46 new projects granted funding within Swedish Metals & Minerals

With 46 new research projects and over SEK 202 million in public funding, Swedish Metals & Minerals is taking the next step toward a more sustainable, circular, and competitive raw materials and metals industry. The projects focus on everything from technological breakthroughs and recycling to social sustainability in the mining and metals sectors.

A total of 46 new research projects within Swedish Metals & Minerals have now been granted funding from Vinnova and the Swedish Energy Agency. The projects were approved through three separate calls for proposals. Together, they have a combined budget of approximately SEK 345 million, of which around SEK 202 million comes from the two research funding agencies.

In the call “Impact Innovation: Research and Development Projects within Technological Action Areas in the Swedish Metals & Minerals programme”, 25 projects have been granted funding. These projects focus on ideas with the potential to contribute to the mission of Swedish Metals & Minerals and address one or more of the programme’s technological action areas. The total budget for these 25 research projects amounts to nearly SEK 246 million, with approximately SEK 138 million funded by Vinnova.

The call “Impact Innovation: Urgent Challenges within Swedish Metals & Minerals” resulted in 11 approved research projects. This call focused on projects working with access to critical raw materials from Sweden, increased use of scrap and other secondary raw materials, sustainable water management within the mining and metals production sectors, and reducing the environmental impact from major waste streams in these sectors. The total budget for these projects amounts to SEK 56 million, of which SEK 35.8 million is provided by the Swedish Energy Agency.

In the call “Impact Innovation: Research and Development Projects within Social Action Areas in the Swedish Metals & Minerals programme”, 10 projects have been granted funding. These projects aim to increase understanding of, and improve the ability to address, challenges within the programme’s social action areas. The total budget for these ten projects is circa SEK 43 million, of which SEK 29 million comes from Vinnova.

In November, the vision-driven strategic initiative Digital Metal Values – Collaboration for the effective implementation of Digital Product Passports was granted funding. The initiative aims to enable an efficient and commercially viable rollout of digital product passports across the entire value chain of the Swedish metals industry. The research project brings together industry, research actors and industry organisations to develop solutions that ensure fair and transparent information reporting in line with upcoming regulations. The project has a total budget of approximately SEK 18 million, of which SEK 8.9 million is funding from Vinnova.

Earlier this year, two additional calls also closed, resulting in 11 research projects being granted a total of SEK 34.5 million in funding from Vinnova.