Below is advance information to facilitate planning ahead of making an application. The full call text will be published when the call opens.
Upcoming call
07 January - 24 February 2026
Grant for centre of excellence
The purpose of the grant is to support the build-up and development of environments that promote research collaboration on a joint theme and contribute to higher education. The call is open for applications relating to pioneering and multi-disciplinary issues in all scientific disciplines. The initiative is based on a Government mandate. The Swedish Research Council’s funding of centres of excellence shall contribute to Swedish research remaining leading internationally and shall enable new research fields to emerge.
Subject area: Humanities and Social Sciences, Artistic Research, Medicine and Health, Natural and Engineering Sciences, Educational Sciences
Support form: Operational support
Grant form: Operating grant for research coordination and institutes
Focus: Undirected within areas listed above. See focus below.
Applicant: Individual researcher. The applicant for a grant for a centre of excellence shall be an individual researcher together with their organisation (Swedish HEI or another Swedish organisation that fulfils our requirements for administrating organisations for grants from the Swedish Research CouncilOpens in new window.). We must have approved your organisation as an administrating organisation for you to apply.
Participating researchers: Minimum 2 and maximum 4 other researchers shall be invited to join the application. These must also be employed and active at a Swedish organisation that fulfils the requirements and has been approved by us as an administrating organisation for our grants.
Grant period: 5 years
Grant amount: 8 million SEK per year
Budgetary framework: Approximately 10 grants will be awarded.
Start of grant period: January 2027
Application period: 7 January 2026 (14.00/2 p.m.) – 24 February 2026 (14.00/2 pm)
Publication of grant award: No later than the end of November 2026
Other requirements for applicants
Focus
The Swedish Research Council’s funding of centres of excellence shall contribute to Swedish research remaining leading internationally and shall enable new research fields to emerge.
The centre shall be based on a central theme, or a central issue, to be defined by the applicant.
A centre for research and teaching activities shall be built up around this theme. An overarching goal for the centre shall be to contribute to developing new, cross-disciplinary/multi-disciplinary research fields, and pioneering research approaches within these.
The centre shall offer programme activities within the overarching thematic area, and shall be designed so that it creates preconditions for researchers from different established research disciplines to participate during shorter or longer periods.
In addition to the programme activities, the centres shall also cover one or several of the following components:
- International visiting researchers
- Graduate schools
- New recruitment of well-qualified junior researchers (up to 7 years after award of doctoral degree) in international competition.
The centres shall also be active within higher education (second and third cycle education), and shall actively communicate with/involve the surrounding society in their activities.
Guide for applicants
We recommend that you read our Guide for applicants before the call opens.
Excellenscenter