Needs inventory of research infrastructure of national interest

Who can submit a proposal?

The needs inventory is open to all higher education institutions (HEIs), public agencies with research responsibilities, research funding bodies, researcher groupings or individual researchers. Proposals submitted shall relate to research infrastructure according to the Swedish Research Council’s definition and criteria (see below), and shall relate to one of the four categories described above. The proposal shall be drawn up, formulated and submitted by you as representative of an HEI, a public agency with research responsibilities, a research funding body, or a researcher grouping, or by you as an individual researcher. The proposal may include participating proposers, that is, persons or organisations backing the proposal. A proposer may submit more than one proposal.

Please note that you can only access the needs inventory in Prisma via the following link. External link, opens in new window.

Definition and criteria for research infrastructure

The Swedish Research Council uses the following definition of research infrastructure of national interest:

Research infrastructure of national interest is intended to provide resources that enable research by several research teams and different projects within one or more research fields.

Research infrastructure of national interest shall:

• enable research of the highest scientific quality
• be openly accessible primarily to researchers, but also to the business sector, the public sector, and other relevant actors. When access is limited, prioritisation shall be based primarily on scientific excellence.
• create clear national added value
• have long-term plans for the scientific operation and its development
• take long-term responsibility for management and control, funding, competence accumulation and development of the operation
• contribute to societal development, for example by enabling research that addresses issues relating to societal challenges.

Please refer to the proposal form in Prisma in parallel with reading the instructions below, which describe the specific content of the proposal. More information on what to do in practical terms is available in our Guide for applicants Opens in new window..

Language

Foreign experts may be involved in the assessment of the proposals. To ensure fair and equitable assessment and efficient processing, please therefore complete your proposal in English.

The sections of the proposal form

The form includes the following tabs:

• Descriptive information
• Description of infrastructure need
• Administrating organisation
• Participants
• CV

Descriptions of the specific information requested under each tab follow below.

Descriptive information

Please fill in the Swedish and English proposal title (a working title that briefly describes the need for new research infrastructure, or the name of an already existing infrastructure). Please also state SCB codes and key words (at least one SCB code; state the most relevant code first and at least three key words) that describe the need/infrastructure.

Abstract

The summary of the need proposal shall include a brief description of the national need that the research infrastructure is expected to fulfil, and how the need can be fulfilled. The abstract shall provide a summary guide to the infrastructure need. Please use wording to ensure persons with another subject specialisation can understand the information.

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.

Description of infrastructure need

The description of the infrastructure need may cover a maximum of 4 A4 pages in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing, including any images.

The following information shall be included in the description under separate headings, listed in the following order:

For proposals relating to needs for entirely new research infrastructure, new membership of international research infrastructure or needs to bring together existing resources (Categories 1 and 2 under the heading “General information on the needs inventory”):

• Science case (approximately two A4 pages)
  Describe the scientific questions that need the research infrastructure. How will the infrastructure contribute to answering these questions? Describe in summary how the proposed infrastructure could contribute to research of the highest scientific quality and provide opportunities for new scientific discoveries. Describe how the proposed research infrastructure fulfils the Swedish Research Council’s criteria for research infrastructure of national interest.
• User base (approximately half an A4 page)
  Describe what research groupings could constitute the potential users, both national and, if relevant, international, and also the overall geographic distribution of the Swedish users.
• Survey of the field (approximately half an A4 page)
  State briefly whether there are any similar infrastructures within the research field (national or international). If so, what are they, and where are they located? What is the relationship between the proposed research infrastructure and other infrastructures within the field? If the research infrastructure described in the proposal does not materialise, could other existing infrastructure meet the described need, and if so, to what extent?
• Implementation (approximately half an A4 page)
  If the infrastructure described in the proposal is not already established, at what phase of planning is it now? What overarching steps are needed to make it operational, or to bring together existing resources? Describe briefly the various parts or units that together form the entirety of the infrastructure. As applicable – describe contacts or collaborations with existing infrastructure.
• Budget overview (approximately one fourth of an A4 page)
  Describe summarily the estimated cost of investment to realise the proposed research infrastructure, as well as the annual running cost. For international infrastructure: comment on the Swedish contribution and the Swedish proportion of the overall grant to the infrastructure.

For existing research infrastructure with a grant from the Swedish Research Council (categories 3 and 4 under the heading “General information on the needs inventory”):

• Science case (approximately two A4 pages)
  Describe Swedish research’s need for the research infrastructure. What scientific questions are expected to be answered with the help of the infrastructure? Have the questions changed during the grant period, or are changes expected during the remaining or future grant periods? How will the infrastructure contribute to answering the questions? Describe in summary how the infrastructure in the future could contribute to research of the highest scientific quality and provide opportunities for new scientific discoveries.
• User base (approximately half an A4 page)
  Describe the researcher groupings that currently use the research infrastructure, and also any expected development of the user base over the next few years. The description shall highlight national and, if relevant, international users, and also the overall geographic distribution of the Swedish users.
• Survey of the field (approximately half an A4 page)
  State briefly whether there are other existing infrastructures within the research field. If so, what are they, and where are they located? What is the relationship between the research infrastructure and other infrastructures within the field? Does the infrastructure relate to existing Swedish memberships in European Research Infrastructure Consortiums (ERIC) or other international infrastructures? Which value does the membership add to the Swedish activities? If the existing research infrastructure does not receive continued funding, to what extent could other existing infrastructure fulfil the described need?
• Infrastructure development (approximately half an A4 page)
  What changes to the infrastructure’s range of services to researchers and others can be expected within the next few years? What is required to achieve these changes? State whether changes to the infrastructure’s module structure can be expected, and if so, what these consist of?
• Budget overview (approximately one fourth of an A4 page)
  Describe the continued funding need for the infrastructure, divided up into investments and operation. Is the budget expected to differ from the current grant period? How, and why? What other funding bodies are expected to contribute?

Administrating organisation

To register the needs proposal, the administrating organisation and project site must be stated. Usually, the administrating organisation and project site correspond to the organisation or the department or corresponding organisational unit where you, as the proposer responsible, are employed.

Please note that proposals in the needs inventory do not need signing by the administrating organisation.

Review panels

Please request the review panel or panels (in priority order) that you wish to carry out the assessment of your proposal.

The final allocation of the proposal is determined by the Swedish Research Council.

Review panels Opens in new window.

Participants

Under this tab, you, as the proposer responsible, may invite other participants to your proposal. Participating researchers/proposers refers to other researchers or representatives of HEIs or agencies who may be invited to participate in formulating the proposal. Please note that the number of participants is not weighted into the assessment of a proposal; instead, it is only the description of the infrastructure need that forms the basis for the assessment. A participating administrator is a person who can help you to input and edit information in the proposal.

Participating researchers/proposers shall provide the necessary information themselves in Prisma, and upload these to the proposal. Any further participating partners and their roles shall be described in the description of infrastructure needs (please see instructions under “Description of infrastructure needs” above).

CV

Under this tab, please upload CV information about your current employment from your personal account in Prisma. Any participating researchers/proposers shall themselves upload CV information about their current employment to the proposal. No further CV information is requested.

Assessment process

The scientific and strategic assessment of your proposal is carried out by active researchers within advisory groups (RÅG) to the Council for Research Infrastructures (RFI). In their assessment, they also weigh in views from the Swedish Research Council’s scientific councils, and possibly from relevant committees (ÄRK), and the Universities’ Reference Group for Research Infrastructures (URFI). A final assessment decision is made by RFI.

At least three members from an RÅG scrutinise and grade your proposal individually. The entire RÅG then holds a meeting to discuss and prioritise the proposals. The RÅG may, if considered necessary, request supplementary factual information to reach a more complete assessment of an area. Factual information may be obtained from the proposer or other relevant sources. Each proposal submitted usually consists of an area (of needs), but two or more proposals that are assessed as relating to the same needs may be grouped together, and then together form an area. At the meeting, the RÅG also weighs in views from ÄRK and URFI, whereafter they will submit documentation to RFI. Using RÅG’s documentation, RFI will make a decision in spring 2024 on the final grading of the needs proposals. In conjunction with this, RFI will also make a distinction between the grades A1 and A2, that is, which if the proposals assessed as being of national interest that will be prioritised by the Swedish Research Council.

Review panel Opens in new window.

Following the decision, the proposers will receive a statement including the grading and a summary of RÅG’s and RFI’s discussion and assessment of the needs proposal. In the event several proposals relating to the same needs have been grouped into an area, they will receive the same statement.

Assessment criteria and grades

The assessment of of your needs proposal is made based on the following criteria: 1. Scientific relevance, 2. Strategic and national relevance, 3. Other important aspects, 4. Overall assessment. The assessment of the first three criteria is only described in text, while the overall assessment is made on a six-grade scale.

1. Scientific relevance (text only)
2. Strategic and national relevance (text only)
3. Other aspects important to consider? (text only)
4. Overall assessment (grade A-X and text)

Grades

• A1: The described need could be fulfilled by an infrastructure of national interest and the thematic area is considered ready for call (new needs). / The infrastructure is still considered an infrastructure of national interest and suggested to be included in coming call (existing infrastructures).
• A2: The described need could be fulfilled by an infrastructure of national interest within VR’s remit, but is at the moment not prioritised by VR. (Only used by RFI)
• A3: The described need could be fulfilled by an infrastructure of national interest but the thematic area is not considered ready for call. (Less relevant grade for existing infrastructures)
• B: The described need could not be fulfilled by an infrastructure of national interest. (Less relevant grade for existing infrastructures.)
• C: Not relevant to be prioritised by VR, because need can be handled within existing national or international infrastructure or should be funded/handled by another organisation or in a different way.
• X: Need cannot be assessed due to incomplete information or unclear description.