News about the call
- In Frequently Asked Questions, you will find a summary of the main changes and updates in Explore 2025.
- Recording and presentation from the information event pdf, 2.2 MB. about the call.
Any post-publication revisions to the call text are listed below.
- 2025-08-22: Clarification added to section on international participants: it is still not possible to receive grants for projects involving collaboration with Russian or Belarussian state or federal institutions.
In Explore, you can apply for funding for innovative research projects. You are free to define your own research question within the fields of environment, agricultural sciences, or spatial planning – or with an overarching perspective on sustainable development. It is essential that your project is of the highest scientific quality and has strong potential to contribute to sustainable development and other societal benefits.
Through Explore, we aim to promote scientific breakthroughs in the fields of environment, agricultural sciences and spatial planning. We strive to do this in ways that strengthen society’s ability to address national and global challenges, in both the short and long term. Research funded through Explore must therefore be innovative, of the highest scientific quality, and have the potential to contribute to long-term sustainable development.
To respond to diverse needs and societal challenges, research must draw on a broad range of ideas and perspectives. Explore therefore welcomes both basic research and needs-driven research, across all disciplines and combinations of disciplines.
Explore is Formas’ recurring call for innovative research projects. In this call, you are free to formulate your own research question within the fields of environment, agricultural sciences and spatial planning – or with a focus on overarching perspectives on sustainable development.
Innovative research differs from other types of research in that it aims to significantly advance or challenge the current state of knowledge and the state of the art. This may involve generating empirical knowledge in underexplored areas, developing entirely new methods or models for data collection or analysis, challenging assumptions, theories or concepts, or adopting radically new perspectives on otherwise well-studied issues. What all innovative research has in common is that it involves elements of both creativity and relevant risk-taking. This applies whether the research aims to solve current problems or to contribute primarily to the long-term development of knowledge in society.
Formas is tasked with promoting and funding both basic research and needs-driven research within three areas of responsibility: environment, agricultural sciences and spatial planning. The research funded must be of the highest scientific quality and relevant to these areas. This is stipulated in Formas’ government mandate.
How Formas is governed External link.
Three areas with many points of intersection
Formas’ areas of responsibility are described under three separate headings below, but they should not be viewed as entirely distinct. Knowledge needs often concern complex issues that lie at the intersections of environment, agricultural sciences and spatial planning, or are of a cross-cutting nature.
Environment
This area of responsibility concerns the interaction between humans and the environment, and the promotion of sustainable societies and resilient ecosystems. It includes topics such as climate, environment, oceans and water, biodiversity, ecosystem services, resource efficiency, and a future free from hazardous chemicals. It also covers issues related to Earth systems and processes in soil, air and water.
The climate topic includes, for example, the climate system and its changes, measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improved knowledge of climate change impacts, and/or adaptation strategies. This area also includes questions related to more environmentally and socio-economically sustainable use of existing resources, as well as sustainable products, processes, materials and patterns of consumption. It includes how people relate to nature and its values, and how these relationships evolve over time. It also concerns society’s capacity to assess and manage environmental pollution, climate risks and environmental change.
Agricultural Sciences
This area of responsibility encompasses forestry, agriculture, land use, food systems, and animal health and welfare – viewed from multiple perspectives. Topics include various uses and values of forests, and the trade-offs and synergies between them. Agricultural and food-related topics span the entire food system, from production and processing to distribution, preparation and consumption, as well as the management of by-products. It also includes access to safe, nutritious, healthy, tasty, and environmentally sustainable food for different groups in society.
Within animal health and welfare, the area includes companion animals, sport animals, laboratory animals, and food-producing animals on land and in water – and their health and wellbeing. It also includes the spread of infectious diseases between animals, and between animals and humans. The area also covers land use, soil health, and land-related issues concerning the extraction of strategic minerals and raw materials.
Spatial planning
This area of responsibility covers urban, rural, and regional planning, design, and construction, as well as the use, management, reuse and demolition of buildings, dwellings, spaces, landscapes and infrastructures. It also includes the relationships between places, buildings and societal functions – and how they are used, as well as how people move through them.
Spatial planning encompasses both cultural and natural environments, and how the built environment can be made inclusive, safe, and resilient to future challenges. It includes all aspects of sustainable development with a focus on ensuring good living environments for all, now and in the future. This also involves navigating competing interests and value conflicts – about which priorities should guide planning, construction and management of a sustainable society for both people and nature.
Overarching perspectives on sustainable development
Formas’ areas of responsibility should not be viewed as three separate domains. Knowledge needs often concern complex issues that lie at the intersections of environment, agricultural sciences and spatial planning, or are crosscutting in nature.
This may involve how people relate to sustainability challenges, and how these are expressed in everyday life, cultural expressions, organisations and politics – in the past, present and future. It may also concern norms, practices and values at individual, group or systemic level, or issues relating to policy instruments, regulations and political decision-making.
How we assess whether a project falls within our areas of responsibility
Formas can only fund research that contributes to our areas of responsibility. When assessing whether a project falls within our remit, we look at the contribution the expected contribution from the project. For a project to be considered within our scope, this contribution must be both clear and substantial. Thus, it is not sufficient for a minor part of the project to relate to our areas, or for the relevance to be indirect. The application must clearly describe how the project contributes to one or more of our areas, and in what way. If the application does not demonstrate sufficient relevance to our areas of responsibility, it will be rejected.
Technical solutions for sustainable energy
This call does not fund projects whose primary purpose is to develop technical solutions for the extraction, conversion, transmission and/or storage of energy; for improving energy efficiency; or for carbon capture and storage (CCS) or carbon capture and utilisation (CCU). This includes components, materials, models, and control and regulation systems for such solutions, as well as both bio-based and nature-based technical solutions.
Utilisation of research
Explore funds projects where the primary aim is to generate new scientific knowledge. This call does not fund projects primarily aimed at utilising research results or scientific knowledge.
This includes, for example, feasibility studies, pilot facilities and demonstration projects. Other types of projects that do not aim to develop new scientific knowledge – or where this is only a limited part of the project – are also not eligible for funding under this call.
The call is open to researchers who hold a doctoral degree and are employed at a Swedish higher education institution, certain research institutes, or Swedish government agencies with a research mandate.
Formas continues to participate in the European initiative Weave – Research Funding Without Borders. We currently collaborate with three research funders in three countries: the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR), and the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) in Belgium. Through Weave, researchers from two to three European countries can submit a joint research proposal to one of the participating funders.
To apply for a Weave project through the Explore call, you must be the main applicant for the joint proposal. By submitting your application to Explore, Formas becomes the lead agency for the project.
Weave – Simplified funding procedures for projects across European borders External link.
Before you apply
All information about the requirements for you and your organisation, what your application must include, and how to apply is described below.
The following requirements apply to administrating organisations, main applicants and project participants:
Requirements for administrating organisations
Grants awarded under this call may only be managed by a Swedish higher education institution, certain research institutes, or government agencies with a research mandate. The administrating organisation must also be approved for all types of Formas calls.
Who can become an administrating organisation? External link.
- Swedish higher education institutions include universities and university colleges.
- Research institutes must meet several criteria to be eligible as administrating organisations in Explore. These criteria concern the organisation’s capacity to conduct research of the highest scientific quality and societal relevance, the potential for continuity and long-term research planning, and the ability to foster internationally prominent research environments.
Learn more about the criteria and which research institutes are approved in the Frequently asked questions and answers.
- Government agencies with a research mandate include all national authorities that, according to their government mandate, are tasked with conducting research, as well as university hospitals in regions that are party to the ALF agreement.
Clinical research in the ALF regions External link.
Requirements for main applicants
- The main applicant must have obtained their doctoral degree at least four years before the call closes (i.e. must have a career age of at least 48 months). Career age is here defined as the time passed from when a person has their doctorate issued to the date when the call closes.
- The main applicant must have an activity level of least 20 per cent full-time in the project. This time can be funded through the grant, through other sources, or a combination.
- The main applicant must serve as the project leader and be employed by the administrating organisation from the project start until final reporting to Formas.
- There is no upper age limit for main applicants. However, researchers who are fully retired may not receive funding for their own salary.
- Each person may submit only one application as main applicant in Explore 2025.
Requirements for participating researchers
- Each application may include a maximum of four participating researchers.
- Participating researchers are those project participants who make a substantial scientific contribution to the project and are considered co-applicants.
- They must hold a doctoral degree by the call deadline.
- There is no upper age limit, but fully retired researchers cannot receive salary funding.
Restrictions for main applicants – other ongoing project grants
You may not include costs in your application for activities that are already funded by Formas or another funder. Applications that are identical or largely overlap with previously granted projects will be rejected.
If you are project leader for an ongoing project funded by one of Formas’ researcher-initiated calls, you may not be the main applicant in Explore 2025. A project is considered ongoing if the grant period includes any part of 2026.
The following calls are considered researcher-initiated:
- Mobility grants for early-career researchers
- Annual open call
- Career support for early-career researchers
- Explore
Applications from project leaders with ongoing researcher-initiated projects whose grant period includes 2026 will be rejected.
Learn more about how to find out if your project is on-going or not in the Frequently asked questions and answers.
Restrictions – applicants affiliated with companies or other economic actors
Individuals employed by companies or other organisations engaged in economic activity may not receive funding from this call. Exceptions apply only to research institutes and government agencies with a research mandate that are approved as administrating organisations in Explore 2025.
- This restriction applies to main applicants, participating researchers, and other project participants who would be salaried under the project.
- The restriction applies to individuals employed by companies or other organisations engaged in economic activity, if they are participating in the project through that employment.
- For individuals with multiple employers, it must be clearly stated through which employment they are contributing to the project.
- Individuals employed by companies or other organisations engaged in economic activity may take part in the project if their participation is funded from other sources, such as in-kind contributions.
Applications that include budgeted costs for individuals employed by economic actors will be rejected.
Restrictions – project participants based outside Sweden
Formas’ funding may be used to cover costs for project participants based outside Sweden, but only to a limited extent. The research must be initiated and led from Sweden. Any contributions from project participants based in other countries must be well justified and may only constitute a minor part of the project. The administrating organisation is responsible for hiring any foreign staff or paying for activities or services outside Sweden in accordance with the administrating organisation’s guidelines.
- A limited extent is defined as a maximum of 15 per cent of the requested grant, averaged across the project period.
- Project participants based in other countries than Sweden are defined as project participants that have their employment in another country than Sweden.
- Project participants include the main applicant, participating researchers and other participants salaried through the requested grant.
- Individuals engaged via purchased services are not considered project participants.
Learn more about how to find out if your project is on-going or not in the Frequently Asked Questions.
You may apply for funding to cover both direct and indirect costs. Direct costs include, for example, salaries, equipment, travel and purchased services.
Indirect costs refer to shared costs within the organisation, such as administration, IT and premises. These are sometimes referred to as overhead costs. The rules for indirect costs vary between different types of organisations.
The following requirements apply to the size and duration of the grant:
- You must apply for at least SEK 5 million and no more than SEK 6 million.
- The project must run for four years (48 months). It is not possible to apply for a shorter or longer duration. The project must be clearly planned to cover the entire four-year period, including planned activities and costs for all 48 months.
- The project start date in Prisma will be pre-set to 1 September 2026 and cannot be changed.
The review panel assessing your application will be international. You should therefore write your application in English, unless otherwise stated.
If you write your application in Swedish, only the section titled “Project description” will be translated into English. You will not have the opportunity to review or edit this translation before the application is submitted for assessment.
According to Swedish law, your application and its appendices are considered as 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 Confidentiality Act (2009:400).
Formas has limited possibilities to keep personal data confidential. Therefore, your application should not contain the personal data of anyone who is not included in the application. You should also avoid including sensitive personal data, both for yourself and others.
The popular science description and project abstracts in Swedish and English will, if the project is awarded funding, be published in open-access project databases without a confidentiality review. Therefore, the contents of these fields should not contain sensitive information.
At present, we see no obstacles to applicants using AI tools to assist in drafting their application. However, it is important to be aware that the applicant remains fully responsible for fulfilling all commitments made in the application.
As an applicant, you are responsible for ensuring that the content of both the application and the project plan is accurate, and that the research is carried out as described. You confirm this responsibility when you submit the application.
Applicants must follow good research practice throughout the application process. This means that plagiarism, falsification or fabrication of content is not permitted.
We at Formas are very keen that the project we fund maximise positive and minimise negative impacts on the environment and climate. We therefore encourage grant applicants to design their projects so that collaboration takes place primarily through online meetings and that any necessary travel takes place in a climate-smart way. We also suggest that you include measures that minimise energy use and other resource consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and waste in project planning. However, this will not be part of the assessment of your application – unless the reviewers see this as an important part of the assessment of the ethical aspects of your application.
How to apply
Grant applications are filled in and submitted in our application system, Prisma. This is where you will add the information needed for your application. You will need a personal account for this.
Character limits, font and formatting
- All character limits refer to the number of characters including spaces.
- We recommend using the default font and font size in the Prisma text fields.
- Please note that formatting may be lost when text is pasted into Prisma. Always preview your application in PDF format before submitting it.
Who you are writing for
- Reviewers in the assessment panels are primarily experts on a field of study – not necessarily experts in your specific study object, theory or method. Thus, write your application so that someone with generalist expertise in your field can understand what you aim to do and why.
- Panel members come from different countries. Be sure to clearly explain all relevant aspects and contexts so that reviewers can follow your reasoning and understand the project’s background and aims.
Your application must contain a clear description of the project, including the following sections:
Basic information
Project duration: 48 months is pre-set in Prisma.
Project start date: 1 September 2026 is pre-set and cannot be changed.
Project title in Swedish and English (max 200 characters including spaces).
Popular science description in Swedish (max 4,500 characters including spaces). If your project is granted funding, this summary will be published in open project databases without confidentiality review. Avoid including sensitive information in this section.
Abstract in Swedish and English (max 2,500 characters including spaces per language). The abstract is used to assign your application to a review panel. Thus, the abstract should reflect the content of your project plan and include:
- scientific aim and objectives
- theory, method and/or data
- expected results
- potential societal benefits.
If the project is granted funding, the abstract will be published without confidentiality review. Avoid including sensitive information.
Project description
Novelty and originality (max 8,000 characters including spaces)
- Describe the project’s aim and objectives.
- Describe the current state of knowledge and the state of the art in the project’s field, both nationally and internationally, including ongoing research.
- Describe the project’s potential to significantly advance or challenge current knowledge and the state of the art. If applicable, explain how the project may challenge established models of thinking, assumptions, or other parts of a scientific paradigm.
Scientific approach (max 8,000 characters including spaces)
- Describe and justify the theories, methods, empirical materials, case studies and/or contexts to be used in the project.
- Reflect on the project from a research ethics perspective. Describe which ethical issues are relevant and how you plan to address them. Explain how the project design and expected results take into account the needs and conditions of different groups in society. If no ethical considerations are relevant, you must justify this. If you are unsure about what constitutes research ethics, consult guidance such as the Swedish Research Council’s publication Good Research Practice External link..
Work plan and competence (max 8,000 characters including spaces)
- Describe the implementation plan, including the project timeline. Identify relevant risks and how they will be managed. Describe access to infrastructure, materials and other resources needed to carry out the project.
- Justify the selection of project participants and briefly describe the skills and experience each contributes. Explain which parts of the project each participant is involved in, and their level of effort (activity rate).
Contribution to society (max 8,000 characters including spaces)
- Describe the potential societal benefits the project may bring, and how it contributes to sustainable development. Specify which groups in society may benefit. Describe what is needed for these benefits to be realised, and whether they are expected in the short and/or long term.
- Describe the project’s contributions to open science and science communication – during the project and/or through dissemination of methods, databases or results. Specify which audiences these contributions are relevant for, and how. If you are unsure about what open science entails, consult resources such as UNESCO’s Recommendation on Open Science External link..
References (max 8,000 characters including spaces)
List the references used in the project description. We recommend that you use the Harvard or Vancouver reference style. Please include DOI numbers where available.
Budget
You enter the project budget in Prisma. Enter the full amount requested. For example, write SEK 1 million as: 1,000,000 kronor.
The budget consists of the following items:
Salaries, including social security contributions for each project participant. The amount awarded for an individual researcher, doctoral student or other staff member may not exceed 100 per cent of a full-time position. This also means that someone with full salary funding throughout the project cannot receive additional salary funding. Researchers who are fully retired may not receive funding for their own salary.
Percentage of salary refers to the percentage of the applicant’s full-time salary that is covered by the requested salary funds.
Activity rate in the project refers to the percentage of a full-time position that the participant will contribute. A positive difference between the activity rate and the percentage of salary shows that the person is contributing time in-kind or funded through other sources.
Running costs includes, for example, consumables, travel, and conferences. This may also include costs for publishing in open access journals and databases. See the section Costs for publishing External link. for details. Specify operating costs according to the standard procedures of the administering organisation.
Equipment and depreciations. List equipment costs and depreciations for equipment if relevant to the application.
Premises. You can apply for funds for premises costs if they are not already included in the overhead cost in the project budget. List premises costs as per the administrating organisation’s standard procedure.
Total applied and Subtotals refer to costs already included in other budget tables and will be automatically transferred to this table
Indirect costs refer to the project’s total overhead costs. Terms vary between organisations: New terms and conditions for indirect costs External link.. If funds will be transferred to another participating organisation, the recipient’s overhead rates may apply to those transferred funds. You must explain and report all overhead costs in the budget specification. The total overhead cost for the project should be listed in the budget table. Formas does not fund overhead on depreciation costs for equipment or premises.
Other cost refers to funds that are not applied for but are relevant to completing the project. Examples of this include co-funding from partners or if the project receives funds from other sources.
Total cost refers to a budget summary.
Budget specification (max 7,000 characters including spaces). The budget specification is a written explanation and justification of the budget. It is included in the assessment of the application. Describe the total project budget, including any co-funding or additional funding. Provide a short justification for all costs, including salaries and other expenses (e.g. travel, conferences, open access fees). If funds will be transferred to another organisation, specify the annual and total amounts per recipient organisation.
Ethical aspects that require ethical review (max 2,000 characters including spaces)
Some research may only be conducted if it has been approved through an ethical review. If you are conducting research on humans, human tissue, or sensitive personal data, you must submit an application for ethical review to the Swedish Ethical Review Authority and have it approved.
Animal experiments may only be conducted when there are no alternative methods and must follow the principles of 3R – to replace, reduce and refine animal experiments. If your project includes experiments on animals, you must have approval from an ethics committee for animals. You can apply for this through the Swedish Board of Agriculture’s e-services.
You must state here whether you have a valid ethical approval or not. If you do not have one, and your application is granted funding, you must have ethical approval before starting the part of the research that requires this approval.
If there are no approvals or permits are needed, you need to justify why this is the case. Your description of the ethical aspects is included in the assessment of the project.
Classifications
Formas uses the project’s classifications in analyses and documents on an overall level and when assessing your application. These classifications are determined by the applicant specifying subject area, research subject (SCB code), at least one global goal for sustainable development to which the project can contribute, and keywords.
- Subject area. Select at least one and at most three subject areas and add a subheading.
- Research subject (SCB code). Select, in order of priority, a minimum of one and up to a maximum of three SCB codes with two sub-levels that together form the entire code.
- Sustainable Development Goals. Select at least one and up to three Sustainable Development Goals to which the project can contribute in order of priority according to degree of relevance. Read more about the Sustainable Development Goals on the UN Development Programme website External link..
- Keywords. Select at least one and a maximum of three key words that describe your project.
Administrating organisation – the organisation that receives the grant
In this call, the administrating organisation must be a Swedish higher education institution, an approved research institute, or a government agency with a research mandate. The organisation must also be approved for all Formas calls.
- Check whether your organisation is approved for Explore.
- Select your administrating organisation from the drop-down list in Prisma.
- Also select the department or equivalent (“host organisation”) from the list.
Participating researchers
- A maximum of four participating researchers may be included in each application.
- The main applicant invites participating researchers to the application in Prisma.
- All participating researchers must have their own personal Prisma account in order to be invited.
- To submit the application, all invited participating researchers must have accepted the invitation and completed the required fields correctly.
- The main applicant invites participating researchers by searching for their first and last names and email addresses in Prisma. The spelling must be exact.
Participating administrators
- The main applicant may invite participating administrators to the application.
- Participating administrators are not part of the project. They assist the applicant with completing the application form.
- Participating administrators cannot submit the application – only the main applicant can do that.
- The main applicant invites administrators by searching for their first and last names and email addresses in Prisma. The spelling must be exact.
Academic profile (max 2,000 characters including spaces per person)
In the academic profile, the main applicant and participating researchers describe their respective skills and experience in more detail than in the project description. You are encouraged to give concrete examples and refer to relevant qualifications or publications listed in the CV section.
Only the main applicant and participating researchers may complete an academic profile.
For other project participants, their skills and experience should be described in the project description. This also applies to unnamed participants, for example if a doctoral student is to be recruited. In such cases, describe the competence the person is expected to contribute with to the project.
Curriculum Vitae (CV)
Only the main applicant and participating researchers can add a CV to the application.
Each person retrieves their CV data from their personal Prisma account and adds it to the application.
In this call, only specific sections of the CV are activated. This is to ensure fair conditions for applicants with different academic career paths.
The following CV details must be included for the main applicant and each participating researcher:
Education
- Doctoral education
- Undergraduate and postgraduate education
Employment
- Current position and relevant previous long-term positions
- Any extended absences from research. For example, parental leave, illness, military service or political assignments. Formas has limited ability to keep personal data confidential, so avoid specifying sensitive details such as names of children, medical diagnoses, locations of service, or political party names.
Qualifications
- Docentship (if applicable)
- Other qualifications that are relevant to the project. Include achievements where you have made a significant contribution and that clearly demonstrate the knowledge, competence and experience referred to in the project description and academic profile. Examples may include documented experience of collaboration, open science, science communication, project management, interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary work, or doctoral supervision. You may list up to 10 qualifications.
Publications
Include publications relevant to the project. Only list works where you have made a significant contribution and that support the claims made in your project description and academic profile. These may include scientific articles, reports, books, or other formats relevant to your field of study. You may list up to 10 publications.
Appendicies
If you need to use, figures, tables, maps or images to describe your project idea you can upload these in a combined PDF file in Prisma (maximum 4 MB).
After you have submitted your application
Formas will first check that your application meets the formal eligibility requirements for this call. If the application does not meet these requirements, it will be rejected.
The following requirements will be checked:
- The administrating organisation has signed the application within seven calendar days of the call’s closing date.
- The application has been approved by the administrating organisation.
- The application’s focus falls within Formas’ areas of responsibility.
- The focus of the application falls within the call’s areas.
- The application is complete and contains all mandatory information.
- That the application is not the same as, or largely overlapping with, a previously funded project by Formas or another funder.
- That the same or a similar application has not been submitted under different main applicants.
- That all requirements for administrating organisations, main applicants, participating researchers and other project participants are fulfilled, as described under Requirements for you and your organisation.
- That main applicants who are responsible for other projects funded by Formas have submitted all required reports on time.
All applications are assessed by an external review panel based solely on the information provided in the application. It is therefore essential that the application contains all relevant and important information.
Competence of the review panel
Each review panel consists of a relevant mix of active researchers and users of research results.
The panels have broad expertise covering Formas’ areas of responsibility, as well as disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives.
Applications submitted to Formas are often highly diverse in terms of subject matter, study object, theory and method. To ensure that the review panels can handle this diversity, we appoint reviewers who are experts in a field of study, rather than experts in a specific study object, theory or method.
You should therefore write your application in a way that makes it clear what you want to do and why to someone with generalist expertise in your research area.
Review panels
This call does not have predefined review panels. Instead, panels will be formed inductively (bottom-up), based on the applications received.
To create panels, we use a digital tool called Prophy, that identifies applications with similar content using semantic analysis. Prophy is classified as an AI system under the EU AI Act.
Only specific data from your application – the project title, summary and keywords – will be used in the tool. Make sure these sections accurately reflect the content of your project.
Peer-review followed by partial randomisation
In this call, we will use an assessment process based on peer-review followed by partial randomisation. Each application is first assessed by three reviewers. Reviewers individually award grades to the different grading criteria. They also give a priority score (1–3), based on how competitive they find the application.
Based on grades and priority scores, applications are placed into three groups. Group 1 includes applications that are truly outstanding. These applications are awarded funding. Group 2 includes competitive applications with excellent and equivalent qualities. These are placed in a pool for randomisation. Group 3 includes applications that are uncompetitive. These applications are rejected.
The partial randomisation replaces the panel meetings that are used in Formas’ traditional review processes. The main reason for why we will use partial randomisation in Explore is to improve the quality of the assessment process. In Explore, the number of excellent applications far exceeds the number of applications that can be funded. This means that all applications that would have been discussed at a panel meeting – should we have used the traditional process – are of such high quality that it becomes nearly impossible to discern relevant differences in quality in a fair and reliable way. Comparison is further complicated by the fact that the applications in Explore come from a wide range of research fields.
The randomised selection of applications in Group 2 is carried out in R, which is a free, open-source software environment. All information about the randomisation will be logged and recorded as a public record, which means that anyone who is interested can request access to it.
Learn more about partial randomisation in Frequently asked questions and answers
Applications are assessed using the following criteria and a seven-point scale, where 1 is the lowest grade and 7 is the highest. All criteria carry the same weight.
Novelty and originality
- What is the potential of the project to advance or challenge the state of knowledge and state of the art?
Scientific approach
- To what extent are theory, method, empirical material and/or context, appropriate in relation to each other and in relation to the project objectives?
- To what extent are ethical aspects and considerations in research addressed in a satisfactory way?
Work plan and competence
- To what extent is the work plan for the project, including activity levels and budget, realistic and fit for purpose in relation to the project objectives?
- To what extent do project participants have the competences and experiences needed to carry out the project successfully?
Contribution to society
- What is the potential of the project to contribute to societal benefits and a sustainable development, in a short-term or long-term perspective?
- To what extent does the project contribute to open science and science communication, during the project process and/or through disseminating methods and results?
Grading rubric
The grading rubric is developed to support reviewers in applying the grading criteria consistently. The grading rubric describes what is required to meet a certain grade for each of the grading criteria. The rubric describes four grades. However, reviewers can use the entire seven-point scale in their assessments, through selecting also grades that fall between the four described grades when relevant. For, example, the grade Excellent (6) is defined as being between Very good (5) and Outstanding (7).
The grading rubric is also intended to provide guidance to those preparing an application to Explore, through articulating expectations in relation to different grades. The rubric is only available in English.
See the grading rubric here (pdf) pdf, 165.7 kB.
Using AI for reviewing applications
Currently, reviewers are not permitted to use AI tools to assist in evaluating applications.
This is due to several reasons, including a high risk that uploaded information could be shared or leaked. There are also concerns regarding confidentiality and processing of personal data. Uploading an application – or parts of it – to an AI tool or similar service would constitute unauthorised disclosure of information. This restriction applies not only to AI tools but also to many other data storage and sharing services.
AI support in other parts of the review process
For the Explore 2025 call, review panels will be formed inductively (bottom-up). To support this, we use a digital tool that identifies applications with similar content using semantic analysis. This tool is classified as an AI system under the EU AI Act. Only limited data from the applications – specifically, project titles, summaries and keywords – will be made available to the tool. No data will be stored or shared with other parties.
AI-förordningen | Digg External link. (in Swedish)
Decisions on which projects will be awarded funding are expected to be made in April 2026.
The results will be published on Formas’ website no later than the following day.
You will also receive an email notification when the decision is available in Prisma.
Please note that funding decisions cannot be appealed.
All awarded projects must submit a report to Formas regarding financial and project results within three months of the end of the grant availability period. For projects lasting more than 18 months, an annual financial status report must also be submitted. All reports are submitted in Prisma.
How to report expenses and results. External link.
Formas may set specific requirements for reporting project results and outcomes, to support dissemination and impact. These requirements will be stated in the grant decision. Formas may also require participation in conferences or similar activities to foster synergies and enable learning and knowledge exchange.
Results of research funded by Formas must be published using immediate open access.
You must also have a data management plan for any data generated in the project. This plan does not need to be submitted to Formas but should be presented on request. By signing our grant terms and conditions, you certify that a data management plan will be available before the research begins and that it will be maintained.
Formas shares information about awarded grants to Swecris, a national database of grant-funded research that was instituted by request of the government.
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