We are announcing grants for recruiting researchers from outside Europe in 2026 as well

Since April this year, Swedish higher education institutions have been able to apply for grants from us to strengthen a research area by recruiting a prominent researcher who is currently employed in a country outside Europe.

The call for applications has been processed on a rolling basis, which means that decisions on funding have been made as applications have been received. The call closes on 1 December. However, a new call is tentatively scheduled to open on 11 February next year.

The Swedish Research Council has decided to allocate funds for a new call with the same focus as this year's the reason being the continue need, says Teresa Ottinger, head of the Swedish Research Council's Grant Application Unit and responsible for the call.

“The call has been well received by both universities and individual researchers, and we believe that the need remains, not least because of what is happening in the world around us. This call is an opportunity for the Swedish Research Council to contribute to research and Sweden with relatively small funds.

The grant of two million SEK is to be used for the costs of recruiting to Sweden, including salary for one year of full-time employment.

“It is not a formal requirement that the higher education institution employs the researcher after the 12-month grant period, but our hope is that the researchers will establish themselves in Sweden in the long term,” says Teresa Ottinger.

As in the current year, applications will be processed on a rolling basis until the closing date of 1 December 2026.

“This is the first time we have used a rolling call, and it has worked very well for this type of initiative, with relatively few expected applications and a great need for quick decisions. It is likely that rolling calls and processing will be used for more initiative in the future.

In 2026, the Swedish Research Council will allocate 30 million for the call, which means 15 recruitments. An additional call with a corresponding budget is also planned for 2027.

Outcome of the 2025 call

With just over a week left of the almost eight-month application period, 39 applications have been processed so far, of which 11 have been granted funding. To date, Stockholm University has submitted the most applications, followed by the universities of Lund and Uppsala and Karolinska Institutet. However, two decision dates remain for the remaining applications submitted to the call.

The vast majority of applications have concerned researchers working at American universities, and the same applies to those that have been approved. More applications have concerned men than women, and a larger proportion of those concerning men have been approved.

A comparatively large number of applications have concerned researchers conducting peace and conflict research, democracy research, various aspects of climate research, space research, research on gender and/or sexual minorities, and research on culture and cultural heritage, religion, biotechnology and cancer.

Grant for recruiting international visiting researchers to Sweden 2026