An urgent grant application can be submitted for any scientific discipline; the humanities, natural sciences, social sciences and technological sciences, and may also include interdisciplinary approaches, when there is an urgent need to secure future access to data (such as research data or collecting samples) or other research material (such as interviews or participatory observations). The urgent need to secure access to data/research material must be based on a phenomenon or a recently identified situation that could not be anticipated in advance and will not occur again. Formas urgent grant is available annually.
Criteria for urgent grant applications
An application for an urgent grant can be submitted at any time during the year and is registered immediately when it is submitted to Formas in Prisma. The application must then be signed by the applicant and the grant administrating organisation within seven calendar days following submission of the application. Processing of an urgent grant application takes around 6-10 weeks. Decisions are made continuously throughout the year.
In the application the applicant must
- justify the urgent need to secure future access to data/research material
- justify how the project belongs to one or more of the responsibility areas of Formas; Environment, Agricultural Sciences and/or Spatial Planning
- describe the reasearch potential of the data/research material briefly
- explain the choice of research method and how collection of the data/research material will be carried out
- state the costs for securing the data/research material.
The project may be carried out for a maximum duration of one year.
What funding can be applied for?
- Costs to carry out collection of the data/research material: salary for scientists, doctoral students and technical staff, running costs including disposable items and travel, and additional costs.
- Costs for processing and analysis of data/research material to ensure that it will be able to be used in the future.
Urgent grants are not awarded to support participation at conferences or publication in magazines/journals.
Guidelines for funding amounts
The guidelines for funding amounts are related to the costs of performing the collection of the data/research material. The applicant should clearly specify the costs.
Who can apply?
The applicant must have a doctoral degree. Other staff members participating in the project do not need to have a doctoral degree. The grant administrator may only be a Swedish university, university college or official Swedish organisation that fulfils the Formas requirements for a grant administrator.
Evaluation of the application
Formas evaluates applications for urgent grants. Where relevant the application is also evaluated by external reviewers. Evaluation of straightforward cases can often be completed within six weeks, while applications that require external evaluation take longer to complete.
Criteria for evaluation of the application and basis for decisions about funding:
- The project must fulfil the urgent need to secure future access to data/research material.
- The project must belong to one or more of the responsibility areas of Formas; Environment, Agricultural Sciences and/or Spatial Planning.
- The project must fulfil the requirements of Formas for scientific quality and societal relevance.
Criteria for scientific quality: Research topic with regard to the urgent need. Method and implementation of securing the data/research material. Scientific competence of the project leader/project participants.
Criteria for societal relevance: The potential societal value of the research topic. Communication with stakeholders/users is not evaluated as this is not relevant to performing an urgent project.
Applications that do not sufficiently describe and substantiate the urgent research need, in accordance with the described focus and requirements of this call, will be rejected without further processing.
Granted funding
The decision cannot be appealed.
The Prisma application system
Applications for urgent grants are made in the application system Prisma. A personal account is needed to be able to create an application in Prisma.
The application must contain the following information:
Basic information
- State the months the application concerns. (Projects may take a maximum of 12 months. A project submitted in May 2018, for example, may have a maximum project completion date of end of April 2019.)
- Project title in Swedish and English.
- Popular science description in Swedish and English.
- Project summary in Swedish and English.
Both the popular science description and the project summary should clearly address the urgent need of the application, the objectives and relevance, as well as the method.
Project information
The urgent need, the responsibility areas of Formas and the relevance and objectives of the project
- The applicant must justify the urgent need to secure the data/research material. (Objective/relevance)
- The applicant must justify how the project belongs to one or more of the responsibility areas of Formas; Environment, Agricultural Sciences and/or Spatial Planning. (Objective/relevance)
- The applicant must briefly describe the scientific relevance. (Underlying research topics, references)
Project description includes work packages and time plan, materials and methods.
- The applicant must explain the research methods and the collection of the data/research material.
- The applicant must explain gender aspects and other critical perspectives.
Societal relevance
- Criteria for societal relevance: The potential societal value of the research topic.
Budget
- Salaries, including social-security contributions. For existing employment positions, the current salary at the time of application (including social-security contributions) must be used for each of the subsequent years. For new employment positions the starting salary at the grant administrating organisation must be used for each of the subsequent years. Note that Formas does not grant funding for annual salary increases.
- State the proportion of activity in the project for all participants, even for project participants who contribute with services in-kind or have other funding for performing the project.
- Specify running costs and costs for premises (if costs for premises are not included in OH-costs) according to the practice at the grant administrating organisation.
- Specify equipment depreciation costs if relevant for the application.
- State indirect costs directly in the project budget according to the practice of the grant administrating organisation. Indirect costs are considered to be overhead costs (OH-costs). Formas does not permit OH- costs to be included in equipment depreciation costs or costs for premises.
- Budget specification. Here a short motivation for all salary costs and other costs is required. A description of the total budget for the project, including funding from other sources, must also be described. The budget specification is part of the evaluation and should be written in English (a budget specification written in Swedish will not be translated to English).
- In the field “Other costs” funding from other sources should be indicated. Here funding that is not applied for from Formas but is of relevance for the project should be included.
- Note that in Prisma amounts should be written out in full, e.g. one million SEK is entered as “1 000 000 SEK”.
Ethical considerations
Animal and human trials are described when these are relevant to the implementation of the project. Read more in Formas general instructions External link..
Classifications
- Select a subject area.
- Select at least one, and at most three, SCB codes.
- Select at least one, and at most three, key word(s) to describe the project.
- Select at least one, and at most three, of the 17 Global Sustainable Development Goals that best apply to the project. For more information on the Sustainable Development Goals, please click here External link..
Appendices
The following appendices can be uploaded if relevant for the project:
- Appendix J. If figures, tables or images are needed to describe the proposed project, an appendix may be uploaded. The total size of the attachment can be maximum 4 MB in the formats jpg, png or gif.
- Appendix K. Climate and environmental data. Appendix K is recommended for all project applications concerning climate and environmental research where data collection is included as an important aspect of the project. The information submitted will be part of the review of the application. Please note that Swedish universities, university colleges and other authorities are responsible for the safe storage of data collected as part of their activities. Funding to enable data storage that can be regarded to be within the responsibility of these authorities must not be included in the application. Data must be published within a reasonable time period and must be made accessible via relevant national and/or international organisations for data publication (to Formastemplate External link.).
Grant administrating organisations
- Select your grant administrating organisation and add the project department or unit where the project is based. Formas requirements for grant administrating organisations here. External link.
- Approved grant administrating organisations are prelisted in a menu in Prisma. If your research organisation is not included in the list, contact your organisation. Your organisation must create an organisation account in Prisma.
- A registered application is automatically sent to the grant administering for approval, once the call closes. The administrating organisation has seven calendar days to sign the application.
Review panels
- The review panel for urgent grants is preselected.
Participants
- The main applicant invites participating researchers (i.e. researchers that are considered as co-applicants) and participating administrators (not a part of the project, but persons that help you fill out the application form). Participants must themselves be registered and have their own personal account in Prisma. The main applicant invites participants by searching their name and e-mail in Prisma (note that correct spelling of names and e-mails is required).
CV
The applicant retrieves the relevant information from their personal profile in Prisma to be added the application. Participating researchers add their CV-information from their personal account in Prisma and should ensure that their CV in Prisma is complete and up to date. The information should include:
- Education: Post-graduate (doctoral) education, undergraduate and graduate education.
- Professional history: Current position and relevant previous longer-term positions, postdoctoral residencies, research exchange visits relevant to the described research project, as well as any extended period of interruption to the research (for example parental leave, illness, military or public service).
- Merits and awards:
- Associate professorships
- Supervision: doctoral students, postdoctoral students, and exam project students; state the total number in each respective category and provide the names of the most relevant supervisions (max 10).
- Grants awarded in competition, state the most relevant grants (max 10).
- Prizes and awards, state the most relevant grants (max 10).
- Additional merits, including bibliometric summary: The main applicant and the participating researchers must provide a brief summary of their bibliometric profiles for the past 5-year period and in total (max 800 characters). This must include the following: i) The number of publications of different types (such as articles in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, books and other monographs, conference contributions, popular science contributions), ii) Any other publications/citation specifications relevant to the research field of the applicant.
Under additional merits state also other merits relevant to the application, such as popular science texts and documented experience of collaboration and research communication (max 10). - Intellectual property: For example patents and public access software programs developed by the applicant (max 10).
Publication list
- The main applicant and participating researchers should specify up to ten of their most relevant publications. Observe that the publications should be linked from the applicants’ personal account in Prisma.
Links
General instructions for applicants to Formas
External link.Grant administrating organisations
External link.Formas ethical policy
External link.Apply in Prisma
External link.About Prisma
External link.Prisma user support manual External link.
Contact information
For questions about the content of the call or about how to complete the application forms:
Responsible
Kristina Laurell, Senior Research Officer, Formas
Telephone: +46 (0)8 775 40 59
E-mail: kristina.laurell@formas.se
Administrative assistance
Kenneth Nilsson, Senior Research Administrator, Formas
Telephone: +46 (0)8 775 40 40
E-mail: kenneth.nilsson@formas.se