The seven projects have been granted grants within the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation's Proof of Concept program. The purpose of the program is to bridge the gap from academic basic research to innovations.
Proof of concept grants are not ordinary research grants, but grants that give research groups at universities an opportunity to develop their early discoveries a further step towards validated methods, products or processes and to prepare them for commercialization.
“The program is very successful, we see that it strengthens and accelerates the rate of innovation in academic research. The Foundation has therefore gradually expanded the program to three calls per year in the areas of life science, materials science and AI and quantum technology, which next year will also include information and communication technology, ICT,” says Sara Mazur, Executive Director of Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.
Between SEK 1 and 4 million
Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation awarded the first Proof of Concept grants in 2017. In 2019, the Wallenberg Launch Pad, WALP, platform was created. Researchers who have or have had grants from any Wallenberg Foundation can apply to WALP with their ideas. Those who then proceed in the process receive support and coaching within WALP.
All in all, since 2017, a total of 128 Proof of Concept grants have been awarded.
The projects that have been granted funding will receive between SEK 1 and 4 million each over a project period of a maximum of two years. In addition to funding, the project leaders will receive continued support from the Wallenberg Launch Pad, WALP, team to develop their innovations to commercial maturity.
A second call for Proof of Concept grants in AI, quantum technology or ICT opens on January 19th with a deadline of March 25th, 2026.
Awarded Proof-of-Concept grants in AI and quantum technology in the 2025 call
Erik Lind, Lund University
Hybrid Quantum Amplifiers
Peter Andrekson, Chalmers University of Technology
Compact, ultrawide bandwidth optical amplifiers and tunable lasers based on chip-scale nonlinear photonics
Lennart Svensson, Chalmers University of Technology
AI-Native Sensor Simulation for Robotics
Ozan Öktem, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
AI guided stroke identification (AI Stroke ID)
Igor Abrikosov, Linköping University
Novel Solid State Qubits for Quantum Communications
Andreas Nylander, Chalmers University of Technology
Frequency-Tuned Qubits: A Scalable Route Toward Industrial Quantum Processors
Simone Gasparinetti, Chalmers University of Technology
Travelling Wave Parametric Amplifiers based on Non-linear Kinetic Inductance to be operated at 4K
Contact:
Sara Mazur, Executive Director, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation
08-545 017 80
[email protected]
Anders Ynnerman, Director of Strategic Research Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation
+46 70-556 6638
[email protected]
Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation was founded in 1917. The Foundation's purpose is to work for the benefit of the country and support Swedish basic research and education, mainly in medicine, technology and natural sciences. This is done through support for excellent individual researchers and through project grants and strategic programs.
Since 1917, the Foundation has allocated just over 39 billion SEK. In 2024, the annual allocations for excellent basic research and education in Sweden totaled almost 2.4 billion SEK, making the Foundation Sweden's largest private research financier and one of the largest in Europe.