Grant for competence programme in clinical therapy research

Application procedure

For a person to access the call and start the application process, they must be authorised to create organisation applications on the organisation’s Prisma account, please refer to Prisma’s User manual for applying in calls for organisations. External link. If they will not be the project leader and responsible for completing the application, they must invite the project leader 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 competence programme

To get a grant from the Swedish Research Council, the competence programme must fulfil the following general requirements.

The competence programme shall

• be linked to an HEI or a region that has the main and coordinating responsibility
• be run in collaboration by at least three HEIs and/or regions (one main applicant and at least two participating organisations)
• have a clear organisation and leadership, responsible for quality assurance of the training plan, in collaboration between the collaborating organisations
• have its main focus on the planning, implementation, and reporting of randomised clinical trials, although complementary modules on other types of clinical studies may be included
• have a structured and coherent training plan (including examination components) with joint courses and seminars of high scientific and pedagogical quality, which must be nationally accessible
• include a training plan based on an annual programme that can be funded for up to three years, meaning three cohorts of participants
• target programme participants who are researchers with a doctoral degree holders employed within a region and/or higher education institution in Sweden
• examine the participants, who are also expected to be certified in Good Clinical Practice (GCP).

Focus

The initiative for the competence programme aims to strengthen the skills of researchers with a doctoral degree who wish to conduct randomised clinical trials, and may be applied for by a Swedish HEI or a Swedish region). The programme must have a national scope and offer training relevant to researchers with a doctoral degree employed within a region or at a higher HEI in Sweden. The objective is to disseminate and increase knowledge on how to conduct high‑quality randomised clinical trials, including for example regulatory frameworks and permit applications, public and patient involvement, statistical analysis, patient recruitment, project management, and Good Clinical Practice (GCP according to ICH).

Participants in the programme must be doctoral degree holders who, after completing the programme, should be well acquainted with all steps involved in planning, conducting, and reporting randomised clinical trials. This also includes all components of permit applications, applications for funding of clinical studies within treatment research, and knowledge of the support resources available at regional and national level for conducting randomised clinical trials and studies.

The competence programme is expected to stimulate more researchers to successfully plan, design, and conduct randomised clinical trials, both those initiated academically and those carried out in collaboration with industry.

Applicant

The applicant for the grant must be a Swedish HEI or a Swedish region that has been approved as an administrating organisation for grants from the Swedish Research Council. The HEI/region shall coordinate the competence programme, and shall also be responsible for activity reporting and for scientific and financial final reporting of grants awarded. The competence programme shall be operated by no less than three HEIs/regions in cooperation (one applicant and at least two participating HEIs/regions.

The application shall include a named researcher (project leader) who shall be responsible for the competence programme. The project leader 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 project leader does not have to be employed at the time of applying.

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/region may submit or participate in.

Participating researchers

At least one representative of each HEI/region participating in the competence programme in addition to the applying HEI/region 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 carrying out the activities within the competence programme.

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

Costs and grant amounts

The grant may be used to fund costs related to establishing a competence programme, such as salary for the project leader’s work, lecturers’ fees, costs for venues and course materials, as well as travel and accommodation for programme participants and lecturers. The funding may not be used for salaries for participants in the programme, for research-related expenses, or for scholarships.

You may apply for a maximum of 3 000 000 SEK per year, including indirect costs. The minimum amount you can apply for is 400 000 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.

Grant period

You may apply for a grant to cover a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 3 years, starting from January 2027.

The first payment will be made during January 2027 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 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:

• the content of the competence programme
• the organisation planned
• plan for implementation and examination

The text shall provide an overview of the purpose and implementation of the competence programme. Please use wording to ensure that 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 competence 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.

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.

Programme description

Programme plan

The programme plan shall consist of a brief but complete description of how the competence programme will be carried out. 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 may be provided either throughout or at the end of the programme. All sources must be provided with complete information; links alone are not sufficient.

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

• Educational plan. Describe the programme’s planned educational activities and duration, as well as how courses, content, and the competence of the teaching staff are quality‑assured. Provide an account of the programme’s examination components and the certificates that participants will receive. Also describe how many cohorts and how many participants per cohort will take part in the programme, which should also be reflected in the budget.

• Organisation. Describe in detail how the programme will be organised and administered (course offerings, seminars, course development, coordination, study follow-up, division of responsibilities between teachers, examiners, and course providers). Describe the other key competencies within the organisation (for example study coordinator, statistician, data manager, quality reviewer/monitor, public representative) as well as their previous experience with randomised clinical trials and clinical studies. Provide an account of the formal qualifications regarding regulatory frameworks (GCP, GDPR, and others).

• National coordination. Describe how collaboration between the participating organisations is carried out and how they contribute to the programme and its content.

• Plan for the recruitment of program participants. Describe the recruitment base and how programme participants will be attracted to take part in the programme. Explain how national recruitment will be enabled and how participants will be admitted to the programme.

Description of merits

Describe how the merits you state in the project leader’s CV and list of publications and other research outputs confirm their competence as project leader and scientifically 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 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 competence as project leader and scientifically responsible for implementing the proposed activities. For each publication, please state how the researcher contributed to it, and its relevance to the competence programme described (maximum 4 lines per publication). Highlight the researcher’s name in bold in the author list.

2. Relevant peer-reviewed research outputs from 2018-2026

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 2018-2026

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 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 competence programme, that is, the project leader, participating researchers responsible for participation in the competence programme at other HEIs/regions and other personnel.

Please also state the salary you are applying for, for the project leader or other personnel active within the competence programme, 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 costs for the programme participants’ travel and accommodation. Please state annual amounts in Swedish krona, rounded to the nearest 1 000 SEK.

Total cost of competence programme

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) can also add any additional costs that the competence programme entails (and for which funding is not being requested for 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 competence programme 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 site of the competence programme.

Participants

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

CV

Under this tab, the project leader shall upload the relevant CV information from their personal account in Prisma. The information/merits shall confirm the project leader’s competence as project leader and scientifically 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 your 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, including experience in leading, planning, and conducting randomised clinical trials and clinical studies, as well as the researcher’s teaching experience. Invitations to lecture, leader assignments, representative assignments, membership of scientific associations and similar may also be listed here.

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

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 Grant for competence programme in clinical therapy research 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 clinical therapy research.

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 an additional criterion Relevance on a two-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)

• Does the proposed educational content, in terms of courses, seminars and other activities, support high scientific quality, both methodologically and theoretically?
• Does the structure of the educational content ensure high pedagogical quality in the program?
• Does the plan reflect that the competence program is a collaborative effort between the participating institutions?
• Is the examination of the program participants relevant and properly described?

Novelty and originality (1-7)

• To what extent will the programme be delivered using innovative and original pedagogical approaches that support multidisciplinary learning and contribute to an effective learning environment?
• Does the competence programme support relevant, advanced, and novel forms of clinical study designs, methodology, collaborations and public and patient involvement?

Merits of the applicant (1-7)

• Do the project leader, the participating researchers and teachers have previous experience conducting similar educational activities?
• Are the project leader and the participating researchers experienced in planning, implementation and reporting randomised clinical studies?
• Are the project leader and participating researchers highly merited within their respective fields?
• How do the joint merits and competences in randomised clinical studies and in teaching contribute to high quality in the competence programme?
• How does the competence in planning, implementation and reporting of randomised clinical studies at the participating institutions complement each other in terms of relevance and expertise?

Feasibility (1-3)

• In what way does the organisation and management of the competence programme ensure quality in implementation?
• What are the respective roles and contributions of the participating organisations in the implementation and delivery of the competence programme?
• How is access to staff, infrastructure and other necessary resources for the competence program with the anticipated number of program participants ensured?
• Is the budget realistic in relation to the objectives, content and organisation of the competence programme?

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 (1-2)

The criterion relevance is related to the aims of the call. The aims for this grant are to arrange education for researchers with a doctorate with the purpose of strengthening the knowledge of the implementation of randomised clinical trials.

The criterion is not included in the overall grade. Instead, it is to be weighed into an application’s ranking in relation to other applications.

• Is the focus of the competence programme in line with the purpose and focus of the call?