Closed call 2022-12-12: Industrial Innovation Projects

This is the third call for Industrial Innovation Projects (IIPs) within Digital Futures.

Background

Digital Futures is a cross-disciplinary research centre that explores and develops digital technologies. We bring solutions to great societal challenges in Sweden and globally. We generate knowledge, innovations, and future leaders of high industrial relevance and strategic importance. Digital Futures is jointly established by KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm University, and RISE Research Institutes of Sweden. Digital Futures awards funding to strategic research projects to support a specific action or project that furthers the vision of Digital Futures. Find out more about Digital Futures here.

Current already established funding schemes under Digital Futures with either ongoing projects or active calls related to, e.g., Collaborative Research Projects, Research Pairs, postdoc funding, and Demonstrator Projects. Societal and Industrial Innovation Projects were launched in 2021 and are an essential part of the Industrial and Societal Partnership Programme (ISPP), formally inaugurated in the spring of 2022. Societal Innovation Projects (SIPs) are a research project funding scheme under the Digital Futures ISPP. KTH schools and Platforms, Stockholm University (SU) and RISE are encouraged to be active in forming SIPs (note that RISE and SU affiliates cannot receive Digital Futures funding for this round of ISPP project calls, see Eligibility below).

Important dates

Call opens: 23 September 2022
Proposal Submission Deadline: 5 December 2022
NEW Submission Deadline: 12 December 2022
Expected decision on Projects: March 2023
Expected Start of Projects: Spring/Summer 2023, depending on the duration of project contract negotiations.

Purpose

ISPP projects like Industrial Innovation Projects and Societal Innovation Projects are the main instrument within the Industrial and Societal Partnership Program (ISPP) of Digital Futures to foster research collaboration and impact within the Digital Futures eco-system. The ISPP is rapidly growing into a network of industrial companies and public entities primarily located in the Stockholm region, with a strategic interest in technologies for digital transformation. The main goals of the ISPP are to (I) position Stockholm as a leading area in the field of digitalization, (II) to identify trends, challenges, and opportunities related to digitalization for different players (private companies, public authorities), and (III) to foster the creation of novel and innovate project consortia that can address challenges and grow into larger consortia and initiatives. Thus, a major part of the industrial and societal impact and dissemination of Digital Futures is intended to take place through the ISPP. IIPs are the main impact route particularly targeted at industrial stakeholders.

Scope

Industrial Innovation Project proposals are welcome in all areas of digital transformation (represented by the Digital Futures research matrix, see below figure).

Digital Futures Strategic Research Programme: The three research themes Trust, Cooperate and Learn cut across the four contexts Smart society, Digitalized industry, Rich and healthy life, and Educational Transformation.

Eligibility

PIs and Constellation

The following positions/titles/roles are eligible to apply as PI or co-PI:

Assistant Professor
Associate Professor
Full Professor
Permanent full-time Researcher (”tillsvidareanställning”) with a PhD degree and 80% employment or more at KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

PIs or co-PIs do not need to be Digital Futures faculty when applying but will become Digital Futures faculty if the project is granted.

IIPs furthermore must feature a collaboration between at least one academic and at least one industrial partner. Constellations with more academic and/or industrial partners are encouraged.

Notice that for this project call, RISE and SU-affiliated researchers are not eligible to apply for funding from Digital Futures. Nevertheless, RISE and SU affiliates can be part of project consortia and receive funding from the partner contributions to the project.

Project Duration and Funding Conditions

IIPs can be at most 3 years in duration.

The projects will be funded with a maximum of 4.5 MSEK overall in terms of Digital Futures funding.

Digital Futures provides funding for ISPP project proposals based on the principle of “fund matching”. Any requested amount from Digital Futures (up to the maximum mentioned above) must be matched with in-kind and/or cash funding from industrial and/or public project partners (see matching conditions below). These provided external funds must be clearly outlined in a Letter of Intent (one per project partner) submitted together with the project proposal.

For IIPs, the following matching conditions apply for the public and industrial project partners:

ISPP members: Combinations of in-kind and cash funding are considered as matching funds towards the Digital Futures funding requested, as long as the total in-kind contribution from the ISPP member does not exceed the cash contribution.
Non-ISPP members: Only cash funding from non-ISPP members is considered matching funds towards the Digital Futures requested funding.

As a guideline, ISPP members, as well as non-members, are requested to provide a minimum of 500 kSEK/year in total to a project proposal.

IIP projects are subject to signing a project contract among all involved parties after IIP proposals are decided to be funded. The project contract mainly relates to funding and IPR. Consortia submitting proposals under this call are recommended to discuss and align their interests before submitting proposals.

Applicable Funding Policy for Digital Futures Faculty

Researchers can be involved in several projects under different instruments, but within Digital Futures, the funding per individual is limited to 1 MSEK/year. Hence, the funding you may have received under the current Digital Futures instruments Collaborative Research Projects, Research Pairs, Demonstrator Projects, Collaborative projects targeting Diversity and Inclusion, and Seed Projects will be considered. Funding from Digital Futures to ISPP projects (Societal Innovation Projects, Industrial Innovation Projects, ISPP Demo Projects) is included, but not the part from partners. Digital Futures Postdoctoral Fellows projects or C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute projects are not considered.

Information Meeting

Digital Futures offers an optional information meeting for project consortia to get first-hand information on all call conditions.

Date and time: 21 November at 16:00 CET (4 pm) on Zoom, https://kth-se.zoom.us/j/61014807376. No registration is required.

Evaluation

IIP proposals are evaluated in two steps. They are evaluated in step 1 by external evaluators, who review proposals according to the criteria:

The potential for research advancement and impact is measured through Industrial transfer, scientific excellence and societal outreach.
Feasibility of the proposed project plan
Relevant qualification of the project consortium

In step 2, the panel feedback from step 1 will be considered by the Digital Futures Industrial and Societal Board when speaking out a funding recommendation to the Digital Futures Governing Board, which decides about the Digital Futures cash funding of project proposals.

How to apply

Prepare your application according to the project description template: 2022_09_22_DF_ISPP_Project_Template
Send your application file with all supplementary material to: call@digitalfutures.kth.se, and include “Industrial Innovation Projects call” in the subject of your email.

Contact & Questions

Contact call@digitalfutures.kth.se for further questions. Please include “Industrial Innovation Projects call” in the subject of your email.