Doctoral programme grant within polar research

Application procedure

For a person to access the call and start the application process, that person needs 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 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

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 general requirements of

• being linked to an HEI with main and coordinating responsibility
• being operated by at least 2 Swedish HEIs in cooperation. International collaboration is possible for exampe with foreign graduate schools with other funding.
• being close to well-functioning research environment/s with international connections
• create a structured range of programmes, with joint courses and seminars of high scientific and educational quality, which must be available nationally and preferably internationally
• having 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
• including a minimum of 9 doctoral students from the applying or participating HEIs. They do not need to be employed by the HEI at the time of applying.

A precondition for an application to be awarded a grant is that the doctoral programme is relevant for strengthening competence within Swedish polar research.

Applicant

The applicant must be a Swedish higher education institution (HEI) with degree-awarding powers at third cycle higher education level, 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 final scientific and financial reporting of grants awarded. The graduate school shall be operated by no less than two HEIs in cooperation.

The application shall include a named researcher (project leader) who shall be the coordinator of the graduate school responsible for coordination and follow-up 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 for the grant. 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

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

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

It is a requirement that the application includes at least one additional participating HEI, and thereby at least one participating researcher.

Costs and grant amounts

Grants may be applied for to cover costs related to the graduate school, such as coordination (including salary for the coordinator), doctoral student salaries, and courses. The grant may not be used to cover research expenses or scholarships.

The application may cover a maximum of 10 000 000 SEK per year, including indirect costs. The minimum amount to apply for is 1 000 000 SEK per year.

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 exceeding the awarded grant.

Grant period

The grant period is 4 years, starting from January 2026. The first payment will be made during December 2025 at the earliest.

The coordinating HEI shall submit a report to the Swedish Research Council no later than 28 February 2027, 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 based on, the grant amounts for the last one to two years 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.

International experts are involved in the scientific evaluation of the applications. To ensure fair and equitable assessment and efficient processing, please therefore complete the application in English, except the popular science description, which must be 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:

• focus of the graduate school
• planned organisation
• significance to the research field.

The text shall provide an overview of the purpose and implementation of the graduate school. 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 graduate school 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. Please also explain how the research school will contribute to strengthening research competence in polar research.

The popular science description is important when we inform about the research funded by the Swedish Research Council.

The text must be in Swedish and cover a maximum of 2 000 characters including blank spaces. This is approximately half an A4 page in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing.

Research description

Ethical considerations

Reflect on the ethical issues that may arise and describe these. Discuss how any ethical dilemmas will be handled. Please justify why the activities should be carried out against the background of the ethical issues you have identified. 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.

Research programme

The research programme shall consist of a brief but complete description of how the graduate school will be designed. 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. 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 graduate school.
• Research environment. Describe the research environment/s supporting the graduate school. 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 graduate school and describe the recruitment basis.
• Organisation. Describe in detail how the graduate school 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 dimensions of the graduate school in terms of number of doctoral students.
• Significance. Describe the graduate school's contribution to increasing competence and capacity within Swedish polar research.
• National coordination. Describe the Swedish HEIs that are participating in the operation of the graduate 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 international research environments and/or other graduate schools.

Report the following under separate headings if relevant to the 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. Any need to use infrastructures other than these shall be justified (also applies to local research infrastructure).

Description of merits

Describe how the merits stated in the project leader’s/coordinator’s CV and list of publications and other research outputs confirm their competence as project leader and responsible for implementing the proposed 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 responsible for implementing the proposed 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 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 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 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 graduate school, that is, the project leader/coordinator, other researchers responsible for participation in the graduate school at other HEIs, doctoral students and other personnel.

Please also state the salary applied 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.

Depreciation costs for equipment to be used in the operation may be included, 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.

Only the proportion of depreciation costs that corresponds to the use of the equipment in the proposed operation may be included. Depreciation costs for equipment that is fully financed through other grants may not be included.

Total cost of the graduate school

Prisma will automatically summarise the stated budget items 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) can also add any additional costs that the graduate school entails (for which funding is not applied for under this call).

Justification of the budget applied for

Briefly justify each cost applied for in the stated 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 specify any additional funding for the graduate school beyond what is requested in this application. State the amount in Swedish krona, rounded to the nearest 1 000 SEK.

Administrating organisation

Please state the location of the graduate school.

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 responsible for implementing the proposed activities. Participating researchers must upload their own CV information to the application.

The following information, where available, must always be included in the respective CV, according to 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 the opportunity to gain merit as a researcher.

Merits and awards

• Docentship/associate professorship
• Persons 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 received in competition (list maximum 10)
• The 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; state up to 10 of the most relevant.

How your application is assessed

Evaluation process

Your application for Doctoral Programme grant into Polar Research 2025 (Vetenskapsrådet) is evaluated by a review panel where the members are international researchers.

At least three members will 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 Scientific Council for Natural and Engineering Sciences.

Review panel

Following the grant decision your application will receive an individual final statement containing the grades and a summary of the review panel’s discussion and 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), both on a seven-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:

• To what extent do the objectives, content, and organisation of the graduate school add scientific value to the third-cycle education within the specified research field(s)?
• How does the proposed educational content, in terms of courses, seminars and other activities, support high scientific quality, methodologically and theoretically?
• Does the model for the third cycle education, and the structure of the educational offer, secure a high level of educational quality in the teaching and supervision?
• To what extent does the graduate school contribute to developing the doctoral students’ broad scientific competence within the research field?
• In what way and to what extent does the proposed education increase the competence and capacity for Swedish polar research?

Novelty and originality (1–7)

Guiding questions:

• To what extent does the graduate school contribute to new forms of interdisciplinary and/or multidisciplinary collaboration and national participation in Swedish polar research?
• To what extent do the objectives, content and organisation of the graduate school contribute to the strengthening of originality and the development of novel thinking along with openness to innovation in the scientific work and training of the graduate students?

Merits of the applicant (1–7)

Guiding questions:

• What experience do the project managers and participating researchers have of leading and conducting third cycle education?
• Do both the applicant and the participating researchers have excellent merits within their respective fields?
• To what extent does the combined competence of the applicant and co-applicants competence contribute to high quality in third cycle education?

Feasibility (1–3)

Guiding questions:

• In what way does the organisation and leadership of the graduate school safeguard quality in the implementation?
• How does each of the participating departments contribute to the graduate school?
• How is the competence of supervisors secured?
• Has the applicant shown that there is a sufficient supply of (potential) doctoral students?
• How is access to personnel, infrastructure and other necessary resources secured?
• Is the budget of the graduate school realistic in relation to its goals, contents and organisation?

Research environment (1–7)

Guiding questions:

• To what extent is the focus of the graduate school based on relevant and up-to-date research of high quality?
• To what extent does the research at the participating HEIs 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 HEIs secured?
• Does the plan and budget reflect that the graduate school is a collaborative effort between the participating institutions?

Internationalisation (1–7)

Guiding questions:

• To what extent do the participating HEIs’ international collaborations contribute to anchoring the third cycle education in well-established international research within the field in question?
• How can the graduate school contribute to building up international networks for the doctoral students?

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.

The overall grade is not the same as an average grade or a summary of the subsidiary evaluations; instead, it shall reflect the scientific quality of the application as a whole.