Formas Biosociety — Fossil-Free and Resilient Bio-based Production

Formas Biosociety — Fossil-Free Bio-based Production Call 2

Funds collaboration between business and academia on bio-based and fossil-free industrial production.

The Formas Biosociety call — formally titled "Fossil-free and Resilient Bio-based Production" (Call 2, 2026) — distributes SEK 50 million to business-academia consortia developing fossil-free and bio-based primary production and industrial processes in Sweden. Formas allocated the total equally: SEK 25 million to Focus Area 1 (primary production — fossil-free and resilient bioeconomy) and SEK 25 million to Focus Area 2 (industrial processes — bio-based production). Individual project awards range from SEK 1 million to SEK 4 million. Projects run 12 to 36 months, with start dates between November 1 and December 1, 2026, and funding decisions announced on October 20, 2026.

The consortium requirement is strict: a minimum of three project partners must participate, with at least two drawn from the business sector. Business partners must contribute a minimum of 50% co-financing — this is a non-negotiable condition, not a preference. Sole traders may not participate. Eligible partner types include companies, universities, research institutes, and public sector organisations. Energy technology development and pharmaceutical development are explicitly excluded from the call scope, regardless of bio-based framing. Applications are submitted via the Prisma system and assessed on both scientific quality and societal relevance.

The co-financing structure means that business sector buy-in must be secured before submission — consortia should form and document industry commitments as part of their preparatory work. Proposals should be anchored clearly in one of the two focus areas rather than spanning both, as the SEK 25 million per area budget is evaluated separately. Projects demonstrating a clear route from research outputs to commercial-scale adoption of fossil-free or bio-based production will be most competitive. Applicants should confirm the exact submission deadline by consulting the Formas website directly, as it was not specified in the published call documentation at the time of data collection.