Clinical research

Clinical studies

The Swedish Research Council supports and develops the prerequisites for clinical studies in Sweden. An important part of this work is Clinical Studies Sweden, in which Sweden's six collaboration/healthcare regions participate via designated regional nodes. By strengthening the preconditions for knowledge exchange, learning and the development of solutions to common challenges, the opportunities for conducting clinical studies effectively are improved, enabling more patients to participate, regardless of where they live in the country.

The nodes offer various types of support in the field of clinical studies. This can include issues related to study protocols, permit applications, data management, and statistics, as well as infrastructure for implementation and training in clinical research methodology. The nodes also have extensive knowledge about and can facilitate contact with relevant regional resources, such as research units, quality registry centers, biobanks, and cancer centers.

The Swedish Research Council processes and monitors funds, activities, and results related to the financial support received by the nodes within Clinical Studies Sweden, in the form of operational grants and national development initiatives.

The Swedish Research Council also works with statistics on clinical studies and maintains ongoing contacts with other authorities and organizations related to clinical studies, both nationally and internationally.

Statistics and information on clinical studies

The regions’ reporting of ALF payments (in Swedish) External link.

Bibliometric statistics for publications in clinical research (in Swedish) External link.

About the collaboration Clinical Studies Sweden and their work with statistics on clinical studies External link.

Infrastructure with links to clinical research

The Swedish Research Council works to improve accessibility to and facilitate the use of register and health data for, among other things, research purposes.

The Swedish Research Council helps to fund the Biobank Sweden biobank infrastructure External link.. The aim of Biobank Sweden is to make it easier for researchers to access biological samples and the data linked to those samples. The Swedish Research Council helps to fund a number of research infrastructures linked directly and indirectly to clinical research and life sciences.

Clinical therapy research

The Swedish Research Council funds clinical therapy studies together with Sweden's regions. We issue calls for funding for clinical therapy research every year. To be awarded funding, therapy studies must be based on needs in health and medical care. These studies are also expected to lead to benefits for patients and society within a relatively short period of time.

The Swedish Research Council's Committee for Clinical Therapy Research decides which applications will receive funding.

Medicine and Health

The Swedish Research Council also uses calls in the fields of health and medicine to fund clinical research other than research relating to therapy studies. Every year, we announce a number of grants for half-time researchers in a clinical environment Within the scope of special Government initiatives, we also issue calls for grant within healthcare research and research in the fields of psychiatry, ageing and health, and infection and antibiotics, for example (link to the call page.

The Swedish Research Council's Scientific Council for Medicine and Health decides which applications will receive funding.

ALF is an abbreviation for an agreement between national government and seven regions. This agreement regulates matters such as the amount of state funding received by the regions to help with the training of doctors, implementation of clinical research and development of health and medical care.

The Office for ALFat the Swedish Research Council provides administrative support to the national steering group for ALF and coordinates the Swedish Research Council's evaluations of clinical research in the regions covered by the ALF agreement.