The green industries are facing a historic transition. A quarter of global carbon dioxide emissions can be linked to the food chain – and the time to achieve the climate goals is running out. Now SLU and the Upland Savings Bank Foundation are launching four innovation prizes that will encourage new ideas and entrepreneurship for a more sustainable and resilient green industry. The aim is to accelerate the development of sustainable solutions in agriculture, forestry, food, animals and the environment – areas where SLU conducts world-leading research.
Note! Download the application form on your computer to fill in your information!
Submission of application closes 30 november.
The total prize money of SEK 145,000 is divided into a first prize of SEK 100,000, aimed at researchers, and three prizes of SEK 15,000 each aimed at students.
The winner will be announced at an award ceremony in the spring of 2026.
The prize money is a scholarship awarded to the main applicant from the Sparbanksstiftelsen Upland and is normally not taxable. However, the recipient is responsible for clarifying this with the Swedish Tax Agency.
The prize comes without any reporting requirements, but we would like the prize winners to give us feedback 12 months after receiving the prize with a short summary of how the prize affected their ability to continue their project.
Students, researchers or employees of SLU Uppsala are welcome to participate, regardless of discipline.
You can compete as individuals or as teams, the prize money is then shared between the applicants. If there are several people behind an idea at least one of you must be a student, researcher or employee at SLU Uppsala. Students must have at least 1 ECT at SLU Alnarp during the academic year of the competition (2025/2026)
If you are more than one person behind the idea, at least one of you must be a student or researcher at SLU Uppsala. If others have been involved in the advent of innovation or have worked on developing it, you need to reconcile with these before applying. Our recommendation is that if there are questions regarding who should apply, please apply together as the award is then shared between all applicants.
Innovations can be product-related as well as service-oriented, but can’t have reached commercial stage.
The Sparbanksstiftelsen Upland och SLU:s Innovation Prize is open to all ideas, but the sustainability aspect of the proposals will be central to the assessment. Our industry needs more innovations to reduce the impact on the environment and we hope that the award will be help accelerate this development.
We welcome project ideas that have not yet been developed into a commercial product or service. The assessment criteria that we will base our decision are as follows:
After initial selections, the jury will meet with possible award winners in order to assess the context of innovation and how the person/persons can take the idea to a commercial phase or utilization in society. Final selection will be made after the jury has taken part in these simple project presentations.
The decision on the winning entries will be made by a jury. The name of the members of the jury will be published well in advance of the award ceremony. The jury’s decision cannot be appealed.
All applications for the innovation awards are treated as confidential and the innovation will remain as the applicants property even after the competition has been completed.
Christer Frånlund, Innovation advisor SLU Holding
0705-55 91 16
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