Closed call
14 February - 19 March 2024
Grant for research time in a clinical environment
The purpose of the grant is to give clinically active persons the opportunity to carry out research on a part-time basis in parallel with developing their clinical competence. The aim is to reinforce and renew medical and clinical research.
Subject area: Medicine and Health
Support form: Career support
Grant form: Grant for research time
Focus: Clinical Environment
Applicant: Individual researcher who has completed a doctoral degree no more than 10 years ago.
Participating researchers: No other researchers may be invited to join the application.
Grant period: 2–6 years
Grant amount: A standard amount based on the activity level (either 1 510 000 SEK per year, or 1 680 000 SEK per year, or 1 850 000 SEK per year).
Start of grant period: January 2025
Application period: 14 February 2024 (14.00/2 pm) – 19 March 2024 (14.00/2 pm)
Publication of grant award: No later than the beginning of November 2024
Please note:
- The former “Publication list” is now known as “Publications and other research outputs” and has a changed structure.
- There is now a separate field in the application where you are asked to describe how your stated merits confirm your ability to implement the proposed research.
- If you are awarded one of our career grants, you must verify your doctoral degree before you can receive the grant. If you have a Swedish doctoral degree, you can verify it before submitting your application by importing a validated doctoral degree from Ladok to your CV. Read more in Prisma’s user support External link.on how to proceed.
- You can choose your activity level at either 30, 40 or 50 per cent research time. It is a requirement that you are employed in health and medical care, equivalent to at least 30 per cent of full time throughout the grant period. The grant amount is a standard amount of either 1 510 000, or 1 680 000, or 1 850 000 SEK per year, depending on your activity level in the project.
- The application shall include a letter of support from your employer for your employment in health and medical care.
- You must explain in your research plan how your stated activity level is suited to the implementation of the research project.
- Use English in all parts of the application (text fields, appendices, cv-posts etc), with the exception of the Swedish popular science description.
- Read here for information on project collaboration with researchers in Russia and Belarus.
Telephone hours are weekdays excluding public holidays from 9.00/9 a.m. to 16.00/4 p.m. while the call is open.
Calls medicine and health
Specific instructions for the call
In addition to reading the call text, you also need to consult our Guide for applicants.
Contents:
Information and support to make the planning ahead of your application easier
If the application includes a clinical study
Clinical Studies Sweden – regional support for your work
The six regional nodes that together form Clinical Studies Sweden offer various types of support for work on clinical studies. Examples include help with study protocols, permit applications, data management and statistics, infrastructures for implementation, and training in clinical research methodology. The nodes also have a good supply of knowledge, and can provide contacts with, relevant regional resources, such as research units, quality register centres, biobanks, and cancer centres. More information about Clinical Studies Sweden and what you need to consider when conducting a clinical study can be found at kliniskastudier.se. External link.
Registering and reporting clinical studies
There are guidelines for study registration and result reporting for the clinical studies funded by the Swedish Research Council, which means that information about the study shall be registered in a public study register, and that a summary of the results shall be published in the register. More information about registation is available here.
Practical tips and advice relating to register-based studies
Registerforskning.se External link.has practical information for those who are planning to use register data in their research projects, including a step-by-step guide. Here you can also find the metadata tool RUT (Register Utiliser Tool), which offers researchers detailed information at metadata level about the variables used in the Swedish registers and biobank sample collections linked to the tool. New registers are continually being added to RUT.
Open publication of data relevant to COVID-19
If you are awarded a grant, you are expected to publish your research data and research results of relevance to COVID-19 with open access as quickly as possible. Determining what data can be published with open access shall always be based on applicable legislation. Please use the national pathogen portal External link. to make your data accessible when possible. Here you can also get practical support with data management and data sharing. The data portal, which is operated by SciLifeLab in collaboration with the Swedish Research Council, is linked to the European COVID-19 data portal. External link.
Requirements for applicants
The following requirements must be fulfilled 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 must be an individual researcher, who is employed in health and medical care throughout the grant period (for example as a physician, nurse, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, or dentist).
The purpose is to enable research on a part-time basis in parallel with development of clinical competence within the operation where you are employed. The position is intended as a step in the career for independent and established researchers, at or close to docent/associate professor level.
You must hold a Swedish doctoral degree or a corresponding foreign degree, awarded no more than 10 years before the deadline for this call.
The applicant shall 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). We must have approved your organisation as an administrating organisation for you to apply. The administrating organisation must sign your application in Prisma no later than 7 calendar days after the deadline for this call.
You do not have to 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 availability period. The scope of the employment shall correspond to the activity level (research time) you apply for, that is, 30, 40 or 50 per cent of a full-time equivalent, and shall be adapted to the task and the implementation. The research shall be combined with employment in health and medical care of no less than 30 per cent of a full-time equivalent. It is up to you, the clinic/healthcare principal, and the administrating organisation to agree on how the research and clinical activities shall be divided up over the year.
You must not be a professor or adjunct professor at the time of the deadline of the call.
Note: If you are awarded a grant, you will have to verify your doctoral degree before the grant can be paid out. If you already have a Swedish doctoral degree, you can easily verify it before submitting your application by importing a validated doctoral degree to your CV from Ladok. Read more in Prisma’s user support External link.on how to proceed.
Career age
To apply for a grant for research time in health care research, your doctoral degree must have been awarded no more than 10 years ago, that is to say awarded no earlier than 19 March 2014. For applicants with Swedish doctoral degrees, the issue date of the degree registered in Ladok applies. You will not be able to complete your application if your doctoral degree was awarded more than 10 years ago. An exception applies if you have not been in paid employment for a long period(s) after being awarded your doctoral degree, and and this has affected your ability to gain merit as a researcher (“deductible time”).
The Swedish Research Council’s approved grounds for deductible time are a minimum of one month’s consecutive absence due to one of the following:
- parental leave
- position of trust in a trade union or student organisation
- mandatory service in the total defence force
- long-term illness (own reported illness or care of child/close family member)
- general medical internship/BT foundation period (maximum 24 months full-time work), or further training/specialist medical internship for clinically active professionals (maximum 24 months full-time education/work).
Please note that we do not accept other employment, unemployment or holidays as deductible time.
If you wish to claim deductible time, you must specify the recognised grounds and time involved in your application (please see instructions under “Descriptive information” below).
We conduct sample checks. This means that we might request a certificate in evidence of your grounds for deductible time.
Number of applications and previous grants
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 under this call. Further information about the grants you may apply for during the same year are shown on the page Several grants simultaneously. Please note that you can apply for an undirected project grant or a starting grant at the same time as this grant, and you may apply for the same or different project concepts. If several applications are approved, you must choose one of the grants.
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 a grant with a grant period that overlaps the 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 on the page Several grants simultaneously.
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 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.
Participating researchers
You may not invite any participating researchers in this application. Any collaboration partners and their roles shall be described in the research plan (please see instructions under “Research plan” below).
Costs and grant amounts
The grant is a standard amount, consisting of two parts:
- A salary portion of either 510 000 SEK (for an activity level of 30 per cent), 680 000 SEK (40 per cent activity level), or 850 000 SEK (50 per cent activity level) per year, which must only be used for salary costs (including social security contributions) corresponding to the salary for your clinical position.
- A project grant of 1 000 000 SEK per year (which may cover all types of project-related costs, such as salaries for participants, premises, running costs and 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 must not be paid out as salary during teaching or other departmental duties.
The Swedish Research Council assumes that the administrating organisation, as the employer responsible, will cover any costs in excess of the standard amount.
Grant period
You may apply for a grant for a minimum of 2 years and a maximum of 6 years, starting in January 2025. The first payment will be made in January 2025 at the earliest.
What must the application contain?
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.
International 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, apart from the popular science description, which you must write in Swedish.
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 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 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.
Other applications or grants
Describe briefly the different projects and their relationship if
- you are applying for or intend to apply for other grants from the Swedish Research Council
- you are receiving an ongoing grant from the Swedish Research Council with a grant period that wholly or partly overlaps the grant you are now applying for
- there are applications or grants relating to the same project concept/purpose with the Swedish Research Council or other funding bodies (from you or another researcher).
In all cases, you should also justify why you are submitting one or several further applications. If there are no other applications or grants, 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.
Deductible time
Please state any longer interruptions in your active research time after your doctoral degree caused by any of the grounds recognised by the Swedish Research Council. Please state the interruption calculated as a full-time equivalent and rounded up into full calendar months. Please see the recognised grounds for deductible time under the heading “Career age” above.
Special area
If your project relates to research into precision medicine according to the definition below, please mark this here.
Precision medicine
Precision medicine refers to a development towards ever more individually adapted care within Swedish health and medical care. New opportunities for precision medicine are based on advances in recent years in areas such as molecular biosciences and bioinformatics, as well as the emergence of new high-resolution imaging techniques. The area covers research that can contribute basic knowledge of disease conditions, as well as knowledge of how these various conditions differ at molecular level. The research may, for example, relate to how genes and bio-markers are combined with knowledge about lifestyle and other factors linked to disease progression and therapy outcomes, which may lead to ever more tailored therapies. In this context, precision medicine refers to diagnostic methods and therapies for individually adapted investigation, prevention and treatment in all disease areas, including rare diseases and health conditions. As basic research in the area is very close to application, research in collaboration with health and medical care or the business sector is particularly relevant.
Specification of clinical position
Describe in what way you fulfil the requirement for employment in health and medical care in Sweden corresponding to at least 30 per cent of a full-time equivalent during the grant period (see under the heading “Requirements for applicants”).
The description may cover a maximum of 750 characters including blank spaces 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, 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.
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 that you have identified?
- 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.
Sex and gender perspectives
Please state whether sex and gender perspectives are applicable in your planned research, and justify your decision. Please note that we are not asking for information about the composition of the research team (women/men). Read more about sex and gender perspectives in research content.
The following applies:
- If you answer “Yes”: Please justify your answer, and describe also how you take account of sex and gender perspectives in the research plan. If you have stated that sex and gender perspectives are applicable, but still choose not to include them in your research plan, you will need to justify this here.
- If you answer “No”, and thereby do not consider that sex and gender perspectives are applicable for your planned research, you do not need to justify your decision.
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 plan
The research plan shall be forward-looking and consist of a brief but complete description of the research task. It may 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 plan must include the following headings and information, listed in the following order:
Purpose and aims
State the overall purpose and specific aims of the research project.
State-of-the-art
Summarise briefly the current research frontier within the field or area covered by the project. State key references.
Significance and scientific novelty
Describe briefly how the project relates to previous research within the area, and the impact the project may have in the short and long term. Describe also how the project moves forward or innovates the current research frontier.
Preliminary and previous results
Describe briefly your own previous research and pilot studies within the research area that make it probable that the project will be feasible. If no preliminary results exist, please state this. State also whether the project continues to build on research and scientific results from a grant awarded previously by the Swedish Research Council.
Project description
Describe the project design under the following headings:
- Theory and method: Describe the underlying theory and the methods to be applied in order to reach the project goal.
- Time plan and implementation: Describe summarily the time plan for the project during the grant period, and how the project will be implemented. Describe also any crucial risks or obstacles that may impact on the implementation, and your plan for managing these.
- Project organisation: Clarify the contributions of yourself and any other researchers and/or key persons (including any doctoral students) to the implementation of the project, including a description of competences and roles in the project. Explain in particular how the time allocated by you (that is, your activity level) as project leader is suitable for the task, including the relationship with your other research undertakings.
Provide the following information also. If a heading is not relevant to your application, please state this under the heading.
Data analysis and statistics
Modern methods often generate complex data. Describe how you plan to analyse data collected in the project, and the statistical methods you will be using. If the project covers clinical studies, please include a power analysis.
Equipment
Describe the basic equipment you and your team have at your disposal for the project.
Need for research infrastructure
Specify the project’s need for international and national research infrastructure. If you choose to use other infrastructure than those supported by the Swedish Research Council, and that are thereby open to all, you must justify this (also applies to local research infrastructure).
International and national collaboration
Describe your collaboration with foreign and Swedish researchers and research teams. State whether you contribute to or refer to international collaboration in your research.
Independent line of research
If you are working or will be working in a larger group, please clarify how your project relates to the other projects in the group. If you are (continuing) working in the same team as your doctoral or postdoc supervisor, or if you are continuing a project that wholly or partly started during your doctoral or postdoc studies, you must also describe the relationship between your project and the research of your former supervisor.
Description of merits
Describe how the merits you state in your CV and list of publications and other research outputs confirm your competence as project leader and scientifically responsible for implementing the proposed research activities. 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.
Publications and other research outputs
Please attach your list drawn up according to the headings and information below. The list may cover a maximum of 5 page-numbered A4 pages in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing and 2.5 cm margins.
Sort the outputs under each heading in reverse chronological order, so that the latest published work 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. You cannot supplement the application with outputs after the deadline for the call.
1. Selection of research outputs
List the 10 publications or other outputs that are the most important for confirming your competence as project leader and scientifically responsible for implementing the proposed research activities. Describe how you contributed to each output, and its relevance to the research project described (maximum 4 lines per output). Highlight your name in bold in the author list/corresponding.
2. Relevant peer-reviewed research outputs from 2016–2024
In this part, the outputs listed under Item 1 shall also be included if they were published during the period in question. Sort them with your name highlighted in bold in the author list/corresponding under headings (type of output) in the following order:
- Original articles
- Conference contributions, the results of which are not included in other publications
- Edited volumes
- Research review articles
- Books and book chapters
- Artistic work
- Other outputs that do not fit under any of the headings above. Please note that intellectual property rights shall be shown in the CV section of the application.
3. Relevant non peer-reviewed research outputs from 2016–2024
In this part, the outputs listed under Item 1 shall also be included if they were published during the period in question. Sort them with your name highlighted in bold in the author list/corresponding under the respective headings (type of output) in the following order:
- Artistic work
- Publications including popular science books/presentations
- Preprints
- Other outputs that do not fit under any of the headings above. Please note that intellectual property rights shall be shown in the CV section of the application.
4. Number of publications
Specify how many publications you have under each heading (type of publication) below.
- Total number of peer-reviewed original articles. Please note that preprints shall not be included.
- Total number of peer-reviewed research review articles. Please note that preprints shall not be included.
- Total number of other publications including patents
- Number of peer-reviewed original articles from 2016–2024. Please note that preprints shall not be included.
- Number of peer-reviewed research review articles from 2016–2024. Please note that preprints shall not be included.
- Number of other publications including patents from 2016–2024.
Please note that no further bibliometric information shall be stated in the application.
Letter of support
This document, covering maximum 1 A4 page plus possibly one further page for a digital signature, shall include information about your clinical employment (position and employer) and employment level (minimum 30 per cent) and shall confirm that working hours corresponding to 30, 40 or 50 per cent will be released for the research project in question. The name and contact details of the operational manager or corresponding signing the certificate shall be stated. Please note that the letter of support is an important part of the assessment of the application, and that we are not asking for a letter of recommendation. The document must be written in English.
Budget and research resources
Please state your activity level (per cent of a full-time equivalent) in the project as one of the three possible levels (30, 40 or 50 per cent). Your activity level as project leader must therefore correspond to no less than 30 per cent of a full-time equivalent.
The grant is a standard amount and you therefore do not need to enter any budget applied for in the application form.
Justification of the budget applied for
Describe briefly the primary costs you intend to cover within the framework for the grant 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 for 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.
Administrating organisation
Please state the administrating organisation and project site.
Review panels
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.
Participants
Here you may invite participating administrators to your application.
CV
Under this tab, please upload your relevant CV information from your personal account in Prisma. The information/merits shall confirm your competence as project leader and scientifically responsible for implementing the proposed research activities.
The following information (where available) must always be included in your CV:
Education
First, second and third cycle higher education and specialist degrees.
Work
- Current employment (including employment form)
- Longer relevant employments
- Post-doctoral visits (also state as employments if applicable)
- Researcher exchanges of relevance to the research described
- Any longer interruptions in the research that have impacted on your opportunity to gain merit as a researcher.
Merits and awards
- Docentship/associate professorship
- Persons you have supervised (postdoctoral and doctoral students; state the number of persons in each category and list the names of the maximum 10 most relevant)
- Relevant grants you have received in competition (list maximum 10)
- Your most relevant prizes and awards (list maximum 10)
- Any other merits of relevance to the application, such as lecture invitations, leadership positions, positions of trust, membership of scientific organisations and similar.
Intellectual property rights
For example, patents and open access computer programs developed by you; state up to 10 of your most relevant.
How your application is assessed
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
Applications for grant for research time in a clinical environment are evaluated in a two-stage procedure. First, a regular subject-oriented review panel with Swedish and international members reviews your application. At least four members review and grade your application individually. If extra competence is needed, your application might also be evaluated by an additional, external, reviewer. The entire review panel (not including any external reviewers) then meets to discuss and prioritise the applications.
Based on their scientific assessment the panel nominates a limited number of applications to the second stage. In this stage an overarching panel makes the joint recommendation for all nominated applications for a decision by the Scientific Council for Medicine and Health.
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 panel’s 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 joint assessment of the scientific quality of the application.
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 general, the scientific quality of the project receives a greater focus when evaluating project grant applications. The criteria are assessed on a seven-grade scale, except for feasibility, which is assessed 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:
- Is the research proposal relevant for medical research?
- Is the definition of the problems and proposed solutions clear and compelling?
- Do the study design, research questions and hypotheses meet the standard of the highest scientific quality?
- Are the hypotheses clearly defined and based on the appropriate literature and/or preliminary data?
- Are potential problems and alternative strategies identified and presented?
- Are methods, including data analysis and statistics, appropriate for the project and well described?
- Are the ethical considerations for the proposed project described and addressed properly? Does the applicant adequately consider risk/value/suffering for humans, animals, nature and/or society?
- If sex and gender is described as relevant to the research project, has the applicant considered sex and gender in the description of the proposed work, for instance as part of preliminary data, the choice of samples or study population, or data analyses?
Novelty and originality (1–7)
Guiding questions:
- Does the project extend or challenge current understanding, opinion or practice in its field?
- Is the project built on a unique combination of ideas, preliminary data, and different methodologies to create novel approaches to address the question at hand?
- Is there potential for creation of new knowledge, novel technologies, or new directions for research and advancement of the field?
- Will completion of the aims improve scientific knowledge, technical capability, and/or clinical practice?
- Does the researcher propose a line of research that has the potential to significantly advance current knowledge in the field or is he/she simply adding details to existing knowledge?
Merits of the applicant (1–7)
Guiding questions:
- Does the applicant have sufficient research experience, expertise, level of independence and scientific network for implementation of the proposed project?
- How do the applicant’s academic qualifications and achievements relate to his or her career age?
- Does the applicant have a documented independent line of investigation?
- Does the publication record suggest a coherent line of investigation? Does the applicant report publications as senior author? Focus is on the most relevant and important publications and reports, with emphasis on quality rather than quantity.
- To what extent has the applicant previously demonstrated that he or she can successfully execute a research project?
Feasibility (1–3)
Guiding questions:
- Considering the project as a whole, including participating researchers, does the applicant or project group have sufficient competence for completion of the project?
- Is the project leader’s level of activity within the project sufficient with regard to the proposed research plan?
- Is the general design, including the time-frame, realistic for implementing the proposed project?
- Are the materials, methods (including statistics and/or power calculations), experimental models, and when appropriate patient/study cohorts adequate and well adapted to the hypothesis or research question?
- Does the applicant adequately consider relevant legal and formal requirements for the proposed research, such as ethical permits and guidelines?
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 precision medicine
These questions are meant to aid the discussions at the panel meeting. There is no grade for the relevance. Instead the panel should decide (Yes or No) if ranked applications, where the applicant has checked a box for precision medicine, do indeed belong to this subfocus area. Please note that a majority of the questions should be met to warrant a Yes.
Guiding questions:
- Does the research have potential to lead to more individually adapted health care and medical care?
- Is the research closely linked to an application?