Closed call
18 December - 25 February 2020
Research project grant for international collaboration within rare diseases (EJP Rare diseases)
This grant aims to support international collaboration within the European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases (RJP RD) Call for Proposals 2020: Pre-clinical research to develop effective therapies for rare diseases. Sweden, via the Swedish Research Council, is one of the countries taking part in the EJP RD call, which rewards research of the highest scientific quality in international competition.
Support form: Project support
Subject area: Clinical Therapy Research, Medicine and Health
Focus: EJP RD: Rare diseases
Applicant: Individual researcher who participates as one of maximum two Swedish project leaders in a consortium with partners from at least four participating countries. Only researchers at an administrating organisation approved by the Swedish Research Council may apply.
Grant period: 3 years
Grant amount: Maximum total 450 000 EUR per project with 1 Swedish participant, maximum total 600 000 EUR per project with 2 Swedish participants.
Start of grant period: January 2021
Call deadline:
Outline application:
For the consortium application to EJP RD: 18 February 2020 14.00/2 p.m.)
For the Swedish project leader’s application in Prisma: 25 February 2020 (14.00/2 p.m.)
Full application:
For the consortium application to EJP RD: 16 June 2020 14.00/2 p.m.)
For the Swedish project leader’s application in Prisma: 23 June 2020 (14.00/2 p.m.)
Publication of grant award: No later than the end of November 2020
Please note:
- If you are participating as a Swedish applicant/partner in an international consortium, you must submit a parallel application to the Swedish Research Council. This is a national eligibility requirement that must be fulfilled before we can approve your participation in the consortium application.
- You will need to have a data management plan Opens in new window. for data generated within the research we award funds for. You must not send the plan to us, 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 equivalent, and also that the plan will be maintained.
- Read more about grants awarded in previous years Opens in new window.
Specific instructions for the call
In addition to reading the specific call text, you also need to consult our Guide for applicants.
Application procedure
Grant applications within EJP RD are made in a two-stage procedure, where a simplified version of the application, known as an outline application (pre-proposal), is first submitted. Applicants whose outline applications are approved shall then submit a full application (full proposal). Both the outline application and full application are peer reviewed, and ranked in competition with other applications.
The application to the EJP RD consortium call shall be submitted by the research consortium’s international coordinator via EJP RD’s application system. External link, opens in new window.
As a project leader representing a Swedish partner in the research consortium, you must submit the corresponding applications (outline application and full application respectively) via the Swedish Research Council’s application system Prisma in parallel with the international coordinator submitting the consortium application. 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 EJP RD’s application system. This applies for both the outline application and the full application.
To the application form in Prisma. External link, opens in new window.
More information on what to do in practical terms is available in our “Guide for applicants”. Opens in new window.
EJP RD will make a decision on the outline applications in April 2020. The decision is notified to the coordinator of the consortium with a statement in the form of a written comment.
The content of your outline application will be transferred automatically to the full application if your consortium is invited to submit a full application to EJP RD. You will thereafter have to update the content of your application to the Swedish Research Council, so that it corresponds to the full consortium application submitted to EJP RD, and also complete a section on ethical considerations. More information on this is available in the section “What must the application contain?” below.
The applications that are approved and invited to submit a full application shall do so no later than 23 June 2020.
EJP RD 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”.
You are responsible for ensuring the application is complete and corresponds to the application in EJP RD’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.
The following requirements must be fulfilled in order for you to be eligible to apply for the grant. We carry out checks, and reject applications that do not fulfil the requirements.
Applicant
The applicant for the project grant must be a participant in an EJP RD consortium, with 4–6 eligible partners. You can see full eligibility requirements for the composition of the consortium in the call text on EJP RD’s website External link, opens in new window.. The time you set aside for the project (your activity level, that is the percentage of a full-time equivalent) must be suited to the task and its implementation throughout the grant period.
You must hold a Swedish doctoral degree or an equivalent 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 Opens in new window. organisations. Your organisation must therefore be approved as an administrating organisation for you to apply. 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. The administrating organisation must sign the full application in Prisma no later than 7 calendar days after the deadline for this call.
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 from this requirement. 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 and 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 ”Focused project grants” 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 an ongoing grant, that is to say where the grant period (payment period from the Swedish Research Council) overlaps the grant period of the grant the application relates to. Please note that the availability period, that is to say the time during which you have the right to use your grant, is normally longer than the grant period. You can find information about the requirements for your ongoing grant in the “Approval of terms and conditions” you received from the Swedish Research Council. You can apply for a project grant within EJP RD even if you are already a project leader for an ongoing project grant, provided your ongoing grant has a different focus and a different project concept.
The table below shows information and other restrictions on the grants you may apply for if you already have an ongoing grant. Grants under this call are counted as ”Focused project grants” 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 concept as a grant you have already been awarded by, or are applying for to another funding body, please describe this in your application to EJP RD.
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 the person’s 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 must not be used for scholarships. If a doctoral student participates, project funds may not be paid out as salary during teaching or other departmental duties.
The maximum amount you may apply for as a Swedish participant in a consortium is 450 000 EUR. A maximum of two Swedish participants may apply for funds within the same consortium. The maximum amount for all Swedish participants together is 600 000 EUR.
Grant period
You may apply for a grant to cover 3 years, starting from January 2021. The first payment will be made during January 2021 at the earliest.
Please refer to EJP RD’s call text External link, opens in new window. and the application form in Prisma in parallel with reading the instructions below, which describe the call-specific content of the application to the Swedish Research Council. More information on what to do in practical terms is available in our Guide for applicants. Opens in new window.
Sections of the application
The application form in Prisma contains the following tabs (applies to both outline and full applications):
- Descriptive information
- Research description
- Administrating organisation
- Participants (only administrators in this call)
- CV
The information we request under each tab is described below.
Descriptive information
Abstract
In the abstract, please describe in brief the following:
- What is to be done: purpose and goal
- How the research will be carried out: project organisation, time plan and scientific methods
- What is important about the planned research?
The abstract shall provide a summary picture of 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. This is 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. Explain also 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. For the outline application, the popular science description may be brief. For the full application, the popular science description must be detailed and able to be used for information purposes.
The description may cover a maximum of 4 000 characters including blank spaces. This is approximately one A4 page in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing.
Research description
Ethical considerations (only applies to those invited to submit a full application)
Describe the ethical issues raised by your project or equivalent. 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.
The justification may cover a maximum of 4 000 characters including blank spaces. This is approximately one A4 page in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing.
Application for the international collaboration
Here you shall attach the application submitted by the consortium to EJP RD.
Other appendices
No other appendices need to be attached to this field.
Administrating organisation
Please state the administrating organisation and project site.
Participants
Here you as applicant may invite participating administrators to your 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).
The scientific assessment of the application is carried out by EJP RD (see the assessment process in EJP RD’s call text. External link, opens in new window.