Project grant for international research collaboration on quantum technologies (QuantERA)

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 shall be a participant in a QuantERA consortium, with a minimum of 3 partners from at least 3 participating countries. You can see full eligibility requirements for the composition of the consortium in the call text on QuantERA’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. For applicants with Swedish doctoral degrees, the award date listed in Ladok applies.

The applicant for a project grant must be an individual researcher together with their organisation (a Swedish Higher education institution (HEI) or another Swedish organisation that fulfils our criteria for administrating organisations for Swedish Research Council grants Opens in new window.). For you to be eligible to apply, we must have approved your organisation as an administrating organisation. 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.

The coordinator shall be employed by the administrating organisation at the time of application, but you must be employed 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.

Number of applications and previous grants

The requirements described in this section only apply to applicants (project leaders).

General information about overlaps between applications and grants

Your 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 you are awarded, or be a reason for us to reject your application.

What grants may I apply for simultaneously from the Swedish Research Council?

You may only submit one application for this grant, and you may only be the Swedish partner of one consortium under this call. Further information about the grants you may apply for during the same year are shown in on the page Several grants simultaneously Opens in new window.. Grants under this call are counted as ”Project grant with focus”.

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.

If you already have an ongoing grant, then further information about the grants you may apply for are shown in on the page Several grants simultaneously. Opens in new window. Grants under this call are counted as ”Project grant with focus”. Please note that if you are the project leader for an ongoing project grant, this must have a different focus and a different project concept for you to be able to apply.

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 QuantERA.

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.

The grant amount includes cover of indirect costs as a percentage of the direct costs, according to the model used by your administrating organisation. 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 in total for Swedish participation in a consortium is 4 500 000 SEK. A maximum of 2 Swedish participants may apply for funds within the same consortium. The maximum amount for all Swedish participants together is therefore 4 500 000 SEK.

Grant period

You may apply for a grant to cover 3 years, starting in January 2024. The first payment will be made during January 2024 at the earliest.

Please refer to QuantERA’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:

• 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 aims
• 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 planned research in such a way that a person who is not a researcher can understand it. Do this by answering the following questions:

• What is the research about?
• Why is it important to research this?
• In what way may the new knowledge be important?

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

Ethical aspects

Legal and formal requirements

State whether the research covers the handling of personal data, or experiments on animals and/or studies involving humans.

If the research covers any of the above, you must also describe/state the approvals and permits your research project requires, and how you plan to obtain these. Describe any other permits that affect your application, such as whether parts of the research will be done in a country other than Sweden. If no approvals or permits are needed, please state so.

The description may 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.

More information is available on the page “Conducting ethical research” on the Swedish Research Council’s website. External link.

Ethical considerations

Reflect on the ethical issues that may arise for your project, and describe these. 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. Examples of issues to reflect on:

• How do your research questions and expected results measure up in relation to the ethical issues?
• What (direct) risks (physical, mental, or integrity) will research persons or animals be exposed to?
• What long-term risks may arise from the research? Is there any risk that the research may be used in a way that is detrimental to animals, nature/the environment, or society (whole or parts of the same) in other respects?
• Is the research expected to contribute to other values over and above the knowledge gain? If so, to whom?
• How do you weigh up the risks (in particular short-term risks) against the value (which is often more long-term) of the research?

If no ethical issues are raised, please justify this. 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.

Application for the international collaboration

Please attach the application submitted by the consortium to QuantERA here.

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 QuantERA (see the assessment process in QuantERA’s call text External link, opens in new window.).