Action! From research to impact

Employees at Swedish higher education institutions, research institutes, civil society organisations, public organisations and authorities, companies and other organisations can apply for funding in the call. Note that sole proprietorships cannot be awarded a grant in this call or participate as project partners in an application. Applications involving project partners that are sole proprietorships will be rejected.

The project must consist of at least two (2) project parties. The project team must include at least one academic partner (higher education institution or research institute) and at least one actor from another sector. Another sector means, for example, a company, civil society organisation, public organisation or other organisation. Private companies and other organisations engaged in economic activity that want to apply for a grant from Formas are subject to State aid rules – for organisations engaged in economic activity External link..

In this call, we encourage both academic and non-academic partners to be the main applicant (project manager).

Participating party means that the organisation is included in the application as a party in the Prisma application management system. The participating party must have a clearly defined part of the budget and participate in the implementation of the project. This means that all participating project partners included in the application must have a budget with costs. The funding for the participating party can be applied for through the call (see “State aid rules for organisations engaged in economic activity” External link.) and/or funded through in-kind contributions, e.g. through own work hours or own financial resources. Note that even if a participating project partner does not apply for funding from Formas and only contributes its time in-kind, it must still be listed as a separate item in the budget to be counted as part of the project. Companies and organisations that do not have a Swedish organisation number cannot participate as project partners in this call.

At least one researcher who has completed their doctoral degree must participate in the project. However, every participating party from academia is not required to have a doctoral degree. The project is to include individuals who together possess the relevant skills and expertise to implement and achieve the objective of the project. These individuals may be employed by participating project partners or may be hired as consultants. It is up to the project to put together an appropriate project team, to allocate work done by the partners in different parts of the project, and to decide how to divide the budget between the participating partners. This is part of the assessment criteria under “How does the assessment process work?”.

The minimum number of project partners is two (2) and the maximum number is four (4).

All projects applying for funding from Formas must have a responsible project manager and be conducted by the individuals listed in the application.

The organisation that receives and administers the funds paid by Formas to awarded applications is called the administrating organisation. Formas distinguishes between administrating organisations that can receive funds in all Formas calls and administrating organisations that are approved to receive funds for an individual project. Higher education institutions, government agencies with research assignments, and most research institutes are approved as administrating organisations in all Formas calls. Most other public and private organisations need to obtain individual approval as administrating organisations. For more information, see the section on organisation accounts under “How to apply”.

Who can become an administrating organisation? External link.

After notice of awarded funding, the project parties must individually sign a written commitment to implement the project as per the Formas decision for funding.

In this call, you can apply for funding for projects that build on research and plan, design, and carry out one or more activities to ensure that the research is put to use and can lead to impact. The funds applied for must be clearly linked to the project for which you are applying and must finance activities that are not part of your regular activities. The call does not fund activities that are already funded by, or are part of, other research projects. Nor does the call fund such activities as scientific conferences, in-house training programmes or other activities that fall within the regular work related to research, of creating real-world impact of research or of communication activities of higher education institutions.

When applying for project funding, you can apply for both direct and indirect costs. Direct costs include such costs as staff expenses and other operating costs that are directly attributable to the project. Indirect costs are costs that are shared with others in your organisation, such as administration, IT, and renting of premises. Indirect costs are sometimes referred to as overhead costs.

The total amount of salary received by an individual participant must correspond to their activity level in the project and may not exceed 100 per cent of a full-time position. This means that additional salary funding cannot be granted to staff who already have full salary funding. Participants receiving a full-time pension cannot receive funding for their salary.

Formas grants can be used to fund practicing researchers (at higher education institutions or research institutes) outside Sweden, although the project must be initiated and managed from Sweden. However, this only applies if the administrating organisation is a higher education institution, research institute, or public authority with a research assignment and is thus approved as an administrating organisation for all Formas calls. The administrating organisation is responsible for hiring any foreign staff and paying for activities or services outside Sweden as per the administrating organisation’s own guidelines. Foreign participation is to be well defined and carefully explained in the project application. Note that any parts of the project conducted outside Sweden must be well justified and should only constitute a limited portion of the project. The implementation of the project should contribute to the impact of research-based knowledge in Sweden.

You may only apply for funding for a two-year period (24 months) and you can apply for a maximum grant of SEK 4 million. Note that the total project budget may be higher. Here is an example of this type of situation: If one project partner applies for funding of SEK 4 million and the other two participating project partners have costs of SEK 1 million each in the project that they finance themselves through working hours and their own financial resources, the project will have a total cost of SEK 6 million. This should be presented in the project budget.

The project start date in Prisma is set for 1 December 2025. This cannot be changed. The project has a twelve (12) month availability period, which means that the project can start within twelve months of the pre-selected project start date and still be completed within the project duration.

In the budget included in the application, applicants must explain how the funds will be used. Register the budget according to how the actual costs are expected to occur per financial year. For administrative reasons, Formas may apply a payout plan that differs from the application’s allocation of the budget over time.

Applications with a different requested amount or a project duration that does not fall within the above range will be rejected.

Private companies and other organisations engaged in economic activity that want to apply for grants from Formas must follow specific rules on state aid. These rules are based on the main principle of EU law that state aid to private enterprises normally distorts competition. However, the main principle allows for certain exceptions, including support for research, development and innovation.

Formas bases this call on the General Block Exemption Regulation EU 651/2014. The project activities will primarily be assessed on the basis of the “industrial research” exception, i.e. Article 25. The aid intensity depends on the support basis, i.e. what the project will do and the company size. The organisation’s size is assessed using the EU definition of small and medium-sized enterprises. Read more in Aid intensity according to Formas’ aid scheme External link. (in Swedish). Each project partner is responsible for ensuring that the received grant does not exceed the level of support allowed according to the rules for state aid in the relevant support framework and the size of the organization. Before making a decision, Formas performs credit checks on organisations engaged in economic activities to determine if these are eligible for funding.

More information on state aid rules is available on the Formas website: State aid rules External link..

Applicants receiving state aid when conducting a project (should the application be awarded funding from Formas) need to be aware that the requirements for transparent reporting of state aid were made stricter in 2023. This means that state aid over EUR 100,000 to a project party (or if it concerns primary agricultural production or the fisheries and aquaculture sector EUR 10,000) are to be publicly reported within the EU. Formas is responsible for this transparency report. Applicants are assumed to understand this requirement for transparent reporting and are considered to have accepted that such public reporting occurs for grants exceeding the threshold amounts.

For organisations that conduct both economic and non-economic activities, such as research institutes, municipal companies, and civil society organisations, there is an opportunity to apply for funding in the call and receive non-state aid grants, provided they intend to participate within their non-economic activities. An organisation that conducts both economic and non-economic activities shall be considered a company only in relation to its economic activities.

For applicants conducting both economic and non-economic activities, and who intend to participate in their non-economic part of the business in the call, Formas therefore requires a Statement of separate accounting and ancillary activities External link. (only in Swedish) signed by an authorized representative of the organisation and attached to the application. Formas may also, during the processing of the application, request a certificate of separate accounting or subordinate economic activity for projects when Formas deems it necessary.

Write the application in English, since the review panel that will assess the application consists of both national and international reviewers. If you do write your application in Swedish, a professional translator will only translate into English the section describing the project work itself. You will not be able to review or change the translation before the application proceeds to assessment in the review panel. However, the popular science description must be written in Swedish, while the abstract is to be in both Swedish and English. Your budget specification and CV appendices will not be translated.

According to Swedish law, your application and its appendices are considered general public documents once they have been submitted to us. This means that anyone can request and read your application. Information can only be concealed if it is confidential as defined in the Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act (2009:400).

Formas is limited in its ability to designate personal data as confidential. For this reason, your application should not contain the personal data of anyone who is not included in the application.

If the project is granted funding, the popular science description and project abstracts in Swedish and English will be published in open-access project databases without a confidentiality assessment. For this reason, the contents of these fields should not include sensitive information.

Formas does not currently have any restrictions on that you as applicant use AI tools as support when preparing their applications. However, it is important that you are aware that the responsibility for fulfilling the commitments you make in the application lies with you as the applicant. As the applicant, you are responsible for ensuring that the content of both the application and the project plan is correct and that the project is conducted as described. You certify this when registering your application. As the applicant, you are to follow good research practices, which means that plagiarism, falsification, and fabrication of content in the applicant may not occur.

Formas is committed to funding projects that maximise positive and minimise negative impact on the environment and climate. As such, we encourage grant applicants to design their projects to enable primarily online collaboration. Necessary travel should be made in the most climate-friendly way possible. We suggest that your project planning includes measures that minimise energy use and other resource consumption, emissions, and waste. However, this will not be part of the assessment of your application.

Read about Sustainability at Formas External link..

Grant applications are filled in and submitted in our application system, Prisma. Enter the necessary information for your application there.

Plan, complete and submit your application well before the call closes. Formas is very limited in its ability to answer questions from applicants about the application system in the last days before the call closes.

If required fields are missing information when the application is submitted, you will not be able to submit the application. An application can be registered and then retracted and registered again an unlimited number of times before the call closes. We recommend that applicants test registering their application well in advanced of the closing date of the call to ensure that all required fields are correctly filled in. This minimises the risk of technical problems preventing the final registration of the application on time. Note that incorrect formatting, such as spaces in copied postcodes or other hidden characters, may cause problems during registration. As such, check that all information is correctly filled in and formatted according to the instructions. Once the call has closed, you cannot submit or add information to the application.

The call for applications closes on 21 May 2025 at 14:00. All applications must be registered before this deadline, no supplements or late registrations are allowed (unless they are not specifically requested by Formas).

Please read these instructions carefully, even if you have previously applied for a grant from Formas.

The following information and instructions address personal and organisation accounts in Prisma.

Personal account

The main applicant who fills in the necessary information and registers the application must have a personal account in Prisma. If the designated main applicant does not have a personal account, they must create one in Prisma.

Apply for a personal account in Prisma External link.

Organisation account

The organisation that will receive and administer the funds Formas awards to a project is called an administrating organisation in Prisma, the Formas application system. The administrating organisation represented by the main applicant (the coordinating project party) must have an organisation account in Prisma when applying for funding. If your organisation does not already have an organisation account with Formas, you need to apply to Formas well in advance for an organisation account in Prisma, see below.

Administrating organisation

Formas distinguishes between administrating organisations that can receive funds in all Formas calls and administrating organisations that are approved to only receive funds for a specific call for an individual project.

1. Main applicants from administrating organisations approved for all Formas calls
   Higher education institutions, most research institutes, and government agencies tasked with conducting research are approved as administrating organisations for all Formas calls and already have organisation accounts.
2. Main applicants from administrating organisations requiring individual approval as administrating organisations in calls for individual projects
   Companies, municipalities, civil society organisations, trade associations, and other organisations can apply to become administrating organisations for an individual project. These organisations must have an organisation account with Formas.

Organisation account for organisations that can become an administrating organisation for an individual project

• If the organisation already has an organisation account in Prisma, contact the responsible research officer Kerstin Röver via e-mail kerstin.rover@formas.se for the organisation to be added as a possible administrating organisation for this call. In your message, include your organisation ID number and that you want to apply to the 2025 call “Action! From research to impact”. This applies even if your organisation was approved as an administrating organisation in a previous Formas call.
• If your organisation does not already have an account in Prisma, an appropriate representative should apply for the organisation account on the Prisma website. In this box, explain why you are applying for the 2025 call “Action! From research to impact”, the type of organisation and the organisation’s corporate identity number.. Apply for an organisation account in Prisma External link.
• If you do not know whether the organisation has a Prisma organisation account, contact our research officer Kerstin Röver kerstin.rover@formas.se before applying for a new account. Specify the organisation’s corporate identity number, and that you want to apply to the 2025 call “Action! From research to impact”.

Note that if the intended coordinating party (the administrating organisation) is not already listed in Prisma, it is important that the main applicant apply for an organisation account well in advance, but no later than 7 May 2025, so that Formas can guarantee that it has time to process the application before the call closes.

Project site – create a structure to describe your organisation

To be able to register an application, a project site within the organisation must be identified. A project site can be, for example, a department or an institute. The organisation account coordinator must build a structure of divisions and sub-divisions (project sites) at two levels. If the organisation has no departments, then enter a sub-division with the same name as the organisation. For information on how to do this, see Prisma’s user support External link..

Learn more about creating project sites and viewing levels for project sites in Prisma External link..

When the main applicant with an approved organisation account fills in the application form in Prisma, information about the administrating organisation and the project site must be provided again. This is done in the dropdown list for administrating organisation and project site. Available project sites that the applicant can choose are selected from the organisational structure in Prisma. This is done in the settings previously defined by the organisation account manager for their organisation account in Prisma.

First, Formas verifies that the application fulfils the formal requirements set out in the call. If the application does not fulfil the requirements, it will be rejected.

For this call, the following requirements will be checked:

• The administrating organisation has signed the application within seven calendar days after the close of the call.
• The application has been approved by the administrating organisation.
• That the main applicant has submitted only one application under this call.
• That there are not multiple applications with the same content from different main applicants.
• The focus of the application is within Formas’ areas of responsibility.
• That the focus of the application is within the scope of the call.
• That the application comply with Formas Terms and conditions for grants External link.
• The application is complete and contains all required information.
• That the requirements for the project manager, project participants, and organisations under “Requirements” for you and your organisation are fulfilled.
• A credit check has been performed on all participating companies and other organisations engaged in economic activity that may be relevant for awarding a grant.
• A main applicant responsible for other projects or activities funded by Formas has submitted all requested reports by the stated deadlines.

All applications are assessed by international and national experts in one of the call’s review panels. The review panels are composed of active researchers and users of research results, including experts within activities for how research can create real-world impact. Together they have national and international perspectives and experience. Formas reserves the right to split or merge review panels to create a practically manageable review process.

Your application is only assessed by the review panel based on the content described in the application, including appendices. This means it is important that the contents of the application are as clear as possible and that all necessary and relevant information is included. All four criteria are to be addressed in the application, and the project is to clearly relate the application to these criteria.

In this call, Formas will apply a portfolio perspective to enable the funding of projects that address a wide range of challenges that the projects will contribute to and that are within the scope of the call. The review panels and Formas apply a portfolio perspective only after each application has been assessed on its own merits.

Read more about the Formas assessment process here: The application assessment process External link.

Applications are assessed based on the following criteria:

Relevance

• The problem addressed by the project is clearly formulated, logical and is relevant for society.
• The project design and expected results can address current needs among chosen target groups and the project has taken their needs and conditions into consideration.
• The application clearly states how the impact of the project will be able to contribute to real-world impact, including learning in society.

Potential

• The project can significantly contribute to the purpose and focus of the call.
• The research that forms the basis of the project is relevant for the project and is of high quality.
• The project can demonstrate significant potential for scalability and/or dissemination with a well thought-out plan for what will be required to contribute to societal impact in the long term.

Implementation

• Planned activities and their implementation are well described, include relevant approaches/tools/channels in relation to the project’s purpose and goals, and are in the appropriate context to achieve the expected results.
• The timeline and budget are realistic and appropriate in relation to the project’s purpose and goals.
• Activities to engage identified target groups are relevant in relation to the project goals.
• Ethical considerations are well described, and the plan for how to manage these is appropriate.
• Gender equality perspectives are well integrated into the implementation of the project.

Stakeholders

• The project is a collaboration between researchers, practitioners and end users with relevant skills, experience and expertise in relation to the purpose and implementation of the project, and their participation and contribution are appropriate to the goals of the project.
• The project team (key actors) and the distribution of influence are well balanced between women and men. This is relevant when the project team consists of more than 3 people.

Our reviewers may currently not use AI tools as support in assessing applications. There are several reasons for this. There is a great risk that information uploaded could be disseminated. There is also a risk related to confidentiality and the processing of personal data. Uploading an application or information from an application to any form of AI tool constitutes the unauthorised sharing of information. This applies not just to AI tools but also to other services and tools for storing and sharing data.

Formas expects to decide which projects are awarded grants on 21 October 2025. We publish our decisions the following day at the latest on the Formas website, and you will receive an email informing you that the decision is available in Prisma. Grant award decisions cannot be appealed.

After notice of awarded funding, the project parties must individually sign a written commitment to implement the project as per the Formas decision for funding. A prerequisite for the first payment of funds is that a copy of the approvals from all project partners has been received in time and that any requested supplements have been received.

All awarded projects must submit a report to Formas containing financial and project results within three months of the end of the grant grace period. The availability period is a specified period of time after the formal conclusion of the project in which unused funding may be allocated, i.e., the project may run beyond its approved deadline. The availability period for this call is 12 months. In some cases, the grace period can be extended by Formas due to special circumstances (related to the project manager and administrating organisation, such as illness or parental leave).

A financial status report must also be submitted annually to Formas for all awarded projects. All reports are submitted in Prisma.

Financial reporting in Prisma External link. (in Swedish)

Financial reporting for projects in this call follows the same structure as the application.

In this call, the awarded projects must also submit a two-page popular science summary of the project results and their relevance to society in connection with the final financial and scientific reporting of the project. This will be reflected in the project decision (and associated conditions) in case of funding. The popular science summary is to be sent in PDF format to registrator@formas.se. Include the project number in the subject line. The project manager is responsible for submitting a popular science summary in accordance with these guidelines. Formas may also require participation in conferences, seminars, network meetings or similar to create synergies and platforms for learning and knowledge exchange.

Terms and Conditions for Grants – Formas External link.

Results of research funded by Formas must be published using open access.

You must also have a data management plan for the data produced in the project. If you receive Formas funding, you are to draw up a data management plan. The plan should not be sent into us, but you should be able to present the plan upon request. By signing our grant terms and conditions, you certify that a data management plan will be in place before the research begins and that it will be maintained.

Open access to research results and data External link.