Closed call
16 January - 19 February 2019
Research environment grant within register-based research
The purpose of the research environment grant within register-based research is to create added value through collaboration in larger groupings.
With this priority area within register-based research, the Swedish Research Council wishes to strengthen and develop interdisciplinary and intersectoral research that is based wholly or partly on micro-data, for example from public authority or quality registers, and that can be linked to data from other sources, such as researcher-generated data, biobank data or survey data. The Swedish Research Council rewards research of the highest scientific quality in national competition.
Support form
Research environment and collaboration support
Area
Humanities and Social Sciences, Medicine and Health
Focus
Register-based research
Applicant
Individual researcher
Participating researchers
A minimum of 2 and up to 6 researchers shall be invited to join the application
Grant period
4 years
Grant amount
3–4 million SEK per year
Publication of grant award
No later than end of September 2019
Start of grant period
January 2020
Please note
- Please read and follow the instructions: In addition to this specific call text, you also need to read our Guide for applicants
Opens in new window..
- Please do not state anybody’s full personal identity number in the application.
- Please read the information on how the application will be assessed under “How the application is assessed” and refer to this when writing the application.
- As from spring 2019, you will need to have a data management plan (DMP) for data generated within the research we award funds for. You must not submit or send it to us with the application for a grant, but according to our general grant terms and conditions, your administrating organisation must confirm that a data management plan will be in place when you start your project or corresponding, and also that the plan will be maintained.
Call text in full
The following requirements must be fulfilled in order for you to be eligible to apply for the grant. We carry out checks to ensure unqualified applications are rejected from further processing.
Focus
The Swedish Research Council is issuing a call for funds to support research in the field of register-based research. The priority area aims to strengthen and develop interdisciplinary and intersectoral research that is based wholly or partly on micro-data from, for example, public authority or quality registers (data collected primarily for purposes other than research) and that can be linked to data from other sources, such as research-generated data, biobank data or survey data. In this context, interdisciplinary and intersectoral research refers to when researchers with genuinely differing scientific backgrounds work together and in parallel to investigate and solve research problems.
In addition to this grant for research environments, we are also issuing a call for grants for a national doctoral programme within register-based research Opens in new window.. The priority area is based on a Government mandate from the Government Bill on Research and Innovation 2016.
This call aims to give opportunities for research teams to develop interdisciplinary and intersectoral research environments, where ground-breaking knowledge and methods within register-based research may be expected. The priority area also aims to support strong research environments that efficiently use and contribute to the development of register-based infrastructure.
The call relates to research where theories, methodology, factual knowledge and register-based data from differing disciplines are combined in such ways as open up new research areas and approaches. The research environments receiving the grant are expected to contribute to development of methodology within register-based research, and to improved and increased use of register-based data in interdisciplinary research. The environments are also expected to contribute by inspiring and educating junior researchers in the use of register-based data in their research. Furthermore, the research environments are expected to work for long-term development of competence by recruiting both leading researchers and doctoral students from Sweden and abroad, and by collaborating actively with foreign research institutions.
The research environments are encouraged to include new groupings with participants from several HEIs and international collaborators, as well as participation by junior researchers and gender-equality among the participating researchers. The added value of the research environment and the scientific collaboration should be described so that these aspects are clearly shown in the application.
Applicant
The applicant must be an individual researcher representing the larger researcher constellation. You shall be the project leader and have scientific responsibility for the research environment. You must set aside adequate time for the project throughout the grant period, with a scope (activity level) that corresponds to at least 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 requirements 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 organisations Opens in new window.. Your organisation must therefore be approved as an administrating organisation for you to apply.
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?
Research environment grant and research project grant
You may apply for this grant at the same time as you apply for a project grant, but if your application for the project grant forms part of this grant application, this fact will be considered during the overall weighted assessment of the resource requirement.
Number of applications for a research environment grant
You may only submit one application, that is be the applicant, for a research environment grant under this call. There is no limitation on being included as a participating researcher in several applications under the call.
You may not apply for a research environment grant under any other of the Swedish Research Council’s calls, but you may be included as a participating researcher in such applications.
Other restrictions on the grants you may apply for during the same year are shown in the table below.
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 (disbursement period from the Swedish Research Council) overlaps the grant period of the grant the 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 criteria for your previous grant can be found in the “Approval of Conditions” you received from the Swedish Research Council.
If you have already been awarded a research project or career grant
You may apply for a research environment grant if you are the project leader for an ongoing research project grant or career grant. A prerequisite for the application to be successful is that the grant awarded is not part of the application for a research environment grant, but on the other hand, the grant awarded may complement the application.
If you have already been awarded a research environment grant
You may not apply for this grant if you are the project leader for an ongoing research environment grant.
If you have already been awarded a grant within the distinguished professor programme, or are a researcher recruited within the Swedish Research Council’s call for international recruitment
If you have a distinguished professor grant with a grant period that overlaps the grant period for this call, or are a researcher recruited through the Swedish Research Council’s international recruitment call, you may not apply for a research environment grant. On the other hand, you may participate in an application for a research environment grant.
Please see the table below for further information on grants you may apply for if you have an ongoing grant.
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 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.
Participating researchers
Your application must include a minimum of 2 and up to 6 participating researchers, that is to say researchers with a doctoral degree or corresponding competence, whose scientific merits and competence will be crucial for the implementation of the proposed research. Participating researchers do not have to be employed by a Swedish HEI.
Participating researchers shall provide the necessary information themselves in Prisma, and upload these to the application. Any further participating partners and their roles shall be described in the research plan (please see instructions under “Research plan” below).
Costs and grant amounts
The grant may be used to fund 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
- running costs (such as consumables, travel including stays at research facilities, publication costs and minor equipment)
- depreciation costs.
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 amount you may apply for is 3–4 million SEK per year, including indirect costs.
The Swedish Research Council assumes that the administrating organisation will cover any
costs in excess of the amount received.
Grant period
The grant period is four years, starting in January 2020. The first payment will be made no earlier than October 2019.
No later than 1 January 2022, the project leader shall submit a report to the Swedish Research Council that focuses on the collaboration between the participating researchers and the added value from the research environment, as well as on how the research fulfils the required focus on interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaboration within register-based research between researchers with genuinely differing scientific backgrounds.
Requirement to create a network within register-based research
The research environments awarded grants are expected to establish a network with the doctoral programmes awarded grants within the focus on register-based research, where they will constitute nodes. The network shall form a coordinating group where all research environments and doctoral programmes are represented. The network will be coordinated by a network coordinator, nominated by the coordinating group and appointed by the Swedish Research Council. The network coordinator may be one of the project leaders, one of the participating researchers or the coordinator of a doctoral programme. The Swedish Research Council may award further funds for the position of coordinator, and for the activities this person will be responsible for, such as a recurring international conference within register-based research.
Within the network, the research environments are expected to have close contacts for the exchange of ideas, for example by arranging conferences and joint research seminars, by conducting joint research projects and by joint supervision of doctoral students.
Please refer to the application form in Prisma in parallel with reading the instructions below, which describe the call-specific content of the application. More information on what to do in practical terms is available in our Guide for applicants Opens in new window..
Language
Foreign experts are involved in the scientific assessment of the applications. To ensure fair and equitable assessment and efficient processing, please therefore complete your application in English.
Sections of the application
The application form includes the following tabs:
- Descriptive information
- Research description
- Budget and research resources
- Publications
- Administrating organisation
- Participants
- CV
Descriptions of the call-specific information requested under each tab follow below.
Descriptive information
Abstract
The abstract shall include a brief description of the following:
- 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
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.
Research plan
The research plan shall consist of a brief but complete description of the research task. The focus of the research plan shall be forward-looking, and it shall cover a maximum of 10 page-numbered A4 pages in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing, including references and any images.
The research plan shall include the following headings and information, listed in the following order:
- Purpose and aims: State the overall purpose and specific goals of the research project or similar, and how it relates to the focus on register-based research.
- State-of-the-art: Summarise briefly the current research frontier within the field/area covered by the project. State key references.
- Significance and scientific novelty: Describe briefly how the project relates to previous research within the area, and its importance in the short and long term. Describe also how the project moves forward or innovates the current research frontier.
- Preliminary and previous results: Describe briefly your own previous research and pilot studies within the research area that make it probable that the project will be feasible. State also if no preliminary results exist. State whether the project contributes further to research and scientific results from a grant awarded previously by the Swedish Research Council.
- Project description: Describe the project design, including the following items:
- Theory and method: Describe the underlying theory and the methods to be applied in order to reach the project goal
- Data analysis and statistics: Describe the data sources that your research will use, and the types of analyses and statistical methods that will be used.
- Time plan and implementation: Describe summarily the time plan for the project during the grant period, and how the project will be implemented.
- Project organisation: Clarify the contributions of yourself and any participating researchers to the implementation of the project. Describe and explain the competences and roles of the participating researchers in the project, and also any other researchers or corresponding who are important for the implementation of the project.
Provide the following information also. If a heading is not relevant to your application, please leave it blank.
- Equipment: Describe the basic equipment you and your team have at your disposal for the project.
- Need for infrastructure: Specify the project’s need for international and national infrastructure. Specify also the need for local infrastructure, if depreciation costs for this is included in the application. Read more about research infrastructure supported by the Swedish Research Council Opens in new window..
- International and national collaboration: Describe the team’s collaboration with foreign and Swedish researchers and research teams. State whether you contribute to or refer to international collaboration in your research.
- Other applications or grants: If you are applying for or intend to apply for other grants from the Swedish Research Council, the relationship between the projects shall be clarified. This applies also if you are receiving ongoing grants from the Swedish Research Council with grant periods that wholly or partly overlap with the grant you are now applying for. You should also justify why you are submitting one or several further applications. Describe also the relationship with other applications to or grants from other funding bodies for the same project concept (from you or another researcher).
Added value of collaboration
The description of the added value shall include
- how the proposed research environment makes it possible for the researcher constellation, together and in close collaboration, to undertake research tasks that are more comprehensive and challenging than would be possible if the researchers worked individually
- the central scientific questions of the environment, which will be answered using register-based data and methods
- how the environment will be built up and/or developed, and how it significantly improves the career opportunities for junior researchers, postdocs and doctoral students working in the environment
- how the environment will be integrated with the activities of the HEI/HEIs
- how the work will be organised to achieve the goals of the research environment in as efficient a way as possible.
The appendix shall cover a maximum of 3 A4 pages in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing, including references.
Budget and research resources
Project personnel
State the activity level (per cent of a full-time equivalent) of all personnel active within the project, that is to say yourself, any other researchers and other personnel. Please also state the salary you are applying for, for yourself and/or other personnel active within the project, both as a percentage of a full-time salary and as actual annual amounts (including social security contributions). Please state rounded amounts in SEK.
Other costs
Describe any other costs of the project (premises costs, running costs and depreciation costs). Please state rounded annual amounts.
You may include depreciation costs for equipment to be used in the project, provided that
- the equipment has an economic life of at least three years
- the equipment has an acquisition value exceeding a certain amount (please contact your administrating organisation for information about the amount that applies to your department)
- the equipment needs for your proposed project cannot be satisfied through use of national or international infrastructure open to all.
You may only include the proportion of depreciation costs that corresponds to the use of the equipment in the proposed project. You may not include depreciation costs for equipment that is wholly financed via other grants. Please contact your HEI for information about what is included in local research infrastructure, acquisition values or how to calculate depreciation costs.
Total costs
Prisma will automatically add up your budget items listed in a table. The total amount you are applying for shall also include indirect costs. You will have to add these to the table yourself. Here you can also add any additional costs covered by the project (for which you are not seeking funding under this call).
Please contact your HEI for information on what constitutes indirect and direct costs.
Justification of the budget applied for
Justify briefly each cost applied for in the budget stated. The description may cover a maximum of 4 000 characters including blank spaces (approximately one A4 page in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing).
Other funding
Please state your or any other researcher’s funding over and above what is applied for in this application. Please state rounded amounts in SEK.
Publications
Applicant’s publication list
Please attach your publication list drawn up according to the headings and information below. The list shall cover a maximum of 5 page-numbered A4 pages in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing.
Please sort the publications under each heading in reverse chronological order, so that the latest publication is at the top of the list. Please only include articles or corresponding that are published or accepted for publication at the time of applying. The author order shall be identical to that of the published work. The application cannot be supplemented with publications after the deadline for the call.
- Selection of publications: List the maximum 10 publications of greatest importance to your application. For each publication, please state how you contributed to it, and its relevance to the research project described (maximum 4 lines per publication). Highlight your name in bold in the author list.
- Relevant publications from the last 8 years: Sort the publications, with your name highlighted in bold in the author list, under each heading (publication type) in the following order:
- Peer-reviewed original articles
- Peer-reviewed conference contributions, the results of which are not included in other publications.
- Peer-reviewed edited volumes
- Research review articles
- Peer-reviewed books and book chapters
- Open access computer programs or databases you have developed
- Other publications including popular science books/presentations
Participating researchers’ publication lists
Attach all participating researchers’ publication lists joined up into one file. The list for each researcher shall include a maximum of 10 publications, in the form of the most relevant publications for the research described, and shall cover a maximum of 1 A4 page. The name of the researcher in question shall be highlighted in bold and also be included in the page header of each list.
Please only include articles or corresponding that are published or accepted for publication at the time of applying. The author order shall be identical to that of the published work. The application cannot be supplemented with publications after the deadline for the call.
The publications shall be of the types: Peer-reviewed original articles, conference contributions, edited volumes, research review articles, books and book chapters, and other publications including popular science books/presentations.
Administrating organisation
Please state the administrating organisation and project site.
Participants
Under this tab, you shall invite the participating researchers and any participating administrators to your application.
CV
Under this tab, please upload your relevant CV information from your personal account in Prisma. Participating researchers must upload their own CV information to the application.
The following information, where available, must always be included in each CV, taking into account the stated limitation in numbers:
- Education: First, second and third cycle higher education and specialist degrees.
- Work: Current employment (including employment form) and longer relevant employment, postdoctoral visits (also included as employment if relevant), research exchanges relevant to the research described and any longer interruptions in the research that have impacted on your opportunity to gain merits as a researcher.
- Merits and awards: Docentship/associate professorship, supervisees (postdoctoral and doctoral students; state the overall number of each category and list the 10 most relevant to you), up to 10 of your most relevant grants awarded in competition, up to 10 of your most relevant prizes and awards, and up to 20 other merits relevant to the application.
- Intellectual property rights: For example, patents and open access computer programs developed by you; state up to 10 of your most relevant.
Scientific quality is the fundamental criterion when the Swedish Research Council allocates grants to research. Your application is evaluated in competition with the other applications on the basis of the following evaluation criteria.
The purpose of the call is to strengthen and develop interdisciplinary and intersectorial register-based research.
Evaluation process
Your application is evaluated by a review panel where the members are Swedish and international researchers.
At least three members review and grade your application individually. The entire review panel then meets at a review panel meeting to discuss and prioritise the applications, and finally to make a proposal for a decision to the Director General.
Review panel Opens in new window.
All applications receive an individual final statement that reflects the review panel’s discussion and overall assessment of the scientific quality of the application.
Evaluation criteria and guiding questions
The evaluation of the scientific quality of your application is made based on four basic criteria (Novelty and originality, Scientific quality of the project, Merits of the applicant, Feasibility). The purpose of using several components is to achieve a multi-faceted evaluation. The criteria are assessed on a seven-grade scale, except for feasibility, which is assessed on a three-grade grade scale.
In addition to the basic criteria, your application is also evaluated using the additional criterion Added value on a seven-grade scale. For research environment grants, the scores for Novelty and originality and Added value are given a greater weight in the overall grade.
For each criterion, there are guiding questions to support the panel members’ evaluation of your application. These can also function as guidance for you when you write your application.
Scientific quality of the project (1–7)
Guiding questions:
- Are the research questions relevant and appropriately addressed for interdisciplinary and intersectorial research?
- Is the overview of previous research results and state-of-the-art clearly described and appropriate for the area?
- Is the project description clear and systematic, for example in its definition of the research problem, possible hypotheses and methodology?
- Does the study design and proposed research methodology meet the highest standards of scientific quality and is it sufficient to reach or significantly approach the goals of the call?
Novelty and originality (1–7)
Guiding questions:
- Does the proposed research include novel, original and ambitious research questions?
- Does the proposed research include novel ways of combining theories, methods, expertise and/or data from different disciplines?
- Does the collaborative research environment have the potential to promote new research initiatives and endeavours?
Merits of the applicant (1–7)
The evaluation should concern the overall merits of all project participants and their ability to carry out the proposed research project. Merits of project participants are always assessed in relation to their career age and to the research task.
Guiding questions:
- Do the project participants together have sufficient relevant research experience and methodological expertise to conduct the proposed research?
- Is the composition of the proposed research environment satisfactory in terms of complementary skills and competencies, as well as distribution of power and influence with regards to gender and career age of the project participants?
- Does the proposed research environment create the potential for breakthroughs and innovative research?
- Do the project participants have sufficient experience of supervision of doctoral students?
- Does the main applicant have relevant experience and background to lead larger research projects or research environments?
Added value (1-7)
Guiding questions:
- Will the collaboration between the project participants create synergies and added scientific value?
- Is the proposed research task of a greater and more challenging scale, for instance in terms of interdisciplinary and intersectorial ambitions, than what the project participants could have addressed or achieved if they were working individually?
- Does the applicant adequately describe how the project participants plan to build, develop, preserve and cultivate the proposed research environment together?
- Will the proposed project strengthen and enhance the quality of research in the research area in question at the participating research institution(s) and at the national and international level?
Feasibility (1–3)
Guiding questions:
- To what extent is the project's design, objectives, deliverables and timetable realistic?
- Does the applicant have access to the competence, materials, equipment, research infrastructures and other resources required for implementation of the project?
- Is the cooperation and division of labour between the project participants clearly described?
- Has the applicant obtained the permits (if any) or data required to implement the project? If not, does the applicant adequately describe how they will obtain the necessary permits or data, taking into account the time required to do so?
- What is the balance between the project's feasibility and risks, and its potential gains? (E.g. high risk/high gain)?
Overall grade (1–7)
The above subsidiary criteria are weighed together into an overall grade, which reflects the review panel’s joint evaluation of the application’s scientific quality.