Network grant Swedish Research Links

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
• Review panels
• Participants
• CV

The information we request under each tab is described below.

Descriptive information

Abstract

In the summary of the collaboration plan, please describe in brief the following:

• the research questions that you intend to focus on in the collaboration
• what is to be done within the research collaboration
• how the collaboration will be conducted: organisation, time plan and collaboration formats
• the impact of the research collaboration.

The abstract shall provide a summary picture of the purpose and implementation of the research collaboration. 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 a third of an A4 page in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing.

Popular science description

Describe the research collaboration 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.

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.

Note: The popular science description must be written in Swedish, unlike the rest of the application.

Collaboration countries

List the 1–3 collaboration countries planned for the application.

Global goals for sustainable development

State which of the 17 UN sustainable development goals (according to Agenda 2030) your project is linked to in particular, or if none of them is relevant. Further information is available under the heading ”Follow-up of funding of development research” at the beginning of the call text.

Policy markers OpenAid

State to what extent your project focuses on each policy marker area. You can find a link to a description of the policy markers under the heading ”Follow-up of funding of development research” at the beginning of the call text.

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.

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.

Research concept

Summarise the research theme and the research questions that you intend to focus on in the network. Describe also your own and others’ previous research and any preliminary results within the research area. State key references.

Explain the importance and scientific novelty of the planned research. Describe briefly how the collaboration project relates to previous research within the area, and its importance to the research area in the short and long term.

The description may cover a maximum of 8 000 characters including blank spaces. This is approximately two A4 pages in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing.

Collaboration plan

The collaboration plan shall be forward-looking and shall consist of a brief but complete description of the collaboration planned for the parties in the network. It shall cover a maximum of 4 page-numbered A4 pages in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing and 2.5 cm margins, including references and any images.

The collaboration plan must include the following headings and information, listed in the following order:

• Purpose and aims: Describe summarily the purpose and specific aims of the network, and describe how these correspond to the purpose and focus of the call.
• Network description and mode of cooperation: Provide a summary of the planned work including the following sections:
  • Organisation: Clarify the contributions of yourself and the participating researchers to the implementation of the collaboration. Describe and justify the competences and roles of the participating researchers, and also any other researchers or corresponding who are important for the implementation. In what way is the collaboration based on equal participation, and how does this lead to mutual exchange of knowledge?
  • Time plan and implementation: The time plan should provide an overview of the collaboration and a plan for submitting joint research applications, travel, joint seminars, workshops, preparations/planning of joint research applications, and information dissemination. A brief description of collaboration activities, such as workshops and seminars, should be included.
• Security situation in collaboration country: If you are planning to carry out activities in countries or regions that the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs are advising against travelling to (including work travel), please describe how you are planning your research visit to and work in the country in view of the security situation. Ministry for Foreign Affairs travel information External link, opens in new window.

Please provide the following information. If a heading is not relevant to your application, please state this under the heading.

• Need for research infrastructure: Specify the collaboration’s need for international and national research infrastructure. In the first instance, you should use the research infrastructures supported by the Swedish Research Council, Opens in new window. which are open to all. If you choose to use other infrastructure instead, please justify this need (also applies for local research infrastructure).
• Other applications or grants: If you are applying for or intend to apply for other grants from the Swedish Research Council, please clarify the relationship between the projects or corresponding. 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 idea (from you or another researcher).

Relevance and impact

Describe how the network’s research concept is of particular relevance to the fight against poverty and for sustainable development in low income and lower middle income countries (for further information, please see under the heading “Focus” above). In the relevance description, please therefore state how the collaboration contributes to new knowledge with the potential of contributing to better living conditions for people living in poverty and under oppression, and/or promotes sustainable development in low income and lower middle income countries and regions, and how the knowledge contributes to this. The latter may be formulated as possible “pathways to impact” for your research.

The description may cover a maximum of 6 000 characters including blank spaces. This is approximately one and a half A4 page in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing.

Budget and research resources

Describe the overall costs for the network by specifying the items below. The budget shall cover the costs of all parties. Please state the amounts in Swedish krona, rounded to the nearest 1 000 SEK.

• Costs of travel, accommodation and subsistence
• Costs of organising seminars and workshops
• Costs of consumables, minor field studies, any publication costs and equipment (maximum 100 000 SEK per year in total)
• Other costs.

Total cost of the network

Prisma will automatically add up your budget items 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 that the project or corresponding entails (for which you are not seeking funding under this call).

Please contact your administrating organisation if you have any questions abut what constitutes indirect and direct costs.

Justification of the budget applied for

Justify briefly each cost applied for in your budget. 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.

Other funding

Please state your or any other researcher’s funding of the collaboration over and above what is applied for in this application. Please state the amounts in Swedish krona, rounded to the nearest 1 000 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 and 2.5 cm margins.

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 equivalent that are published or accepted for publication at the time of applying. The author name order shall be identical to that of the published work. The application cannot be supplemented with publications after the deadline for the call.

1. Selection of publications: List the 10 publications of greatest importance to your application.Describe how you contributed to each publication, and its relevance to the research project described (maximum 4 lines per publication). Highlight your name in bold in the author list.

2. Relevant publications from 2013–2021: In this part, the publications listed under Item 1 shall also be included if they have been published during the period in question. 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
• Other publications including popular science books/presentations

Participating researchers’ publication lists

Attach all participating researchers’ publications lists joined up into one file. The list for each researcher shall include the 10 publications that are the most relevant to the research described, and shall cover a maximum of 1 A4 page in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing and 2.5 cm margins. 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 name order shall be identical to that of the published work. The application cannot be supplemented with publications after the deadline for the call.

Administrating organisation

Please state the administrating organisation and project site for the collaboration.

Review panels Opens in new window.

Please request the review panel or panels (in priority order) that you wish to carry out the scientific assessment of your application. The final allocation of applications is determined by the Swedish Research Council.
Review panels

Participants

Here you shall invite your international project leaders and other participating researchers, and any participating administrators, to your application. You must distinguish international project managers from other invited participating researchers by marking them in the table in the application form.

You must assign full editing rights for the application to the international project leaders.

CV

Under this tab, please upload your relevant CV information from your personal account in Prisma. International project leaders and other participating researchers must upload their own CV information to the application.

The following information (where available) must always be included in each CV:

• Education: First, second and third cycle higher education and specialist degrees.
• Work: Current employment (including employment form) and longer relevant employment held, 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 merit as a researcher.
• Merits and awards: Docentship/associate professorship, supervisees (postdoctoral and doctoral students; state the number of persons in each category and list the names of the up to 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.

Evaluation process

Your application is evaluated by a broad, specialised subject review panel where the members are Swedish and international researchers.

At least three members review and grade your application individually. If the needed, the review of the panel will be complemented with an assessment from an external reviewer. 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 Committee for development research.

Review panels Opens in new window.

In order to enable more in-depth discussions of applications of higher quality that have a reasonable chance of being funded, the applications that received the lowest grades from the panel members are not discussed in detail at the review panel meeting. Following the grant decision, all applications receive a final statement that includes the review panels’ grading of the application. The applications that have been discussed in more detail at the panel meeting receive an individual final statement which, in addition to the grades, also contains a summary of the review panel’s discussion and overall assessment of the scientific quality of the application.

Here you will find a more comprehensive description of the Swedish Research Council's assessment of applications. Opens in new window.

Evaluation criteria and guiding questions

The evaluation of the scientific quality of your application is made based on four basic criteria (Scientific quality of the proposed research, Novelty and originality, Merits of the applicant, Feasibility). The Swedish Research Links network grants are also evaluated based on the criteria Complementarity of the research network. 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 an additional criterion (Relevance for the call) on a three-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 quality of the proposed research (1–7)

Guiding questions:

• Does the proposed collaboration network have the potential to build a sustainable and equal scientific partnership to address development challenges?
• To what extent can the proposed network, based on the included collaborators, define new, compelling scientific questions within its scientific area?
• How does the research collaboration build on the research conducted independently by the partners, and what is the potential added value of the network?
• Is the overall description of the collaborative network sufficiently clear, convincing and compelling, for example in the definition of research questions, description of planned activities and impact of the research collaboration?
• Does the proposal contain plans for sustaining the collaboration/partnership beyond the proposed duration of network funding?

Novelty and originality (1–7)

Guiding questions:

• To what extent does the proposed network promote the establishment of a new research network and new researcher-to-researcher relationships?
• If principal investigators have collaborated before: Is the proposed collaboration based on a new research topic? What were the experiences of that previous collaboration and can additional funding lead to new collaborative research proposals with realistic ideas how to obtain funding?
• Does the network combine scientific expertise and capacity in a novel way in relation to the research area and the countries involved?
• Does the network have the potential to extend or challenge current understanding, opinion or practice in its field?
• Does the research network propose a line of research with clear progression and novelty in relation to previous research in the field or will the formed network simply add details to existing knowledge?
• In what novel way does the proposed network have potential for scientific and/or societal impact in low income and lower middle-income countries?

Merits of the network (1–7)

Guiding questions:

• Does the network have sufficient research experience, expertise and scientific connections for the implementation of the proposed collaboration?
• Considering the research area and career ages: Of what merits are the previous publications and other scientific achievements (e.g. supervisor experience, external funding, research collaborations)? Do these show a distinct and independent line of research?
• Does the applicant have previous experience from research collaborations with partners in low or lower middle-income countries?

Feasibility (1–3)

Guiding questions:

• Is the proposed plan in general, including activities and time schedule, optimal for starting up and implementing the proposed network?
• Does the network aim to establish long-term research collaboration and contain a realistic plan for how to raise funds for such collaboration?
• Does the proposed collaboration network include the availability and accessibility of relevant personnel, skills, equipment, facilities/infrastructures and other necessary resources?
• Is the environment suitable for carrying out the proposed network activities?

Complementarity of the research network (1-7)

Guiding questions:

• Is there appropriateness of the team members in terms of how the researchers´ expertise complement each other, and in how the different roles and responsibilities are distinguished?
• Does the collaboration bring mutual added value to the proposed research; compared to if the partners were not working together?
• Can the collaboration lead to transfer of knowledge between applicants?
• Is the collaboration based on principles of co-design, mutual benefit and equality?

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.

Relevance for the call (1-3)

Relevance is a central criterion to development research, and it is evaluated separately from the scientific quality, and is not included in the overall grade. The Network Grant Swedish Research Links is financed through development aid funds provided by the government, and research networks receiving support must be of particular relevance to poverty reduction and sustainable development in low-income and lower middle-income countries.

Guiding questions:

• Does the proposed research idea have the potential to contribute to better living conditions for people living in poverty and under oppression? Is it clear how?
• Does the proposed research idea have the potential to promote sustainable development in low-income and lower middle-income countries?
• Is the proposed research idea addressing and targeting conditions and challenges of relevance particularly for low-income and lower middle-income countries?