Deadline: 2-Feb-23
Formas is pleased to announce the launch of Smart Built Environment Program for companies, public activities, universities and colleges and research institutes.
This call aims to make a contribution to the sustainable development of built environment. It will fund projects that mainly use digitalisation as a tool for increased sustainability in spatial planning, in terms of processes and process results as well as the built environment itself.
Through the Smart Built Environment programme, Formas, Vinnova and the Swedish Energy Agency finance projects with a focus on digitization and industrial processes in community building.
Theme Areas
The projects must address at least one of the program’s four theme areas Smart Built Environment Theme areas:
- Innovations and new applications
- An application that addresses the theme area Innovations and new applications describes ideas and initiatives that can be developed into innovations and new applications of products, services or processes in community building. Within this theme area, the focus is on breaking established patterns and ways of working and finding new solutions and new ways of organizing and collaborating in the industry.
- Value chains and business models
- Value chains, incentives and business and operational models are interrelated and need to be studied and developed in order to utilize the power of digitization and industrialization. The area also handles questions about actor roles, competencies, working methods and organization of projects and processes.
- Information Infrastructure
- The theme area deals with the common information infrastructure that the sector needs for digital and industrial development. The area includes standardization for the exchange of data and the integration of information in the processes of community building, including information structures for life-cycle perspectives, but also issues of accessibility to and ownership of data.
- Knowledge and competence
- In order to utilize the power of digital transformation in both companies and the public sector, an increase in knowledge is needed. The theme area should contribute to raising the knowledge and competence of companies and the public sector, both at management level and in operational activities. The area also links to how new knowledge can be created and utilized. This area includes applications that deal with compilations and syntheses, which, for example, provide the basis for further tests in operations and for educational initiatives.
Funding Information
SEK 500,000 to SEK 4 million
Project Duration
The project duration is 12-48 months.
Eligible Projects
In this call, two main types of projects can be financed. Applicants must clearly address one of these types:
- Research, development or innovation projects: Projects with a focus on research, development or innovation within the program’s areas, preferably with the ambition to achieve disruptive changes in the structures of social construction. For example, it may refer to:
- Projects that contain varying degrees of either applied research, development or with a focus on innovation. Research projects can be run as doctoral projects or by senior researchers;
- Competence development projects that show examples of innovative thinking regarding knowledge enhancement, with activities that contribute to reaching the large number of actors and businesses that exist in the civil engineering sector. Preferably complement to traditional education;
- Test bed and demonstration projects where virtual or physical environments are created for the demonstration of results from research and development projects, for example from previous projects within the programme. They like to see applications for so-called system demonstrators where several previous results are demonstrated in a common environment.
- Continuation Project: Projects that utilize results and insights from completed or ongoing projects within the Smart Built Environment. For example, it may refer to:
- Projects that address designated directions or initiatives in developed strategies and roadmaps;
- Projects that refer to the building of structures to gather the sector’s actors around long-term management of a project result or a designated area;
- Efforts for the implementation of results from completed or ongoing projects towards application or increased commercialization.
Eligibility Criteria
The call is aimed at companies, public activities, universities and colleges and research institutes. At least two parties must participate in the application. At least one of the participating parties must come from business or public activity;
- All interested organizations and companies according to the above are welcome to apply, preferably in collaboration with new partners. Consortia with start-ups that can contribute to the development of both new ways of working, business models and new technology as well as owners of needs such as property owners, municipalities or construction companies are especially welcome;
- International project participants are welcomed and can contribute time or other resources as co-financing of the project. However, foreign actors cannot take part in funds from Formas in this call;
- Smart Built Environment and Formas work for equal, equal and inclusive social development. This means that you, the applicant, should design the project so that the results can benefit a variety of people and that the project group is designed with consideration of gender distribution and different backgrounds. Here consideration should be given not only to the number of people but also to the distribution of power and influence in the project.
For more information, visit Smart Built Environment.