Project costs that qualify for funding
When you apply for project funding, you can apply for grants to cover both direct and indirect costs. Direct costs include costs for salaries, equipment and travel. Indirect costs are costs that are shared with others in your organisation, such as for administration, IT and renting of premises. Indirect costs are sometimes called overhead.
Equipment and depreciation costs for equipment and Indirect costs shall be applied to the calls that open after January 1, 2025. For the calls that were open before January 1, 2025, the conditions for Equipment and depreciation costs for equipment and Indirect costs were stated in the respective call texts.
For companies and other non-governmental organisations, there are some things to consider when it comes to the costs for which you can apply for funding. You can read more about this under State aid regulations – for companies and other organisations engaged in economic activity (only in Swedish).
You can apply for funding to cover salaries for researchers, doctoral students and other staff, unless otherwise stated in the call description. Social security contributions should be included. Funds can be granted for annual salary increases.
No more than full-time employment
The total amount of the salary for a single researcher, doctoral student or other staff must not exceed 100 percent of full-time employment.
This also means that someone who is already receiving full salary funding from any funder cannot receive additional funding for salary.
Researchers who are full-time pensioners cannot receive funding for their own salary.
Running costs can include the cost of consumables, travel, conferences and publication fees for open access journals and databases. This also refers to research services, technical knowledge, consulting services and corresponding services that have been purchased or licensed from external actors on market terms and that are used exclusively for the project.
List equipment and depreciation costs for equipment if relevant to the application.
You can apply for funding for the cost of premises if this is not already included as overhead in the project’s budget.
1. Universities and higher education establishments may calculate its indirect costs according to the full-cost principle applied by them. They only need to keep costs corresponding to the grant separated from other transactions in their accounts.
2. The following organisations may, when they participate in the project with non-economic activities, add actual indirect costs, however not exceeding an amount corresponding to 45 % of its eligible personnel costs:
2.1. research organisations that are
(i) limited liability companies (Sw. aktiebolag) or trading partnerships (Sw. handelsbolag) directly or indirectly controlled by the state, or
(ii) foundations where the state appoints one or more members of the board
2.2. government agencies (other than universities and higher education establishments) that according to their instructions shall conduct independent research.
The cap at 45 % applies provided that the Swedish Government has granted the organisation funds to conduct independent research. If the organisation also conducts economic activities such as contract research, then such activities shall be kept in separate accounts. If the organisation participates in the project with such economic activities, then sub-section 3) below shall apply.
3. Other Participants may add actual indirect costs, however not exceeding an amount corresponding to 30 % of its eligible personnel costs.