Who can apply?
To apply for one of our grants, you must fulfil certain requirements. The requirements are always stated in the call text, and vary depending on the type of grant you are applying for. For example, they may concern how long ago you were awarded your doctorate, or how much of your working hours you will spend on the research project. Organisations applying for grants must also fulfil certain requirements.
You must have a doctoral degree
You can apply for our grants whether you are just starting out in your research career or you are more established. There is no age limit.
You must have completed your doctoral degree no later than the application deadline for the call. We use the date you fulfilled all the criteria for the degree, such as mandatory courses, oral defence and an approved doctoral thesis. For applicants with Swedish doctoral degrees, the award date listed in Ladok applies.
Note: There are exceptions from the doctoral degree requirement – read the call text to find out what applies for the grant you are applying for.
For certain grants, we require that your doctoral degree has been completed within certain time frames. These are illustrated in the table below and in the call text.
You must be employed by an approved administrating organisation during the grant period
You as applicant will be the project leader and have scientific responsibility for the project or equivalent. You must be employed by an approved administrating organisation at the start of and throughout the grant period and any additional availability period.
The employment must normally equal at least 20 per cent of a full-time position, but in some cases a higher percentage is required.
The administrating organisation is the organisation that will manage the grant, usually a Swedish higher education institution.
To enable your application to be linked to the right organisation, your administration organisation must have an account in Prisma. You can find the organisations that are approved as administrating organisations in the application form in Prisma. Is your organisation not listed? If this is the case, an authorised representative may apply for an organisation account in Prisma, which will then be assessed by the Swedish Research Council.
Please note that usually you do not have to be employed by the administrating organisation at the time of application, but the administrating organisation must sign your application and accept its undertakings as employer.
Requirements for approval as an administrating organisation
An organisation needs to be approved as an administrating organisation in order to administer and pay out research grants from us. Approved administrating organisations are usually Swedish higher education institutions (HEIs), but we may also approve other public organisations. An approved administrating organisation must
- be a legal entity with a Swedish corporate registration number
- perform research, which means carrying out documented research activities and fulfil the general conditions for research grants
- guarantee academic freedom within the assignment
- ensure that the results are openly accessible to other researchers, companies and the general public
- not conduct any economic activity.
The Swedish Research Council's criteria for approved administrating organisations
(pdf, 30 kB) (in Swedish)
Grants with specific requirements
For some of our grants, there are requirements relating to the scope (per cent of a full-time equivalent) of both your activity (activity level) in the project and your employment at the administrating organisation. The grants in the table below also apply a framework for how long ago your doctoral degree must have been awarded for you to apply.
Support form | Type of grant | Time since doctoral degree | Conditions of employment |
|---|---|---|---|
Career support | International Postdoc | Maximum 2 years | Full time |
Career support | Starting grant | Minimum 2 years and maximum 7 years | Minimum 50 per cent |
Career support | Consolidation grant | Minimum 7 years and maximum 12 years | Minimum 50 per cent |
Career support | Grant for Employment as a half-time researcher in a clinical environment | Maximum 10 years | Clinical employment and employment as researcher, each amounting to 50 per cent |
Research environment and research collaboration funding | Distinguished professor | Minimum 12 years | Minimum 50 per cent |
The requirements applying for the various grants in the table are described in detail in the respective call text.
Requirements for organisations applying for grants
The Swedish Research Council has grants that can only be applied for by organisations. This applies to grants for:
- graduate schools
- visiting professorships
- publication grants
- research infrastructure
- operational grants for research collaboration and institutes
For an organisation to be able to apply for grants from us, it must be approved as an administrating organisation. If the organisation is not approved, it must first apply for approval in Prisma.
The person responsible for the administrating organisation’s organisational applications initiates the application. They then invite the project leader, who is designated by the administrating organisation to be responsible for the application, to fill in the application in Prisma.
PublISHED ON 30 April 2018
UpDATED ON 28 November 2019