Please note that the opening date for this call has been changed from 16 November to 21 November.
Closed call
21 November - 26 February 2019
Research project grant for international collaboration on quantum technologies (QuantERA)
This grant aims to support international collaboration within quantum technology. Sweden, via the Swedish Research Council, is one of the 24 countries taking part in the Quantera call, which rewards research of the highest scientific quality in international competition.
Support form
Project support
Area
Natural and Engineering Sciences
Focus
Quantera: Quantum technology
Applicant
Individual researcher who is part of a consortium consisting of at least 3 individuals from 3 different participating countries. Only researchers at an administrating organisation approved by the Swedish Research Council may apply.
Grant period
3 years
Grant amount
Minimum 400 000 SEK per year including indirect costs.
Budgetary framework
Total: 630 000 EUR Indicatively, 2–3 projects are expected to be funded.
Call deadline
For the consortium application to QUANTERA: 18 February 2019 (17.00)
For the Swedish project leader’s application in Prisma: 26 February 2019 (14.00)
Publication of grant award
No later than the beginning of November 2019
Start of grant period
January 2020
Call text in full
Application procedure
The application to the Quantera consortium call shall be submitted by the research consortium’s international coordinator.
As project leader representing a Swedish partner in the research consortium, you must submit a corresponding application via the Swedish Research Council’s application system Prisma in parallel with the international coordinator submitting the consortium application. More information on what to do in practical terms is available in the section “How do I apply” below.
The following requirements must be fulfilled in order for you to be eligible to apply for the grant. We carry out checks to ensure ineligible applications are rejected from further processing.
Applicant
The applicant for the research project grant must be a participant in a Quantera consortium, with at least 3 partners from at least 3 participating countries. You can see full eligibility requirements for the composition of the consortium in the call text on Quantera's website External link, opens in new window. You will be the project leader and have scientific responsibility for the Swedish part of the project, and your level of activity in the project must be no less than 20 per cent of a full-time equivalent. You must hold a Swedish doctoral degree or a corresponding foreign degree, awarded no later than the deadline for this call. The degree award date we use is the date you fulfilled all the criteria for a doctoral 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.
Grants from the Swedish Research Council shall be administered by a Swedish university or HEI or another Swedish public organisation that fulfils our criteria for administrating organisation Opens in new window.. To apply, your organisation must therefore be approved as an administrating organisation. Please note therefore that Swedish researchers working for a company, for example, cannot be funded and may therefore not submit an application to the Swedish Research Council, even if they are part of a consortium application.
If you are awarded a grant, you must be employed by the administrating organisation at the start of and throughout the grant period and any additional availability period, unless the Swedish Research Council approves an exception. The employment must equal at least 20 per cent of a full-time equivalent. You do not have to be employed by the administrating organisation at the time of applying.
Number of applications and previous grants
The requirements described in this section only apply to applicants (project leaders).
What grants may I apply for simultaneously from the Swedish Research Council?
You may only submit one application for this grant under this call, and you may only be the Swedish partner of one consortium in this call. Other restrictions on the grants you may apply for during the same year are shown in the table below. Grants under this call are counted as ”Research project grants with focus” in the table.
Table: Grants you may apply for simultaneously Opens in new window.
What requirements apply if I already have a grant from the Swedish Research Council?
There are certain restrictions if you are the project leader of a previously awarded grant that is ongoing, that is to say where the grant period (payment period from the Swedish Research Council) overlaps the grant period of the grant this application covers. Please note that the availability period, that is to say the time during which you can draw down the grant awarded, is normally longer than the grant period. Information about the requirements for your previous grant can be found in the “Approval of conditions” you received from the Swedish Research Council. You cannot submit an application under the call if you are already the project leader for an ongoing project grant awarded within Quantera. If your ongoing grant has another focus you are eligible to apply, however, provided your application is for another project idea.
Please see the table below for further information on grants you may apply for if you have an ongoing grant. Grants under this call are counted as ”Research project grants with focus” in the table.
Table: Grants you may apply for if you have an ongoing grant Opens in new window.
Note: If you have been the project leader for previous grants from the Swedish Research Council that have ended, final financial reports for all of these must have been submitted within the permitted time frame in order for you to apply for a new grant. Please contact your administrating organisation if you are unsure whether all your final financial reports have been submitted.
What applies for applications to or grants from other funding bodies?
If your application to the Swedish Research Council relates to the same project idea as a grant you have already been awarded by, or are applying for to another funding body, please describe this in your application to Quantera.
Costs and grant amounts
Grants may be applied for to finance all types of project-related costs, such as salaries (including your own salary, however no more than corresponding to your activity level in the project), premises, operating costs (such as consumables, travel including stays at research facilities, publication costs and minor equipment), plus depreciation. Grants may not be used for scholarships. If a doctoral student participates, project funds may not be paid out as salary for the period when the doctoral student is teaching.
The minimum amount for Swedish participation in a consortium that you may apply for is 400 000 SEK per year.
Grant period
You may apply for a grant to cover 3 years, starting from January 2020. The first payment will be made no earlier than December 2019.
The consortium shall submit a joint application in Quantera's application system, which can be accessed via https://www.quantera.eu External link, opens in new window..
You as the Swedish partner and project leader in a Quantera consortium must also register in parallel a corresponding application electronically in Prisma, which is the Swedish Research Council’s application system. Please note that for practical reasons, the parallel call in Prisma for you as the Swedish partner will close a few days later than in Quantera’s application system.
To the application form in Prisma External link, opens in new window.
You create your application in Prisma by filling in the text fields, uploading information from your personal account, and attaching the appendices requested.
To enable you to apply, your organisation must have been approved as an administrating organisation Opens in new window. and have created an organisation account in Prisma.
For most items in Prisma, there is a user manual External link, opens in new window. describing all the steps, as well as answers to FAQ External link, opens in new window.. Please refer to these when filling in your application.
Please avoid stating your own or anybody else’s full personal identity number in the application except where specifically requested.
Creating a personal account in Prisma
Before you apply, you must create a personal account in Prisma External link, opens in new window., where you can save your personal and CV data. The information only needs to be entered once, and can thereafter be supplemented or changed as required. As most of the Swedish Research Council’s calls employ foreign reviewers, please use English when entering any descriptive text in you CV data. You can also input your publications for future use. Please note that no publications can currently be uploaded from your account to the application form.
Please allow plenty of time to create your personal account. The applications you register in Prisma will be linked to your personal account.
Text
Some text fields can be formatted, which means that the font, font size and alignment can be changed in these fields, and that tables and symbols can be inserted. If you insert text written using a word processing program (such as Microsoft Word), you may need to use the tools in Prisma to adjust the formatting after insertion. Images cannot be included in the text fields, however. We recommend that you use the fonts Arial, Calibri or Verdana.
All text fields have a limit on the number of characters, and this is illustrated by a character counter. If you use too many characters, the application cannot be registered.
Attached documents and appendices
You will need to attach an appendix to some fields as instructed. The appendix must consist of one file only, and you can only attach documents in PDF format. All appendices are limited as to file size and number of pages. You will not be able to register your application with an appendix that exceeds the stated maximum size.
Signing
Both you as applicant and an authorised representative of the administrating organisation shall sign the application electronically in Prisma. Please see further information under “Registering the application” below.
Please refer to Quantera's call text External link, opens in new window. and the application form in Prisma in parallel with reading the instructions below.
Language
Foreign experts are involved in the scientific assessment of the applications within Quantera. To ensure fair and equitable assessment and efficient processing, please therefore complete your application in English.
Sections of the application
The application form in Prisma contains the following tabs:
- Descriptive information
- Research description
- Administrating organisation
- Participants (only administrators in this call)
- CV
Descriptions of the information requested under each tab follow below. Mandatory information is marked with an asterisk (*) in Prisma.
Descriptive information
Under this tab, please fill in the project title in Swedish and English, and select SCB codes and key words. Please also fill in the abstract and popular science description as instructed below.
Abstract
The abstract shall include a brief description of:
- what is to be done: purpose and aim
- how the research will be carried out: project organisation, time plan and the scientific methods to be used
- what is important about the planned research
The abstract shall provide a summary guide to the purpose and implementation of the research. Please use wording to ensure persons with another subject specialisation can understand the information.
The description may cover a maximum of 1 500 characters including blank spaces (approximately one third of an A4 page in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing).
Popular science description
Describe the project in such a way that a person who is not familiar with the subject can understand it. Describe what is to be done and why, and explain in what way the new knowledge may be important.
The popular science description is an important tool when we inform about the research funded by the Swedish Research Council. If we grant your application, we reserve the right to use the description for information purposes.
Note: The popular science description must be written in Swedish, unlike the rest of the application.
The description may cover a maximum of 4 500 characters including blank spaces (approximately one A4 page in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing).
Research description
Under this tab, please describe any ethical considerations, and attach the consortium’s joint application and any other appendices requested.
Ethical considerations
Describe the ethical issues raised by your project or corresponding. You must also describe how you plan to address ethical dilemmas that may arise. Please justify why the research should be carried out against the background of the ethical issues you have identified. How do your research questions and expected results measure up in relation to the ethical issues? Please also state whether the research involves any handling of personal data, or experiments on animals or human subjects. If no ethical issues are raised, please justify this also.
Full application for the international collaboration
Here you shall attach the application submitted by the consortium to Quantera in PDF format. Please note that the attachment may consist of a single file only with a maximum size of 20 MB.
Other appendices
No other appendices need to be attached to this field.
Administrating organisation
Under this tab, please state the administrating organisation and project site of the project. The administrating organisation is the organisation that administers the funds for a project awarded and is responsible for it according to the conditions set. The project site is the organisational unit where the project is carried out. Normally, the administrating organisation and project site correspond to the HEI and the department where the project leader is employed.
To allow you to link your application to an administrating organisation, the organisation must have an approved account in Prisma. Please contact your administrating organisation and ask it to apply for an organisation account External link, opens in new window. with the Swedish Research Council if it does not already have one.
If your project site is not listed in Prisma, please contact the person responsible for the organisation account at your administrating organisation. You will not be able to finalise the registration of your application if the location is missing.
Participants
Here you as grant applicant may invite any participating administrators to your application. A participating administrator is a person who is not involved in the project, but who can help you to input and edit information in the application. Please make sure you use the correct email address linked to the person’s Prisma account. You may invite participating administrators who do not already have an account in Prisma, but in order to participate in your application they must register their own personal accounts in Prisma. All participating administrators must accept the invitation before you can finalise the registration of your application.
Please note that you may not invite any participating researchers in this application.
CV
Under this tab, please upload the following CV information from your personal account in Prisma:
Education: Third cycle higher education (doctoral degree)
Work: Current employment (including whether it is permanent employment or not).
Registering the application
The tab “Check and register” shows a summary of the fields in your application that may require action in order to register it (such as mandatory fields not filled in, text fields with too many characters, discrepancies from limits on the possible project period or budget applied for). The registration of your application is not finalised until you click on the “Register” button.
Please make sure you use the preview function before registering your application.
Note: Any participating administrators invited by you in your application must accept the invitation before you can register the application. If an invitation is not accepted, it must be deleted.
The registered application can thereafter be found in your personal Prisma account in the tab “Applications and grants”, under the menu choice “Applications”. Until the deadline for the call, a registered application may be de-registered, amended and re-registered again as necessary.
You are responsible for ensuring the application is complete and corresponds to the application in Quantera’s application system, that is to say the application form is correctly filled in, the correct appendices are attached and the information requested has been provided according to the instructions. Please only submit material specifically requested. We do not accept any additional information after the deadline, except when specifically requested.
Signing
When you register the application, it is signed by you as project leader. To ensure the application is deemed complete and included in the review process, an authorised representative of the administrating organisation also has to sign the application. The representative is normally the head of the department where the research will be carried out, but this is dependent on your administrating organisation’s structure.
The applicant's signature confirms that:
- the information in the application is correct and complies with the Swedish Research Council’s instructions
- secondary occupations and commercial ties have been reported to the administrating organisation and that nothing has emerged that breaches good research practice
- the permits and approvals required have been obtained before the research is started, such as permits from the Swedish Medical Products Agency or approval from an ethical review board or an ethical committee on animal experiments
- the applicant will comply with all other conditions applicable to the grant
The signature of the administrating organisation confirms that:
- the research or research-supporting activities described can be given room at the administrating organisation during the period and to the extent stated in the application
- the applicant will be employed by the administrating organisation during the period covered by the application
- the administrating organisation approves of the budget in the application
- the administrating organisation will comply with all other conditions applicable to the grant
The above points shall have been discussed by the parties before the representative of the administrating organisation approves and signs the application.
Note: The authorised representative of the administrating organisation must sign the application in Prisma no later than one week (7 calendar days) after the call deadline date in order for the application to be considered further in the review process.
The scientific assessment of the application is carried out by Quantera (see the assessment process in Quantera's call text External link, opens in new window. .
When you have registered your application and the call closes (at 14.00/2 pm on the deadline date of the call), the registration of your application is automatically finalised in Prisma and the application is given a registration number.
Your registered application is automatically forwarded to the representative of the administrating organisation for signature in Prisma. The application must be signed by the administrating organisation no later than one week (7 calendar days) after the deadline. You will receive an email when the application has been signed.
Thereafter you will find information about the status of the application, registration number and signature of the application in your account in Prisma, under the tab “Applications and grants”.
Decision
Quantera decides which consortiums will be recommended for funding by the respective national research funding body. The decision is notified to the coordinator of the consortium with a statement in the form of a written comment. The Swedish Research Council makes the grant decisions for Swedish participants. Shortly after the grant decision has been made, a notice of the grant awards will be published on the Swedish Research Council’s website. You will thereafter find a notice of the decision on your application in your personal account in Prisma, under the tab “Applications and grants”.
The EU's ABS Regulation and due diligence declaration: As from 12 October 2015, users of genetic resources (genetic material of actual or potential value) and traditional knowledge relating to genetic resources, obtained after 12 October 2014, shall comply with the EU's ABS Regulation (No 511/2014) by making a “due diligence declaration”. This applies only to grant recipients. Due diligence entails the user being able to show that the genetic resource was obtained according to applicable legislation in the country in question and that the possible benefit of the genetic resource will be allocated in a reasonable and equitable way.
Exceptions apply to research into: the human genome, plant genetic material included in Appendix 1 External link, opens in new window. to the international agreement on plant genetic resources, pandemic influenza virus and genetic material obtained from international waters. If you have any questions about the regulations and due diligence declaration, please contact Naturvårdsverket External link, opens in new window..