Doctoral programme grant for teacher educators

Application procedure

In order for a person to access the call and start the application process, they have to be authorised to create organisation applications on the organisation’s Prisma account. If this is not the same person who will be the project leader and responsible for completing the application, the project leader must be invited to the application once the process has been started (see under the heading “Applicant” below, and under the tab “Participants” in the application form).

Requirements for applicants

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

Framework for the graduate school

The Swedish Research Council invites Swedish higher education institutions (HEIs) to apply for funding for national graduate schools in educational sciences.

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

The doctoral programme shall

• be linked to an HEI with main and coordinating responsibility
• be operated by a minimum of two Swedish HEIs in cooperation
• be linked to teacher education at the participating HEIs
• be close to well-functioning research environment/s with international connections
• offer a structured range of programmes, with joint courses and seminars of high scientific and educational quality, which have to be available nationally and preferably internationally
• have a clear organisation and leadership, including a board or governing body with overarching responsibility for quality assurance of the graduate school’s activities in collaboration with the participating departments
• cover a minimum of 9 doctoral students who shall be employed within teacher training at a Swedish HEI during the period of study. They do not have to be employed by the administrating organisation at the time of applying.
• have a sufficient national supply of doctoral students
• have a plan for internationalisation of doctoral education.

The graduate school may

• be operated at 80 per cent of full-time, if the doctoral students teach within the teacher education programmes during the remaining 20 per cent
• include doctoral students with other funding.

Focus

The grant aims to strengthen the research connection in teacher training, and grants may be applied for graduate schools focusing on subjects or themes relevant for the various focuses of teacher training and teachers’ professional work.

Applicant

The applicant for the grant must be a Swedish higher education institution (HEI) that has been approved as an administrating organisation for grants from the Swedish Research Council. The HEI shall coordinate the national graduate school, and shall also be responsible for activity reporting and for scientific and financial final reporting of grants awarded. The graduate school shall be operated by no less than two HEIs in cooperation.

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

Number of applications and previous grants

General information about overlaps between applications and grants

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

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

Participating researchers

In addition to the applying HEI, a representative of each HEI participating in the doctoral programme shall be included as a participating researcher in the application. The participating researchers shall be researchers with a doctoral degree or corresponding competence (not doctoral students), whose scientific competence will be crucial for implementing the proposed doctoral programmes activities.

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

It is a requirement for the application to include at least one additional participating HEI and therefore at least one participating researcher.

Costs and grant amounts

Grants may be used to fund the costs of implementing a national doctoral programme, including salaries to doctoral students. Grants must not be used for scholarships.

The application may cover a maximum of 10 500 000 SEK per year for 4 years, or maximum 8 400 000 SEK per year for 5 years.

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

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

Grant period

You may apply for a grant for 4 or 5 years, starting in January 2026. The first payment will be made no earlier than December 2025.

The coordinating HEI shall submit a report to the Swedish Research Council no later than 30 September 2026, stating how the graduate school has developed and the result of the admission of doctoral students to the graduate school. If the results do not correspond to the preconditions that the grant was awarded on, the grant amounts for the following 3 to 4 years of the grant period may be reviewed.

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 contents of the application. More information on what to do in practical terms is available in our Guide for applicants.

You may write your application in English or Swedish. The popular science description must always be written in Swedish.

The information we request under each tab in the application form is described below.

Descriptive information

Abstract

The abstract shall include a brief description of the following:

• the focus of the doctoral programme
• the organisation planned
• the significance to the research area

The text shall provide an overview of the purpose and implementation of the doctoral programme. Please use wording to ensure persons with another subject specialisation can understand the information.

The description may cover a maximum of 1 500 characters including blank spaces. This is approximately one third of an A4 page in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing.

Popular science description

Describe the activities of the doctoral programme in such a way that a person who is not familiar with the subject can understand it. Describe what is to be done, and why. Explain also in what way the graduate school will support research in educational sciences.

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.

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 only used for follow-up purposes. A summary of all the areas and themes is available here .

Research description

Research programme

The research programme shall consist of a brief but complete description of how the graduate school will be designed. It shall cover a maximum of 10 page-numbered A4 pages in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing and 2.5 cm margins, including references and any images. References shall be stated with detailed information of the source; links alone are not sufficient.

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

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

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

• Equipment: Describe the basic equipment relevant to the programme that the graduate school has at its disposal.
• Need for research infrastructure: Specify the graduate school’s need for international and national research infrastructure. The Swedish Research Council funds research infrastructures that are open to all. If you choose to use other infrastructure you must justify this (also applies to local research infrastructure).

Description of merits

Describe how the merits you state in the project leader’s/coordinator’s 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 project leader’s/coordinator’s publications and other research outputs

Please attach the publication list drawn up according to the headings and information below. The list shall cover a maximum of 5 page-numbered A4 pages in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing and 2.5 cm margins.

Sort the 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. The application cannot be supplemented with publications 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 the project leader’s/coordinator’s competence as project leader and [scientifically] responsible for implementing the proposed research activities. For each publication, please state how the researcher contributed to it, and its relevance to the graduate school described (maximum 4 lines per publication). Highlight the researcher’s name in bold in the author list.

2. Relevant peer-reviewed research outputs from 2017–2025

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 the researcher’s 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 2017-2025

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 the researcher’s name highlighted in bold in the author list/corresponding under 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

Attach all the participating researchers’ lists, merged 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

• 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

Personnel

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

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

Other costs

Describe any other costs 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 operation, provided that

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

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

Total cost of the graduate school

Prisma will automatically add up your budget items listed in a table. The total amount applied for shall also include indirect costs. These shall be added to the table by the applicant (project leader). Here, the applicant (project leader) shall also add any other costs that the graduate school entails (for which you are not seeking under under this call).

Justification of the budget applied for

Justify briefly each cost applied for in the budget stated. The description may cover a maximum of 4 000 characters including blank spaces. This is approximately one A4 page in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing.

Other funding

Please state any other funding of the project over and above what is applied for in this application. Please state the amounts in Swedish krona, rounded to the nearest 1 000 SEK.

Administrating organisation

Please state the location of the doctoral programme.

Participants

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

CV

Under this tab, the project leader/coordinator shall upload the relevant CV information from their personal account in Prisma. The information/merits shall confirm the project leader’s/coordinator’s competence as project leader and scientifically responsible for implementing the proposed research activities. Participating researchers must upload their own CV information to the application.

The following information, where available, must always be included in each CV, taking into account the stated limitation in numbers:

Education

First, second and third cycle higher education and specialist degrees.

Work

• Current employment (including information on employment format)
• Longer relevant employment
• Post-doctoral visits (state also as employment 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 invitations to lecture, leader assignments, representative assignments, membership of scientific associations 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 the Doctoral programme grant for teacher educators is evaluated by a review panel where the members are 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 panel

To allow for more in-depth discussions of applications with higher quality and a reasonable chance of being funded, a procedure of sifting may be applied if the number of applications is high. If this is the case, not all applications are discussed in detail at the review panel’s meeting. The applications that are not discussed thoroughly are those that the panel members during their individual review have assessed having the lowest quality among the panel’s applications.

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.

Here you will find a more comprehensive description of the Swedish Research Council's assessment of applications.

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.

In addition to the basic criteria, your application is also evaluated using two additional criteria (Research Environment and Internationalisation) on a 7-grade scale and the additional criterion Relevance for the Call on a 3-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)

• To what extent do the goals, contents, and organisation of the graduate school contribute scientific added value to third cycle higher education within the field in question?
• To what extent does the educational offer, with joint courses, seminars, and supervision, support a high level of scientific theoretical and methodological quality in the third cycle higher education?
• To what extent does the graduate school contribute to developing the doctoral students’ basic scientific competence?
• To what extent does the organisation of the graduate school and the structure of the educational offering ensure high educational quality in the teaching and supervision?
• Are the ethical considerations for the proposed project correctly described and taken care of? Does the applicant pay sufficient attention to risk/value/suffering to humans, animals, nature, and/or society?
• How are issues relating to sex and gender dimensions justified and handled in the application?

Novelty and originality (1–7)

• In what way does the organisation and structure of the graduate school contribute to novelty in relation to third cycle higher education for the teacher education programme?
• What aspects of the goals, contents, and organisation of the graduate school contribute to strengthening the originality and developing novelty in the doctoral students’ scientific work?

Merits of the applicant (1–7)

• What experience do the project managers and participating researchers have of leading and conducting third cycle higher education?
• Do both the applicant and the participating researchers have good merits within their respective areas?
• How does the overall competence contribute to high quality in the third cycle higher education?

Feasibility (1–3)

• In what way does the organisation and leadership of the graduate school safeguard quality in the implementation?
• How do each of the participating departments contribute to the graduate school?
• How is the competence of supervisors safeguarded in the graduate school, at higher education institution level and in the consortium?
• In what way has the applicant shown that there is a sufficient national supply of potential doctoral students?
• How is access to personnel, infrastructure, and other necessary resources safeguarded?
• Is the budget of the graduate school realistic in relation to its goals, contents, and organisation?

Research environment (1–7)

• Is the focus of the graduate school based on relevant and up-to-date research of high quality?
• How do the research and the researchers at the participating higher education institutions complement each other in terms of relevant and up-to-date research of high quality?
• How is the doctoral students’ participation in suitable research environments at the participating higher education institutions safeguarded?

Internationalisation (1–7)

• How do the participating higher education institutions’ international collaborations contribute to anchoring the third-cycle higher education in well-reputed international research within the field in question?
• How can the graduate school contribute to building up international networks for the doctoral students?

Relevance for the call (1–3)

• Does the focus of the graduate school agree with the call?
• Can the graduate school contribute to the development of new knowledge relevant to the needs of the teacher education programme?
• How does the graduate school contribute to building up the research connection of teacher education at the participating higher education institutions?

Overall grade (1–7)

The subsidiary grades shall be weighed together into an overall grade according to the following principles:

The various subsidiary criteria shall be weighed together into an overall grade according to the seven-degree 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’ merits can only in exceptional circumstances balance out weaknesses in scientific quality when weighed together, and in such a case only minor weaknesses.

A prerequisite for being awarded a grant within educational sciences is that the proposal is feasible, and that the applicant has solid and relevant competence for the purpose.