Competence Centre Programme (Kompetenscentrumprogrammet)

Competence Centre for a Fossil-Free Energy System

Funds Swedish universities and their company and research partners establishing a five-year energy research competence centre through Swedish Energy Agency grants.

⚠ This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.

The Competence Centre for a Fossil-Free Energy System (Swedish: Kompetenscentrum för ett fossilfritt energisystem) is a grant call run by the Swedish Energy Agency (Energimyndigheten) under its Competence Centre Programme (Kompetenscentrumprogrammet). The programme's stated aim is to support the shift to a sustainable energy system by creating and maintaining internationally leading research centres in the energy field. A competence centre is a long-lived research environment, not a single short project.

The grant funds the work of setting up and running one competence centre for a first five-year stage. The call advertised a total of SEK 300 million for the round (Swedish: "Utlysta medel 300 miljoner kronor"). The source does not state a minimum or maximum award per centre, so the catalog records only the combined pool, not a per-applicant cap. All amounts are in Swedish kronor; no US dollar figure is published. The award is a grant, and the funded centre is expected to pool people and money from several partners.

Universities and university colleges apply as the lead applicant, working together with other higher-education institutions, research institutes, companies, and public-sector actors. Companies cannot lead the application, but they have a clear route in as named partners in the consortium, which is why for-profit participation is marked as allowed rather than required. The centre is meant to be a shared environment across these partner types.

Applications for the advertised round were due by 31 March 2026 at 23:59 local time (Swedish: "Sista dag för ansökan 2026-03-31 23:59"). That deadline has passed. The Competence Centre Programme is a recurring scheme, so the status is set to between rounds: a future call is expected, but no next opening date is published in the source. The call page points applicants to a full call text and a separate "Call for proposals" document for the detailed rules and review criteria, but those documents are not included in the captured source.

Practical caveats: the application is in Swedish through the Swedish Energy Agency, a company must join an eligible university-led consortium rather than apply alone, and the centre is a multi-year commitment for a five-year first stage rather than a one-off project grant. The detailed scoring criteria, per-centre award size, and exact required documents live in the full call text, which should be read before applying.