Doctoral programme grant within general practice

The following requirements must be fulfilled in order for the organisation to be eligible to apply for the grant. We carry out checks, and reject applications that do not fulfil the requirements.

Focus

Research in general practice covers a very broad field, which involves many healthcare professions and impacts on large patient groups and diseases and medical conditions that are diagnosed, treated and referred within primary care.

Framework for the graduate school

Depending on differing needs and prerequisites, a graduate school may be designed in various ways. To get a grant from the Swedish Research Council, the graduate school must fulfil the following general requirements:

The graduate school shall

• be linked to an HEI with main and coordinating responsibility
• be operated by at least 3 Swedish HEIs in cooperation
• have access to well-functioning research environment/s with international connections
• form a structured and coherent range of programmes, with joint courses and seminars of high scientific and educational quality, which have to be available nationally, and preferably internationally
• have a clear organisation and leadership, including a board or governing body with overarching responsibility for quality assurance of the graduate school’s activities in collaboration with the participating departments
• cover a minimum of 10 doctoral students at Swedish HEIs. The doctoral students shall be active in Swedish primary care, focusing on general practice.
• have a plan for internationalisation of third cycle higher education.

The graduate school may offer third cycle higher education on a part-time basis if the doctoral students are active in primary care during the rest of the time.

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 HEI shall coordinate the national graduate school, and shall also be responsible for activity reporting and for scientific and financial final reporting of grants awarded. The graduate school shall be operated by no less than three HEIs in cooperation.

The application shall include one named researcher, who shall be the coordinator of the graduate school and responsible for coordination and follow-up of studies. The coordinator shall be employed by the administrating organisation at the start of and throughout the grant period and any further additional availability period. The employment must equal at least 20 per cent of a full-time equivalent. The coordinator does not have to be employed at the time of applying. A named representative of each participating HEI shall be listed (see instructions under “Research programme” below), and be included as participating researchers in the application.

Number of applications and previous grants

The application must not cover costs for purposes that are already funded by the Swedish Research Council or any other funding body. Overlaps with other grants or applications may impact on the grant amount awarded, or be a reason for us to reject the application.

There is no limit to the number of applications a single HEI may submit or participate in.

Participating researchers

A representative of each HEI participating in the graduate school shall be included as a participating researcher in the application. The participating researchers shall be researchers with a doctoral degree or corresponding competence (not doctoral students), whose scientific competence will be crucial for implementing the proposed graduate school’s activities.

Participating researchers shall provide the necessary information themselves in Prisma, and upload these to the application.

Costs and grant amounts

The application may cover costs for joint coordinating activities for the graduate school, including salary costs for the coordinator. The grant may not be used for research expenses, doctoral student salaries or scholarships.

The maximum amount that may be applied for is 3 000 000 SEK per year, including indirect costs.

The grant amount includes cover of indirect costs as a percentage of the direct costs, according to the model used by the administrating organisation.

The Swedish Research Council assumes that the administrating organisation will cover any costs in excess of the amount received.

Grant period

The grant may cover a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 5 years, starting in January 2023. The first payment will be made during January 2023 at the earliest.

The coordinating HEI shall submit a report to the Swedish Research Council no later than 28 February 2025, stating how the graduate school has developed and the result of the admission of doctoral students to the graduate school. If the results do not correspond to the preconditions that the grant was based on, the grant amounts may be reviewed.

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
• Budget and research resources
• Publications
• Administrating organisation
• Participants
• CV

The information we request under each tab is described below.

Descriptive information

Abstract

The abstract shall include a brief description of the following:

• the focus of the graduate school
• the organisation planned
• the significance to the research area

The text shall provide an overview of the purpose and implementation of the graduate school. 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 activities of the graduate school 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 graduate school will support research in general practice.

The popular science description is important when we inform about the research funded by the Swedish Research Council.

The text must be in Swedish and cover a maximum of 2 000 characters including blank spaces. This is approximately half an A4 page in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing.

Research description

Research programme

The research programme shall consist of a brief but complete description of how the graduate school will be designed. It shall cover a maximum of 10 page-numbered A4 pages in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing and 2.5 cm margins, including references and any images.

The research programme must include the following headings and information, listed in the following order:

• Objective: Describe the theme and focus of the graduate school.
• Research environment: Describe the research environment/s supporting the graduate school. Describe the environment/s in terms of focus and management, and the focus of research in progress. Describe in particular how the environment/s may contribute to the development of the graduate school.
• Programme description: Summarise the planned educational activities of the graduate school, and describe the recruitment basis.
• Organisation: Describe in detail how the graduate school will be organised and administrated (courses offered, seminars, course development, coordinating, study follow-up, work allocation between supervisors, examiners and course providers). Describe also the planned dimensioning of the graduate school in terms of number of doctoral students.
• Significance: Describe how the national graduate school promotes the development of strengthened research competence for clinically active personnel in primary care.
• National coordination: Describe the Swedish HEIs that are participating in the operation of the graduate school, and list the person/s (name, position, organisational unit) who will be responsible for this participation at each HEI. Describe briefly the planned allocation of roles, tasks and responsibilities for the operation to the persons participating (including the coordinator), and what specific competences each participant will contribute.
• International and other national collaboration: Describe the collaboration with Swedish and foreign research environments and/or other graduate schools.

Report the following under separate headings if relevant to the application:

• Equipment: Describe the basic equipment relevant to the programme that the graduate school has at its disposal.
• Need for research infrastructure: Specify the graduate school’s need for international and national research infrastructure. If you choose to use other infrastructure than those supported by the Swedish Research Council Opens in new window., and that are thereby open to all, you must justify this (also applies to local research infrastructure).

Budget and research resources

Personnel

State the activity level (per cent of a full-time equivalent) of all personnel active within the operation of the doctoral programme, that is to say the project leader/coordinator, other researchers responsible for participation in the doctoral programme at other HEIs, doctoral students and other personnel.

Please also state the salary applied for, for the project leader/coordinator or other personnel active within the graduate school, both as a percentage of a full-time salary and as actual annual amounts (including social security contributions). Please state the amounts in Swedish krona, rounded to the nearest 1 000 SEK.

Other costs

Describe any other costs (premises costs and running costs). Please state the amounts in Swedish krona, rounded to the nearest 1 000 SEK.

Depreciation costs for equipment to be used in the operation may be included, provided that

• the equipment has an economic life of at least three years
• the equipment has an acquisition value above a certain amount
• the need cannot be fulfilled by using national or international research infrastructure supported by the Swedish Research Council and open to all.

Only include the proportion of depreciation costs that corresponds to the use of the equipment in the proposed operation. Depreciation costs for equipment that is wholly financed via other grants may not be included.

Total cost of the graduate school

Prisma will automatically add up the budget items listed in a table. The total amount applied for shall also include indirect costs. The applicant (project leader/coordinator) shall themselves add these to the table. Here, the applicant (project leader/coordinator) shall add any other costs arising in the graduate school (for which funding under this call is not seeked).

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. This is approximately one A4 page in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing.

Other funding

Please state any other funding of the project 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

Project leader’s/Coordinator’s publication list

Please attach the 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 the application. For each publication, please state how the researcher contributed to it, and its relevance to the graduate school described (maximum 4 lines per publication). Highlight the researcher’s name in bold in the author list.

2. Relevant publications from 2014–2022: Sort the publications, with the researcher’s 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’ publication lists joined together into a single file. The list for each researcher shall include the publications (maximum 10) that are the most relevant for the graduate school, 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 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.

The publications shall be of the type 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 location of the graduate school.

Participants

Under this tab, the person invited to be the project leader/coordinator may in turn invite participating researchers and participating administrators to the application.

CV

Under this tab, the project leader/coordinator shall upload the relevant CV information from their 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 whether permanent or not) and longer relevant employment, postdoctoral visits (including whether employment or not), research exchanges relevant to the research described and any longer interruptions in the research that have impacted on the researcher’s 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), up to 10 of the researcher’s most relevant grants awarded in competition, up to 10 of the researcher’s 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 the researcher; state up to 10 of the 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 for doctoral programme grant within general practice is evaluated by a specialised subject review panel where the members are Swedish and international researchers.

At least five, members review and grade your application individually. If needed, an external reviewer also assesses your application 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 Scientific Council for Medicine and Health.

Review panel Opens in new window.

Following the grant decision your application will receive an individual final statement containing the grades and 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 purpose of using several components is to achieve a multi-faceted evaluation. In addition to the basic criteria, your application is also evaluated using an additional criterion Research Environment and Relevance to the call.

The criteria are assessed on a seven-grade scale, except for Feasibility and Relevance to the call, which are assessed on a three-grade grade scale.

Prerequisites for being awarded a grant are that the proposal is feasible, located in a well-functioning research environment of high quality, that the applicant has solid and relevant competence for the purpose and that the application is of high relevance for the aim of the call.

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:

• To what extent do the objectives, content and organisation of the graduate school add scientific value to the doctoral education within the specified research area?
• How does the proposed educational content, in terms of courses, seminars and other activities, support high scientific quality, methodologically and theoretically?
• Does the graduate school and the structure of the educational content ensure high pedagogical quality in the education?

Novelty and originality (1–7)

Guiding questions:

• In what way does the graduate school contribute to novelty and originality with regards to the graduate education within the specified research area and the purpose of this call?
• Does the graduate school support novel forms of collaboration and participation?
• What aspects of the objectives, content and organisation of the graduate school contribute to strengthening the originality and developing novel thinking in the scientific work and training of the graduate students?

Merits of the applicant (1–7)

Guiding questions:

• Does the programme coordinator and participating researchers have previous experience conducting doctoral education and graduate schools?
• Are the coordinator and participating researchers highly merited within their respective fields?
• How do their joint merits and competence contribute to high quality in the doctoral education?

Feasibility (1–3)

Guiding questions:

• In what way does the organisation and management of the graduate school ensure quality in implementation?
• How do the participating institutions each contribute to the graduate school?
• Have the applicants shown that there is an adequate number of potential graduate participants?
• How is access to staff, infrastructure and other necessary resources ensured?
• Is the budget realistic in relation to the objectives, content and organisation of the graduate school?

Research environment (1-7)

Guiding questions:

• Is the graduate school founded on relevant, state-of-the-art research of high quality?
• How does the research at the participating institutions complement each other in terms of relevance and high quality research?
• Does the plan and budget reflect that the graduate school is a collaborative effort between the participating institutions?
• How can the graduate school promote international networking for its participating students?

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.

The different subsidiary grades are weighed together into an overall grade on a seven-grade scale. Normally, the subsidiary grade for scientific quality is given the most weight in the overall grade. Research environment shall be weighted heavily, but a high grade for this aspect cannot outweigh any lack of scientific quality. The subsidiary grades for novelty and originality or merits may only in exceptional cases balance weaknesses in scientific quality, and then only minor weaknesses.

Relevance to the call (1–3)

The criterion “relevance to the call” is related to the aim of the call. The aim for this grant is to arrange third cycle higher education with the purpose to strengthen research competence within primary care in Sweden.

The “relevance to the call”-criterion is not weighed into the overall grade. Instead, it is to be weighed into an application’s ranking in relation to others.

Guiding questions:

• Is the focus of the graduate school in line with the purpose and focus of the call?
• Will the graduate school contribute to development of new knowledge and increases competence relevant for staff working with general practice?
• Does the graduate school have a close connection to primary care /general practice?
• Will the graduate school contribute to the inclusion of new research results in primary care?
• Will the graduate school strengthen and enhance the quality of research education at the participating research institutions?