Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) | SWEET (SWiss Energy research for the Energy Transition) Call 2-2022
Event details
| Date | 27.10.2022 |
| Category | Call for proposal |
SWEET (SWiss Energy research for the Energy Transition) is a funding programme of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE). The purpose is to fund interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research and innovation activities with a focus on Switzerland’s energy strategy 2050 and the country’s climate policy goals. The programme targets solution-oriented research and innovation in the natural sciences and engineering as well as in the social sciences and humanities (SSH) in the domains of energy efficiency, renewable energy production and consumption, storage, networks, society and energy, and security and safety of critical energy infrastructures.
The guiding theme for the 2nd call 2022 is “Sustainable Fuels and Platform Chemicals”. The objectives of this call are to investigate how Switzerland can meet its future needs for sustainable fuels and platform chemicals. Technologies for production, transport, distribution, storage and use are to be further developed. Furthermore, researchers are to show how the additional potential of Swiss farmyard manure can be profitably used for the production of sustainable fuels and platform chemicals.
The consortium’s work is expected to propose portfolios of interrelated research projects, including pilot and demonstration projects (P+D). A portfolio should be composed of projects focusing on research, development, demonstration, and deployment/implementation, structured such that the projects build on and feed into each other. The portfolio may include projects that involve real world laboratories and other formats in which the effects on and the agency of people can be explored. As a result, the consortia and project portfolios should cover significant parts of the innovation system.
A consortium must meet the following requirements:
1. It is led by 1 Swiss host institution.
2. It consists of at least 5 applicants from different legal entities.
3. It consists of at least 1 applicant from each of the following entities:
a. Swiss university or institute of the ETH domain (ETH Zurich, EPF Lausanne, Empa, Eawag, PSI and WSL),
b. Swiss university of applied sciences,
c. Swiss industry/private sector.
In addition, a consortium should:
1. Consist of applicants and cooperation partners that span the innovation system and thereby enable an interdisciplinary or a transdisciplinary approach commensurate with the research challenge.
2. Consist of applicants and cooperation partners that deliver complementary and significant contributions to the consortium’s work programme.
3. Be gender-balanced and reflect Switzerland’s diversity in terms of languages and regions.
Who can apply
Research institutes, tertiary education sector, private sector, as well as public sector such as cantons and communes. Foreign institutions of higher education, non-commercial research organizations, and private nor-profit entities may apply for SWEET funding if their contributions are essential to achieving the consortium’s objectives, cannot be provided by Swiss applicants, and generate added value in Switzerland.
Members from the SSH are expected to be equitably represented in the consortia and their management.
Federal departments and their administrative units are prohibited from receiving SWEET funding. As a result, employees of federal departments and their administrative units may not participate in SWEET consortia.
Funding
One consortium will be supported with a budget of at most CHF 15 Mio. to tackle the challenge over a period of 6 to 8 years. Supplementary funding of at most CHF 1.5 Mio. is available.
Eligible costs
In preparing their budgets, consortia must take into account the following:
Submission and deadline
SWEET Call 2-2022 is being organized as a two-step process:
Important:
Consortia that intend to submit a pre-proposal must inform the SFOE by sending a notification of intent
to submit to [email protected] no later than 27 October 2022. The notification must be prepared in English using the template that is available on the SWEET website. The SFOE will acknowledge having received the notification by contacting the coordinator named in the notification. Please inform the Research Office at [email protected] in parallel.
The template includes sections that must be completed if the consortium includes foreign applicants
(see application guidelines Section 3.4.4). The SFOE will strive to inform the coordinator within 10 working days whether the applicants are approved.
The notification is mandatory, i.e., if a consortium did not submit a notification by the deadline given above, it’s pre-proposal will fail the admissibility check and hence not be evaluated (see application guidelines Section 6.1). However, the notification is not binding, i.e., a consortium may choose not to submit a pre-proposal although it had previously notified the SFOE of its intention to do so.
Use the official notification form and pre-proposal template available on the SWEET webpage. Application documents must be submitted electronically to [email protected].
Letters of Interest of Applicants or Cooperation Partners, as well as a Letter of Commitment of the Host Institution are requested by SFOE: please contact the EPFL Research Office at [email protected] by 25 November 2022.
Schedule of the call
27 October 2022: Deadline for notifying SFOE of intention to submit pre-proposal
25 November 2022: Deadline for submission of letter of interests and commitments
9 December 2022: Deadline for submission of pre-proposals
Late February 2023: Announcement of evaluation results
Late February 2023: Invitation to submit full proposal sent to shortlisted consortium
Mid-May 2023: Deadline for submission of full proposal
Mid-July 2023: Announcement of funding decision
October 2023: Consortium starts operations
An Open access and data management plan is requested: for help, please contact the EPFL library at [email protected].
For further information: please visit the SWEET webpage, and read carefully the SWEET Guidelines. If you have any questions, please contact [email protected].
The guiding theme for the 2nd call 2022 is “Sustainable Fuels and Platform Chemicals”. The objectives of this call are to investigate how Switzerland can meet its future needs for sustainable fuels and platform chemicals. Technologies for production, transport, distribution, storage and use are to be further developed. Furthermore, researchers are to show how the additional potential of Swiss farmyard manure can be profitably used for the production of sustainable fuels and platform chemicals.
The consortium’s work is expected to propose portfolios of interrelated research projects, including pilot and demonstration projects (P+D). A portfolio should be composed of projects focusing on research, development, demonstration, and deployment/implementation, structured such that the projects build on and feed into each other. The portfolio may include projects that involve real world laboratories and other formats in which the effects on and the agency of people can be explored. As a result, the consortia and project portfolios should cover significant parts of the innovation system.
A consortium must meet the following requirements:
1. It is led by 1 Swiss host institution.
2. It consists of at least 5 applicants from different legal entities.
3. It consists of at least 1 applicant from each of the following entities:
a. Swiss university or institute of the ETH domain (ETH Zurich, EPF Lausanne, Empa, Eawag, PSI and WSL),
b. Swiss university of applied sciences,
c. Swiss industry/private sector.
In addition, a consortium should:
1. Consist of applicants and cooperation partners that span the innovation system and thereby enable an interdisciplinary or a transdisciplinary approach commensurate with the research challenge.
2. Consist of applicants and cooperation partners that deliver complementary and significant contributions to the consortium’s work programme.
3. Be gender-balanced and reflect Switzerland’s diversity in terms of languages and regions.
Who can apply
Research institutes, tertiary education sector, private sector, as well as public sector such as cantons and communes. Foreign institutions of higher education, non-commercial research organizations, and private nor-profit entities may apply for SWEET funding if their contributions are essential to achieving the consortium’s objectives, cannot be provided by Swiss applicants, and generate added value in Switzerland.
Members from the SSH are expected to be equitably represented in the consortia and their management.
Federal departments and their administrative units are prohibited from receiving SWEET funding. As a result, employees of federal departments and their administrative units may not participate in SWEET consortia.
Funding
One consortium will be supported with a budget of at most CHF 15 Mio. to tackle the challenge over a period of 6 to 8 years. Supplementary funding of at most CHF 1.5 Mio. is available.
Eligible costs
In preparing their budgets, consortia must take into account the following:
- For research projects, the maximum remuneration must follow specified hourly rates. For P+D projects, the maximum remuneration for applicants from institutions of higher education must follow these rates, while the maximum remuneration for other applicants should follow these rates.
- At least 10% of the core budget must be allocated to two work packages on management and coordination as well as KTT. While these work packages need not yet be detailed in the pre-proposal, the fraction of the core budget allocated to them must be reflected in the budget that must be submitted with the pre-proposal. The work packages on management and coordination as well as KTT may be fully funded by SWEET.
- Overhead costs are not eligible.
- The cumulation of federal financial assistance to fund a project is inadmissible if the legal provisions or rules of any of the concerned funding instruments are breached. For instance, if funding from one instrument has been secured and that assistance is sufficient for the project to goahead, applying for assistance from other instruments for the same project would result in an inadmissible cumulation. Similarly, an inadmissible cumulation would occur if the maximum funding rate of one instrument is violated by the assistance from other instruments. To prevent inadmissible cumulations, applicants that seek financial assistance from several federal instruments must clearly disclose all sources of financing and inform all concerned authorities.
Submission and deadline
SWEET Call 2-2022 is being organized as a two-step process:
- All interested consortia should submit a pre-proposal no later than 9 December 2022 (no later than at 12:00 noon CEST).
- A short-list of the highest-ranking consortia will be invited to submit full proposals. The deadline for submission of full proposals will be in May 2023.
Important:
Consortia that intend to submit a pre-proposal must inform the SFOE by sending a notification of intent
to submit to [email protected] no later than 27 October 2022. The notification must be prepared in English using the template that is available on the SWEET website. The SFOE will acknowledge having received the notification by contacting the coordinator named in the notification. Please inform the Research Office at [email protected] in parallel.
The template includes sections that must be completed if the consortium includes foreign applicants
(see application guidelines Section 3.4.4). The SFOE will strive to inform the coordinator within 10 working days whether the applicants are approved.
The notification is mandatory, i.e., if a consortium did not submit a notification by the deadline given above, it’s pre-proposal will fail the admissibility check and hence not be evaluated (see application guidelines Section 6.1). However, the notification is not binding, i.e., a consortium may choose not to submit a pre-proposal although it had previously notified the SFOE of its intention to do so.
Use the official notification form and pre-proposal template available on the SWEET webpage. Application documents must be submitted electronically to [email protected].
Letters of Interest of Applicants or Cooperation Partners, as well as a Letter of Commitment of the Host Institution are requested by SFOE: please contact the EPFL Research Office at [email protected] by 25 November 2022.
Schedule of the call
27 October 2022: Deadline for notifying SFOE of intention to submit pre-proposal
25 November 2022: Deadline for submission of letter of interests and commitments
9 December 2022: Deadline for submission of pre-proposals
Late February 2023: Announcement of evaluation results
Late February 2023: Invitation to submit full proposal sent to shortlisted consortium
Mid-May 2023: Deadline for submission of full proposal
Mid-July 2023: Announcement of funding decision
October 2023: Consortium starts operations
An Open access and data management plan is requested: for help, please contact the EPFL library at [email protected].
For further information: please visit the SWEET webpage, and read carefully the SWEET Guidelines. If you have any questions, please contact [email protected].
Practical information
- General public
- Free