Reduced maximum amount for educational sciences grants 2025

Those who apply for a project grant in educational sciences can, as from next year, apply for a maximum of 1.3 million SEK per year. This is a reduction of 200 000 SEK. The grant period continues to be 4 years, and the new maximum amount for a project grant will be 5.2 million SEK, instead of the previous 6 million SEK.

“The reason for the change is that we want to be able to fund more high-quality projects that currently cannot be funded, and increase the success rate from a troublingly low level of 9.6 per cent in 2024,” explains Pernilla Nilsson, Secretary General for Educational Sciences at the Swedish Research Council.

This year’s call received 312 applications for project grants. Only 30 of them could be awarded funding.

“Many applications for project grants are of very high quality, and with a slightly lower grant amount, more high-quality applications could have been awarded funding.”

The Government appropriation for educational sciences research via the Swedish Research Council has been unchanged for a long time, at the same time as the scientific field has developed strongly, with more researchers who conduct research of very high quality. This has led to an increased number of applications, and to a very low success rate.

“Too low a success rate risks challenging the legitimacy of the system, and affecting the development of the field in the long term. Although it is not nice to reduce the grant amount for project grants, it is a necessary measure to enable funding to be offered to more educational sciences researchers,” says Pernilla Nilsson.

The call for project grants in educational sciences opens on 26 February 2025.