Closed call
06 March - 09 April 2024
Research project grant within educational sciences
The purpose of the project grant is to give researchers the freedom to formulate by themselves the research concept, method and implementation, and to solve a specific research task within a limited period.
Subject area: Educational Sciences
Support form: Project support
Grant form: Research project grant
Focus: Undirected within educational sciences
Applicant: Individual researcher
Participating researchers: Up to 6 other researchers may be invited to join the application
Grant period: 1-4 years
Grant amount: Minimum 400 000 SEK per year, maximum 1 500 000 SEK per year
Start of grant period: January 2025
Application period: 6 March 2024 (14.00/2 p.m.) – 9 April 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.
- To enable the implementation and merits to be assessed, the competence to be contributed by any doctoral students to the project should be stated in the research plan and/or the justification of the budget.
- 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 15.00/3 p.m. while the call is open.
Calls educational sciences
Requirements for applicants
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 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). 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 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 issue date of the degree registered in Ladok applies.
You shall be the project leader and have scientific responsibility for the research activities described. 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 do not have to be employed by the administrating organisation at the time of applying, but you must be employed at the start of and throughout the grant period and any further availability period. The employment must cover be no less than 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 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 cannot simultaneously apply for our undirected project grants within humanities and social sciences, medicine and health or natural and engineering sciences. On the other hand, you may apply for project grants with other focuses (in 2024, Civil society, Viral zoonoses, or Artistic research for example) but for a different project concept.
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 in on the page Several grants simultaneously. Please note that if you are the project leader for an ongoing project grant, this must have a different focus (not undirected within humanities and social sciences, medicine and health or natural and engineering sciences, or educational sciences) and relate to a different project concept for you to be able to apply.
If you are the project leader for an ongoing research environment grant, you may submit an application under this call, provided that the project grant application is not part of the research environment grant.
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 include up to 6 participating researchers in your application. Participating researchers are other researchers with a doctoral degree or equivalent competence (not doctoral students) whose scientific competence will be crucial for the implementation of the planned research. They do not have to be employed by a Swedish HEI.
Participating researchers shall provide the necessary information themselves in Prisma, and upload these to the application. Any doctoral students and other collaboration partners and their roles shall be described in the research plan (please see instructions under “Research plan” below).
Costs and grant amounts
You can apply for a grant for 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 must not be paid out as salary during teaching or other departmental duties.
The minimum amount you may apply for is 400 000 SEK per year, including indirect costs. The maximum amount you may apply for is 1 500 000 SEK per year.
Grant period
You may apply for a grant to cover a minimum of 1 year and a maximum of 4 years, starting from January 2025.
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.
We prefer that you complete your application in English, but you may also use Swedish. However, the popular science description should always be written 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 with the grant you are now applying for
- there are applications or grants relating to the same project concept/purpose from 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.
Thematic classification
Educational sciences are divided up thematically into main areas. State the theme that best describes the focus of the project. Please note that the thematic division is used only for monitoring purposes. An overview of all areas and themes is available in the following document
Thematic division of the educational sciences Excel, 13.6 kB.
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 (men/women). 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 your decision here.
- If you answer “No”: Please justify your answer.
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 contributes further to 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 how you and any participating researchers will contribute to the implementation of 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. Describe and explain the competences and roles of the participating researchers in the project, and also other key persons (including any doctoral students) who are important for the implementation of the project.
Provide the following information also. If a heading is not relevant to your application, please state this under the heading.
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 therefore open to all, you must justify this (also applies to local research infrastructure).
International and national collaboration
Describe your own and the team’s collaboration with foreign and Swedish researchers and research teams. State whether you contribute to or refer to international collaboration in your research.
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
The applicant’s 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 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. 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.
Participating researchers’ publications and other research outputs
If you have any participating researchers, you shall attach their lists joined up into one file.
The list for each researcher shall include the 10 publications or other research outputs that are the most relevant for the implementation of the research activities 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.
The outputs may be of the following types and must be 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.
Peer-reviewed research outputs
- original articles
- conference contributions
- edited volumes
- research review articles
- books and book chapters
- artistic work
- other outputs
and
Non peer-reviewed research outputs
Budget and research resources
Project personnel
State the activity level (per cent of a full-time equivalent) of all personnel active in the project, that is, you, any other researchers, doctoral students and other personnel. Please also state the salary you are applying for, for yourself and/or other personnel in the project, 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 of the project (premises costs, running costs and depreciation costs). Please state the amounts in Swedish krona, rounded to the nearest 1 000 SEK.
You may include depreciation costs for equipment to be used in the project, 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 satisfied through use of national or international infrastructure supported by the Swedish Research Council and thereby open to all.
You may only include the proportion of depreciation costs that corresponds to the use of the equipment in the proposed project, and you may not include depreciation costs for equipment that is wholly funded by other grants. Please contact your administrating organisation for information about what is included in local research infrastructure, acquisition values or how to calculate depreciation costs.
Total cost of the project
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 entails (for which you are not seeking funding under this call).
Indirect costs follow the model that your administrating organisation uses. Please contact your administrating organisation if you have any questions about what constitutes indirect and direct costs.
Justification of the budget applied for
Justify briefly every cost 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 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 propose the review panel or panels (in priority order) that you wish to carry out the scientific assessment of your application. If your application spans several areas, please select the review panel that best represents the primary scientific area of the application.
The final allocation of applications is determined by the Swedish Research Council.
List of review panels:
- UV-1: Social aspects of education
- UV-2: Learning and teaching
- UV-3: Education policy, education system and organisation of education
- UV-4: Subject didactics
Participants
Here you as applicant may invite any participating researchers and 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. Any 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)
- 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
Your application for research project grant within educational sciences is evaluated by a review panel where the members are Swedish and international researchers.
At least three 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 at a review panel meeting to discuss and prioritise the applications, and to make a proposal for a decision to the Committee for Educational Sciences.
Review panels:
- UV-1: Social aspects of education
- UV-2: Learning and teaching
- UV-3: Education policy, education system and organisation of education
- UV-4: Subject didactics
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. 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 project (1–7)
Guiding questions:
- To what extent is the proposed project clear, well-justified, and established on the national and international research frontier?
- To what level of quality are the research summary, problem definition, and design implemented/described?
- To what extent are the choices of theory, data/material, analysis method, infrastructure, equipment, and field work suitable for answering the questions?
- Are the ethical considerations for the proposed project properly described and addressed? Does the applicant adequately consider risk/value /suffering for humans, animals, nature and/or society?
- How are issues relating to sex and gender perspectives justified and handled in the research plan?
Novelty and originality (1–7)
Guiding questions:
- To what extent does the project have the potential to generate new fundamental questions, new knowledge, and new focuses for research?
- To what extent does the project show signs of innovative application of existing methods/techniques?
- To what extent does the project show signs of use of new techniques, methods, and ways of analysing data?
Merits of the applicant (1–7)
The assessment relates to both the project leader and the participating researchers who carry out the main scientific work. Merits are assessed in relation to the applicant’s career age and to the research task. The applicant’s merits in the application (publications and other outputs, and CV information) shall primarily confirm the competence to carry out the research described.
Guiding questions:
- Do the project leader and the participating researchers have the academic qualifications and merits to implement the proposed project?
- In what way is there relevant expertise within the project team to implement all parts of the project? Is there any other relevant expertise in the project team, over and above the project leader and the participating researchers?
- Publication merits – how do the most relevant and important publications relate to the project applied for?
Feasibility (1–3)
Guiding questions:
- Is the project practically and technically feasible? Is the time plan realistic?
- Does the project have access to personnel, infrastructure, and other necessary resources?
- Is the project budget realistic in relation to the project’s purpose and design?
- Does the applicant adequately consider relevant legal and formal requirements for the proposed research, such as ethical permits and guidelines?
Please note that it is important that the project budget in relation to the project’s purpose and design is weighed into the assessment of feasibility.
Overall grade (1–7)
The various subsidiary criteria shall be weighed together into an overall grade according to the seven-grade scale. In normal cases, the subsidiary criterion for scientific quality shall be allocated the greatest weight in the weighing. The subsidiary criteria novelty and originality or the applicants’ competence can only in exceptional circumstances balance out weaknesses in scientific quality when weighed together, and in such a case only minor weaknesses. It is a prerequisite for being awarded a grant in educational sciences that the proposal is relevant and feasible, and that the applicant has solid and relevant competence for the purpose.