Impact Innovation: Preparatory Project for a reformed Public Sector (Sweden)

SustainGov creates the conditions for a reformed public sector that holistically promotes and facilitates health and well-being for all residents regardless of geography and socioeconomic status, and ensures society’s sustainability transition within the planet’s boundaries.

The offer support preparatory projects where actors will identify, analyze and address underlying system issues. The projects are expected to lay the foundation for innovative and cross-border proposals for testing and development at a later stage.

SustainGov is a mission-driven programme within Impact Innovation that is a joint effort of the Swedish Energy Agency, Formas and Vinnova. SustainGov’s mission is to achieve a public sector that holistically promotes well-being for all residents, regardless of geography and socio-economic status, by 2035. The public sector must also ensure the sustainable transformation of society.

Focus Areas

• SustainGov has chosen to focus its efforts on four focus areas:
  • System-wide collaboration for complex care needs – Changed working methods and collaboration between healthcare and social care actors where the individual’s health and long-term well-being are at the center.
  • An inclusive society for all – Shared responsibility from the public sector in aim of creating systemic change where the sector meets the needs of vulnerable target groups through co-creation and inclusion.
  • Future-proofing food security for health and well-being – A new role for the public sector that strengthens resilience in the food system and ensures a sustainable and nutritious food supply for all.
  • The social contract of the future: a renewed relationship between residents and the public sector– The public sector creates stronger ties to residents, business and civil society to contribute to new joint solutions.

Funding Information

• The grant can amount to a maximum of SEK 500,000, and a maximum of 80 percent of the project’s total eligible costs.
• They expect to fund approximately 15 project per focus area. The project that are funded will have a project duration of a maximum of 6 months with a project start date of December 1, 2025.

Eligible Costs

• In this the call for proposals these types of costs are eligible:
  • Personnel costs: Salaries, social security contributions and other personnel costs.
  • Equipment, land and buildings: Instruments, equipment and rent for premises other than regular business premises.
  • Consulting and licensing costs: Consulting services, knowledge and patents purchased or licensed from a third party. Costs for consulting services from third parties may not exceed 20 percent of a project party’s budget.
  • A higher proportion than 20 percent may be approved in case of special needs. You must then justify the need for consulting services in proposal. This justification will be taken into account in the assessment.
  • Other direct costs: For example, materials, supplies and travel necessary to carry out the project as well as participation in learning and exchange of experiences.
  • Indirect costs (overhead): Costs that are not incurred as an immediate consequence of but can be related to the project, for example regular premises and cleaning.

Expected Outcomes

• A preparatory project within SustainGov is expected to:
  • identify, analyze and address underlying systemic issues. The project is expected to lay the foundation for innovative, cross-sectoral and cross-organizational proposals for implementation and collaboration at a later stage.
  • have a clear systems perspective and address complex societal challenges within one or more of SustainGov’s four focus areas linked to an end target group, analyze system problems that need to be addressed in order to contribute to a system-changing culture and practice, such as going:
    • from reactive to proactive – from only dealing with problems when they arise to anticipating and preventing them, enabling more sustainable and efficient use of resources,
    • from organization-oriented to individualized interaction – creating joint solutions that are based on the needs of individuals, rather than being tied to fixed organizational structures,
    • from process and indicator-driven to impact-focused – shift focus from measuring short-term results with simple indicators to assessing long-term effects that truly contribute to societal development, including impact indicators to follow up on actual improvements in the target group’s health and well-being,
    • from seeing the individual as a passive recipient to an active co-creator – recognizing individuals as active co-creators in the development of solutions to achieve more sustainable and relevant results.

Target Audience

• The project must be conducted jointly by at least two project parties from the public sector, civil society, business or academia.
• The coordinating participant must be a need owner in the public sector, such as municipality, association of municipalities, region or state public authority.
• In addition, other relevant actors from civil society, universities, university colleges or companies can participate as project partners or in the role of other stakeholders, for example in a reference group or similar.

Eligibility Requirements

• On Organizational Form of Project Parties
  • All project partners must be legal entities.
  • Natural persons or individual companies cannot participate as project partners.
  • The coordinating party must be a Swedish legal entity and conduct activities in Sweden.
• For the Project
  • The coordinating party must be a public sector stakeholder. By stakeholder is meant Swedish municipalities, municipality- and municipal associations, regions, state authorities. In this context, higher education institutions and publicly owned companies are not included.
  • The project must consist of at least two project partners.
  • The project manager must be employed by one of the project parties.
  • The requested grant from Vinnova should amount to a maximum of 80% of the project’s total eligible costs according to the budget in proposal.
  • The project may not begin before proposal is submitted.
• On Proposal
  • Proposal must be written in Swedish or English.
  • Proposal must contain all requested attachments.

For more information, visit Vinnova.