human tissue or are processing sensitive personal data, you must obtain ethical approval from the Swedish Ethical Review Authority. If you are conducting an animal experiment, you also need to obtain ethical approval. You can apply for approval through the Swedish Board of Agriculture’s online service.

You should state in your application whether or not you have obtained ethical approval. If you have not obtained such approval and you are awarded a grant, you must obtain it before the described studies begin.

Even if you do not expect your research to involve ethical concerns, you should state this in your application and briefly explain why not.

Classifications

Formas uses the project’s classifications in analyses and supporting documentation on an overall level. The classifications are made when the applicant states the subject area, research topic (SCB code), at least one sustainable development goal the project can contribute to, and keywords.

• Subject area
  Select the project’s subject area and add a sub-heading.

• Research topic (SCB code)
  Select at least one research topic and two sublevels that together form the entire code.

• Sustainable development goals
  Select at least one and up to three sustainable development goals (SDGs) the project can help to achieve, in order of relevance.
  More about the meaning of the goals External link.

• Keywords
  Enter at least one and a maximum of three keywords describing the project.
  

Administrating organisation – the organisation receiving the grant

• Select the administrating organisation from the dropdown list. If you cannot find the organisation that will be the coordinating project party, see the “Organisation account” heading under “How to apply”.
• Select the domicile from the dropdown list. If you cannot find the correct domicile, see “Applicants from administrating organisations who must be individually approved” under “How to apply”.

List of participants

State all project participants with their name, organisation and role in the project. Fill in the information in any table style, save the document as a PDF file, and upload under the mandatory appendices in Prisma. You can only upload files in PDF format in Prisma.

Appendices: CVs of project participants

It is mandatory to attach the CV of the project manager and at least one key project participant. It is optional to add the CVs of up to six participants. Maximum 2 A4 pages per CV.

The organisation account manager registers the application

After the application is completed, it must be registered, submitted and signed by the person responsible for the organisation account. Signing can be done in two ways:

1. If the organisation account manager is the same person as the project manager, that person registers the application and signing takes place by default when the application is registered.

1. If someone other than the project manager is the organisation account manager, then that person must finalise the application. Next, the administrating organisation (the organisation account manager or user whose role is application manager) must register and submit the application. The application is then signed automatically after the application is registered.

At any time during the application process, the project manager can access the tab Verify and Register. It lists any missing mandatory information or other reasons that might prevent the application from being registered.

Prisma’s support page External link.

NOTE: Once the application period has expired, an application can only be completed in specific cases by request from Formas.

First, Formas verifies that the application meets the procedural requirements set out in the call. If the application does not meet these requirements, it is rejected and does not proceed to review.

The following requirements will be verified in this call:

• The amount sought per project does not exceed SEK 4 million.
• The funds sought are for projects that run for a minimum of 12 months and a maximum of 4 years.
• Co-funding requirements are 50 percent from a private company or other non-academic party.
• The project parties are legal persons, not sole proprietorships or other unacceptable company forms.
• At least two organisations must participate as project parties, of which at least one must come from either a private company or a public-sector organisation.
• International project participants are not recipients of any portion of the grant.
• The same application is not submitted with different main applicants. All final registered applications that have similar content will be rejected.
  
• The project description is written in the template provided. Template Project description (word) , 68.6 kB.
  

All applications are assessed by an external review panel based on the contents of your application. It is therefore important to write the application as clearly as possible and include all important and relevant information.

Summary of the assessment process:

1. Applications that meet the procedural requirements will be assessed by external independent reviewers using assessment criteria. The applications will then be ranked and a recommendation for funding made.
2. Formas takes a decision on which projects are awarded funding.
3. Decisions are announced to the applicants and to Smart Built Environment’s offices and published on the websites of Formas and Smart Built Environment.

Assessment criteria

Applications will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

Relevance

• The project can significantly contribute to the purpose and aims of the call.
• The project has a clear problem formulation.
• The project addresses thematic areas External link. and impacts according to the programme’s impact logic External link..
• The design of the project and the expected results have taken into consideration the relevant needs and conditions of different groups in society.
• The application shows the commercial or operational benefit that the project results are judged to have for the company, organisation or sector.

Potential

• The project’s intended results are innovative or significantly better than solutions currently available in the market.
• The project’s intended results are capable of achieving the impacts stated in the programme’s impact logic.
• The project has potential to promote greater equality through inclusion in the project or through the project’s results.

Implementation

• Planned activities and methods are realistic and appropriate for achieving expected results during the project.
• The time frame and budget are realistic and appropriate in relation to the purpose and objectives of the project.
• The plan for how the results of the project will be utilised is clearly described and is fit for purpose.
• Ethical considerations are described clearly, and the applicant’s plan for managing them is appropriate.
• Gender perspectives are well integrated into the implementation of the project.
  

Project organisation

• The project’s organisation and overall competence of the project group are appropriate for the implementation of the project, including the utilisation of the project’s results.
• The project is carried out in collaboration with relevant stakeholders or end users. The involvement of the project participants is well described and appropriate for the objectives of the project.
• The project group (key actors) as well as the distribution of influence is well balanced between women and men. Relevant for project groups of more than 3 people.
• 
  

Decisions on which projects are granted funding are expected to be taken on 18 May 2023. We publish our decisions the following day at the latest on the Formas website and later by email from Prisma. Grant award decisions cannot be appealed.

All awarded projects must submit a report to Formas containing financial and project results within three months of the end of the grant availability period. The availability period is the specified period during which the awarded funds can still be used even though the project is officially completed. This is to allow for the extra time a project runs beyond its approved completion date. The availability period for the funds can be extended in specific cases if there are special circumstances that are approved by Formas, the project manager and administrating organisation, such as illness or parental leave.

For projects longer than 18 months, a financial statement must also be submitted to Formas annually. All reports are submitted in Prisma.

Financial reporting in Prisma External link.

Formas may impose requirements on how projects must be reported in terms of content and results to enable distribution and application. In such cases, the award decision will contain more information about this. Formas may also require you to participate in conferences and similar events in order to create synergies and platforms for learning and knowledge sharing.

Results of research funded by Formas must be published using open access.

You must also have a data management plan for the data produced in the project. This plan does not need to be submitted to Formas, but should be presented on request. By signing our grant terms and conditions, you certify that a data management plan will be available before the research begins and that it will be maintained.

Open access to research results and data External link.

SweCRIS

Formas shares information about awarded grants to SweCRIS, a national database of grant-funded research that was instituted by request of the government.

Coordinating project party (Principal applicant)

An organisation that coordinates the project and is an administrating organisation, meaning it receives funding from Formas, reports the project according to instructions and notifies Formas of any changes.

Project manager

A person appointed by the coordinating project party as the project manager.

The project manager leads the work of planning and implementing projects.

Project party

An organisation that implements the project, regardless of whether it receives funding (i.e. it provides its own funding). A subcontractor is not a project party.

Administrating organisation (Principal applicant)

The administrating organisation is the organisation that receives funding from Formas and transfers the funds to other organisations that are project beneficiaries, reports the project according to instructions, and notifies Formas of any changes.

Administrating organisation for all types of calls

An organisation that can seek funding from Formas in all types of calls. These are higher education institutions, research institutes and government agencies with research assignments.

Administrating organisation for an individual project (see the section “How to apply”)

An organisation that can apply for funding from Formas through individual calls and receive funding for an individual project. These are private companies, associations, trade associations, boards of directors, funds and municipalities.

Domicile

A domicile can be an institution, department or unit within the applying organisation.

SME (small and medium-sized enterprise)

A small enterprise is one that employs between 10 and 49 people and has an annual turnover or annual balance sheet total of less than 10 million euros. A medium-sized enterprise is one that employs between 50 and 249 people and has an annual turnover of less than 50 million euros or an annual balance sheet total of less than 43 million euros. For micro enterprises with fewer than 10 employees, the same rules apply as for small enterprises. Note that Formas does not award grants to enterprises that are sole proprietorships, so applications from sole proprietorships will be rejected. SME External link. defined by the EU External link.