Text
Closed call
23 January - 26 February 2019
Olof Palme visiting professorship
The Swedish Research Council’s grant for visiting professors aims to give higher education institutions the opportunity to develop a subject area by recruiting an internationally prominent professor during a limited period.
Support form
Research environment and collaboration support
Area
Humanities and Social Sciences
Focus
Researchers who may be nominated for the visiting professorship shall be internationally
prominent researchers focusing on areas of importance for the striving towards peace in a broad context.
Applicant
Organisation (Swedish higher education institutions (HEI) within social sciences, humanities, theology or law). A representative of the host organisation shall be invited to be the project leader for the application.
Grant period
6–12 months
Grant amount
Maximum 850 000 SEK for a visit of up to 6 months and maximum 1 700 000 SEK for a visit of 7–12 months.
Publication of grant award
No later than November 2019
Start of grant period
2021
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.
Koordinator för humaniora och samhällsvetenskap
Anders Sundin
Call text in full
The following requirements must be fulfilled in order for the organisation to be duly qualified to apply for the grant. We carry out checks to ensure unqualified applications are rejected from further processing.
Focus and nominated candidate
The holder of the Olof Palme professorship shall be an internationally prominent researcher focusing on areas of importance for the striving towards peace in a broad context. This may include research into international policy, peace and conflict research and the comparison of social institutions. It may also relate to research into the fundamental causes of conflicts, and into societal development that in various respects promotes peace and human security.
The researcher proposed for the visiting professorship shall be the holder of a professorship or corresponding at the time of application, and must not already be active in Sweden. The researcher must also be aware of the nomination and what acceptance of the professorship entails. If the nominated candidate declines to accept the professorship, the HEI cannot propose a replacement.
The visiting professor is expected to participate in the department’s seminar activities and also to visit other departments across the country within their research area.
The visiting professor awarded the professorship shall be employed by the administrating organisation throughout the visit.
Applicant
The applicant for the grant must be a Swedish higher education institution (HEI) that has been approved as an administrating organisation Opens in new window. for grants from the Swedish Research Council. The application with a nominated candidate for the visiting professorship shall include a named researcher (project leader), who represents the department wishing to act as host for the visiting professorship. The project leader shall 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.
When the application is registered and signed in Prisma (see below), the HEI and the nominated department undertake to be responsible for the local hosting and all practical arrangements associated with the visiting professor’s visit to Sweden, if the visiting professorship is awarded.
Number of applications and previous grants
There is no limit to the number of applications a single HEI may submit. However, any individual candidate may only be nominated in one application.
Participating researchers
No participating researchers can be included in this application.
Costs and grant amounts
A grant of maximum 850 000 SEK including indirect costs may be applied for a visiting professor who will visit Sweden for up to 6 months. For a visit lasting between 7 and 12 months, a grant amounting to maximum 1 700 000 SEK including indirect costs may be applied for.
The grant is intended to cover salary costs including social security contributions and insurance, rent of housing and travel to and from Sweden. The amount of the grant is affected by factors such as accompanying family members and local housing costs. The Swedish Research Council assumes that the administrating organisation, as the employer responsible, will cover any costs in excess of the standard amount received.
Grant period
The visit to Sweden shall last no less than six months, and no longer than one year. The visit may be divided up into more than one period.
The professorship shall start during 2021. The entire grant amount will be paid during 2021, irrespective of when during the year the start occurs.
Please refer to the application form in Prisma in parallel with reading the instructions below, which describe the call-specific contents 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 evaluation of the applications. To ensure fair and equitable assessment and efficient processing, please therefore complete the application in English.
Sections of the application
The application form includes the following tabs:
- Descriptive information
- Research description
- Nominated visiting professor
- Budget and research resources
- Administrating organisation
- Participants (only administrators in this call)
Descriptions of the call-specific information requested under each tab follow below.
Descriptive information
Under this tab, please state the name of the nominated researcher, their current HEI and country as project title (such as “Anna Smith, University of xx, USA”), and project period (the length of the visiting professorship in number of months).
Abstract
The abstract shall include a brief description of the following:
- name, university and country of the nominated researcher
- time (dates) for the visit
- brief justification for the visit
- planned programme.
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).
Research description
Ethical considerations
Describe the ethical issues raised by the research. Also describe the plan on how to address ethical dilemmas that may arise. Please justify why the research should be carried out against the background of the ethical issues identified. How do the 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 programme
The research programme shall consist of brief but complete information relating to the nomination, and shall cover a maximum of 8 page-numbered A4 pages in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing, including references and any images.
The research programme shall include the following headings and information, listed in the following order:
- The researcher and their research: Present the nominated researcher and their research.
- Justification: Justify the visiting researcher’s visit.
- Contribution to research: Describe how the visiting researcher may contribute to Swedish research within the area in question.
- Plan for department participation: Specify the planning of the visiting researcher’s participation at the host department and other departments in Sweden.
Nominated visiting professor
Please state the following:
- name, title, current position and workplace for the nominated person
- the competency the visiting professor is expected to bring to the host department
- information about the duration and any division of the visit
- names of the department head(s) and the department(s) at which the professorship will be located.
The nominated person’s CV and publication list
Please attach a brief CV with full address details (including email address) and current position of the nominated researcher. Please also attach a publication list, divided up into Peer-reviewed articles, Other articles and Books.
Please also note that no CV data or publications shall be entered elsewhere in the application.
Budget and research resources
Salary
Please state the salary applied for the visiting professor (select the role “project leader” in the table), both as a percentage of a full-time salary and as actual annual amounts (including social security contributions and insurance). Please state rounded amounts in SEK.
Running costs
Describe the costs of rent of housing or travel. Please state rounded amounts in SEK.
Total cost of the visiting professorship
Prisma will automatically add up the budget items listed in a table. The total amount applied for shall also include indirect costs. These shall be added to the table by the applicant according to the calculations that apply for the HEI. The applicant shall also add here any further costs covered by the visiting professorship (for which funding is not sought in this application).
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).
Administrating organisation
Please state the site of the visiting professorship.
Participants
Here the person invited to be the project leader for the application may invite participating administrators, who can help to input and edit information in the application. Please note that participating researchers may not be invited in this application.
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.
Evaluation process
The evaluation of the applications consider the proposed visiting professors scientific merits and position internationally together with the relevance for the call regarding how well the visiting professor can contribute to the development of both the host institutions´s activities and Swedish research in general in the relevant field.
Your application is evaluated by a review panel where the members are Swedish researchers.
Review panel Opens in new window.
At least three members review and grade your application individually. The entire review panel meets at a review panel meeting to discuss and prioritise the applications, and finally to make a proposal for a decision to the Scientific Council for Humanistic Sciences.
The applicant receive an individual final statement that reflects the review panel´s discussion of the scientific quality and relevance of the application.
Evaluation criteria and guiding questions
The evaluation of the visiting professor scientific quality and position internationally is assessed on a seven-grade scale.
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 merit and position internationally of the visiting professor (1-7)
Guiding questions
- How strong are the nominee´s scientific merits?
- How strong is the nominee´s position internationally?
Relevance for the call: The motivation for the stay, especially how well the visiting professor can contribute to the development of the host institution´s activities and Swedish research in general in the relevant field (1-7)
Guiding questions
- To what extent is the project relevant to the focus area and how does the project promote the development of peace efforts in a broad sense?
- How well motivated is the nominee´s stay?
- Is there a plan for the nominee´s participation at the host institution and other institutions in the country? How can the nominees contribute to the development of the host institution´s activities?
- How can the nominees contribute to the development of Swedish research in general in the relevant field?