Some people have experienced problems with the locked version of the template. We have therefore decided to also publish an unlocked version of the template. You find both templates in the call text under the section CV and academic profile.
In the pdf-version of your application, the heading “Publications” will appear. This is because it is not possible to remove this part of the built-in CV format in Prisma. This occurs in all applications and does not affect the assessment of your application.
In Explore – Formas open call for research projects, you are invited to freely formulate a research question within Formas’ areas of responsibility. The call supports innovative research of the highest scientific quality and societal relevance.
The overarching purpose of Explore – Formas’ open call for research projects, is to support innovative research of the highest scientific quality and societal relevance, within Formas’ areas of responsibility. Innovative research is distinguished from other research in that is seeks to substantially advance or challenge the state of knowledge and state of the art.
The more long-term aim of the call is to promote a clear shift in the state of knowledge that contributes to solving societal challenges in areas of great relevance to sustainable development. The call also aims to support a continuous and long-term development of knowledge, with a diversity of disciplines and perspectives. Moreover, the call aims to promote internationally successful researchers and research environments.
The call welcomes basic research as well as needs-driven research in all disciplines or combination of disciplines.
Formas’ areas of responsibility
Research granted by Formas must contribute to at least one of Formas’ areas of responsibility: Environment, Agricultural sciences, and Spatial Planning, or their intersections. These areas are described below under three separate headings but should not be considered as separate areas.
In your application, you will be asked to explain how your project contributes to Formas’ areas of responsibility. In the assessment of whether a project falls within Formas’ areas of responsibility or not, we will depart from this description. For a project to be regarded as falling within Formas’ areas of responsibility, it must clearly contribute to these. Research projects that are deemed to be outside Formas’ areas of responsibility cannot be granted funding and will be rejected before being reviewed.
Environment
The area of responsibility Environment deals with the interaction between people and the environment and the promotion of sustainable societies and viable ecosystems. This includes issues relating to climate, the environment, biodiversity, ecosystem services, resource efficiency, and a chemical-safe future. The area also includes issues relating to the Earth system and soil, air, and water processes. Climate includes, for example, the climate system and changes to it, measures to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, and improved understanding of the effects of climate change and/or climate adaptations. Environment also includes issues relating to more environmentally friendly and socio-economically sustainable ways of utilising existing resources as well as sustainable products, materials, and consumption. The area also includes issues relating to how people relate to nature and its values, and how these changes over time, as well as society’s ability to value and manage issues such as environmental pollution, climate risks, and environmental changes.
Agricultural Sciences
The area of responsibility Agricultural Sciences deals with forestry, agriculture, soil and land use, food, animal health, and animal welfare from a multitude of perspectives. This includes issues relating to the different uses and values of forests, and synergies and trade-offs between them. Issues relating to agriculture and food includes the entire food system, with production, processing, distribution, preparing, and consumption of food, and taking care of residues. This also includes the access of different societal groups to safe, nutritious, healthy, sustainable and tasty food. Animal health and animal welfare include sporting- and companion animals, laboratory animals, farm animals on land and in water, and their health and wellbeing. This includes the spread of disease between animals, and between humans and animals. The area Agricultural Sciences also includes issues relating to land use, soil health and land issues related to the extraction of strategic minerals and raw materials.
Spatial Planning
The area of responsibility Spatial Planning deals with urban, rural, and regional planning, design, and construction of the built environment, as well as the use, management, recycling, and demolition of buildings, homes, places, landscapes, and infrastructures. It also deals with the relationships between places, buildings, and social functions, how they are used, and how people move from one place to another. Spatial Planning includes both cultural and natural environments and how communities and the built environment can be made inclusive, safe, and adapted to future challenges. Spatial Planning includes all aspects of sustainable development with a focus on meeting the need for good living environments for everyone, now and in the future. This includes balancing different interests and goal conflicts about which values should be decisive when planning and building sustainable societies for people and the environment.
Intersecting and overarching issues
Formas’ areas of responsibility should not be considered as three separate areas. Knowledge needs often involve complex issues that are at the intersection of the environment, agricultural sciences, and spatial planning, or that are overarching to these areas. This could include issues relating to policy instruments, regulations, and political decisions, but also about norms, values, and behaviours – in the past, present and future. It could also include issues relating to norms, practices and values at individual, group, or system levels, or issues relating to policy instruments, regulations, and political decisions.
Technical solutions for sustainable energy
In this call, you cannot apply for funds for projects with the primary purpose of developing technical solutions for extraction, transformation, transmission and/or storage of energy, for energy efficiency, as well as for capture and storage of carbon dioxide, CCS, or capture and utilization of carbon dioxide, CCU. Technical solutions also include components, materials, models, and control and regulation systems for such solutions. This also includes biobased and nature-based technical solutions.
Human medicine
In this call, you may not apply for funds for projects within human medicine, except for projects that clearly contribute to Formas’ areas of responsibility.
Development projects
You cannot apply for development projects. Development projects are here defined as projects that do not aim to develop new scientific knowledge or do so only to a limited extent. Development projects could for example aim to develop new goods, services, processes, systems, and methods or improve already existing such, but in a way that does not contribute with new scientific knowledge.
This call is aimed at researchers with a doctorate, at Swedish higher education institutions, research institutes and government agencies with a research mission.
The main applicant must have a career age of at least four years. Participating researchers must have obtained their doctorate by the close of the call, at the latest.
Researchers from all disciplines and combinations of disciplines are welcome to apply for funding, as long as the project falls within Formas’ areas of responsibility.
Formas continues its collaboration within the European initiative Weave – Research Funding Without Borders. Formas currently collaborates with three research funders in three countries: Schweizerischer Nationalfonds, SNSF, in Switzerland, Luxembourg National Research Fund, FNR, in Luxembourg, and Research Foundation Flanders, FWO, in Belgium. Within Weave, researchers from two to three European countries are allowed to submit a collaborative research proposal to any of the participating funders.
To apply for a Weave-project through Explore, you need to be the main applicant for the joint research proposal. Through submitting the proposal to Formas, Formas becomes Lead Agency.
Weave – Simplified funding procedures for projects across European borders
Formas is Lead Agency and you are the main applicant
If you are the main applicant for a Weave-project, Formas becomes Lead Agency. As main applicant, you need to make sure that your proposal fulfils the rules and requirements for both Explore and Weave.
- In Prisma, mark that the application is part of Weave. Do this through ticking the box: “Tick the box if this application is part of the Science Europe collaboration Weave where you act as a main applicant and Formas is the Lead Agency”.
- In the following step, fill out the box ”Enter which country/countries that participate(s) in the Weave collaboration”.
Only tick the box if your application is a collaboration within Weave.
Formas is Partner Agency and you are a co-applicant
If your project application is part of a Weave collaboration where you are the co-applicant and another funder than Formas is Lead Agency, you should not submit your application to Explore.
Formas is Partner Agency and another organisation is Lead Agency
Before you apply
The administrating organisation must be a Swedish higher education institution, research institute, or government agency with a research mission. The administrating organisation must also be approved for all types of Formas calls when the application is registered. Other organisations that are approved for all Formas’ calls, may not act as administrating organisation in this call.
To be eligible for applying under this call, the following is required:
- The main applicant must have a minimum career age of four years. Career age is here defined as the time passed from when a person has their doctorate issued to the date when the call closes. To have a career age of at least four years in this call, the main applicant must have had their doctorate issued no later than October 16, 2020.
- Participating researchers must have obtained their doctorate by the close of the call, at the latest. The doctorate can have been awarded in Sweden or in another country.
- The proposed grant recipient is stated as the project leader on the application.
There is no upper age limit for the main applicant and participating researchers. However, researchers who are full-time pensioners are not eligible to receive funding towards salaries.
What counts as government agency with a research mission?
Formas defines a government agency with a research mission as all government agencies that, according to their ordinance, are to carry out research, and university hospitals in regions included in the ALF agreement.
Clinical research in the ALF regions
External link.
Restrictions – other ongoing project grants
You may not be the main applicant under Explore if you are the project manager for an ongoing project granted in one of Formas’ researcher-initiated calls that has a grant period that includes 2025. A project is considered ongoing during the years when funds are being paid out from Formas.
Formas’ researcher-initiated calls include:
- Mobility grant for early-career researchers.
- The Annual open call – both Research projects and Research projects for early-career researchers.
- The Career grant for early-career researchers.
- Explore – Formas’ open call for research projects.
Applications where the main applicant is project manager for an ongoing project from one of Formas’ researcher-initiated calls and a grant period that includes 2025 will be rejected.
Your application cannot include costs for purposes that are already funded by Formas or another funder. Applications that are entirely or to large parts the same as an application that has been granted funding from Formas or another funder will be rejected.
Restrictions – other applications
A person may only be the main applicant for one application to Explore.
It is not permitted to submit the same or similar application with different main applicants. All registered applications with similar content will be rejected.
It is permitted to be the main applicant under both the Career-grant 2024 and Explore 2024, provided you fulfil the eligibility criteria. If you are the main applicant for an application that is granted funding in the Career grant 2024 and have submitted an application as main applicant to Explore, you need to withdraw one of these applications.
It is permitted to be participating researcher to more than one application to Explore 2024.
Restrictions – researchers employed at companies and other organisations
In this call, researchers who work and are employed at companies or other types of organisations engaged in economic activity cannot be invited as participating researchers. Funds for such researchers cannot be included in the budget for the grant you apply for. It is however possible to include such researchers in the project if they are funded through other sources, such as in-kind funding.
Applications where researchers employed and active at companies and other organisations engaged in economic activity are invited as participating researchers will be rejected. The same occurs if the budget includes funds to such researchers.
Economic activity is defined as any activity that involves offering goods and services on a market. It is not the organization’s form, profit purpose, owners, remuneration or membership fees that are decisive.
State aid rules – for organisations engaged in economic activity
Restrictions – project participants based in other countries than Sweden
Grants from Formas can to a lesser extent be used to fund project participants based in other countries than Sweden. However, the research must be initiated and managed from Sweden. Any parts of the project that are carried out by project participants based in other countries than Sweden must be well motivated and may only constitute a limited part of the project. In this call, we define “limited part” as no more than 15 percent of the grant applied for, on an average during the entire 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 main applicant, participating researchers, doctoral students, and other staff. People who are engaged through purchased services do not count as project participants.
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.
When you apply for project funding, you can apply for a grant 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.
In this call, you may apply for grants to cover salaries for researchers, doctoral students, and other staff, running costs, depreciation costs, costs for premises, and indirect costs.
More information on approved project costs can be found under Budget.
- The project duration is four years (48 months). It is not possible to apply for shorter or longer projects.
- You can apply for at least SEK 5 million and no more than SEK 6 million.
- The project start in Prisma is set to September 1, 2025. This date is preset and cannot be changed.
Applications that do not meet the requirements on project duration and budget will be rejected.
Due to administrative reasons, Formas may pay out funds according to a plan that differ from the way the budget is allocated across time in the application.
You should write your application in English, since the review panel that will assess your application is international. If you write your application in Swedish, Formas will only translate the text provided under the page “Project description” in Prisma to English. This page includes the following text boxes:
- Novelty and originality
- State of knowledge and state of the art
- Scientific approach
- Societal relevance and open science
- Work plan and competence
The translation is made by a professional translator. You will not be able to see or change the translation before it is sent to assessment by the reviewers.
To facilitate the processing of applications, we ask you to inform us if you have written your application in Swedish.
The budget specification and CV are not translated. Thus, we recommend that you write these in English, even if you write the other sections in Swedish and submit your application in the Swedish version of our application system.
The popular science description must be written in Swedish, while the abstract should be in both Swedish and English.
The description of how the project contributes to Formas’ areas of responsibility should be written in English.
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.
Formas currently does not have any restrictions on that you as applicant use AI as support when preparing your application. Also, you do not have to state whether you have used AI. However, it is you as applicant that is responsible for that all information in your application is correct. You certify this when you register your application. You as applicant must also follow the principles on good research practice, which means that plagiarism, falsification or fabrication of the content of the application must not occur.
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.
Please, read about Formas’ own sustainability work.
Formas is tasked with working towards achieving a sustainable development of society. Crucial to such a development are equal opportunities and inclusion. We therefore encourage applicants to, to the extent possible, design the project so that it can provide knowledge that reflects and is relevant to different groups in society.
We also encourage you to consider gender balance in the project team and including participants with different backgrounds and experiences. This will however not be part of the assessment 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.
All limits for maximum number of characters include spaces.
We recommend that you use the default font (Verdana) for the information that you enter into text boxes. We also recommend that you use the default font size.
Include a clear description of the project under the following sections:
Basic information
- The number of months for which you are applying: 48 months.
- Start month: September 1st, 2025. The start date is preset in Prisma and cannot be changed.
- Project title in Swedish and English (max. 200 characters each, including spaces).
- Popular science description in Swedish (4,500 characters including spaces). If the application is successful, the popular science description will be published in open-access project databases without a confidentiality assessment. As such, the contents of this field should not include sensitive information.
- Abstract in Swedish and English (max. 1,500 characters including spaces for each language version). The abstracts of successful applications will be published in open-access project databases without a confidentiality assessment. As such, the contents of these fields should not include sensitive information.
- Contribution to Formas’ areas of responsibility in English (max 2,000 characters including spaces). Describe and motivate how the project contributes to Formas’ areas of responsibility.
- For Weave. Tick the box if this application is part of the Science Europe collaboration Weave where you act as a main applicant and Formas is the Lead Agency. If your application is not a collaboration within Weave, do not tick the box. If you have ticked the box, also enter which country/countries that participate(s) in the Weave collaboration.
Project description
- Novelty and originality (max. 5,000 characters including spaces).
Describe the aim and objectives of the project. Describe the potential of the project to significantly advance or challenge the state of knowledge and the state of the art. If relevant, describe the potential of the project to challenge basic established though-models, assumptions, or other parts of scientific paradigms. - State of knowledge and state of the art (max. 5,000 characters including spaces).
Describe the current state of knowledge and state of the art within the project area, nationally and internationally, including ongoing research. - Scientific approach (max. 5,000 characters including spaces).
Describe and motivate the theories, method, empirical materials and/or contexts that will be used in the project. - Societal relevance and open science (max. 6,000 characters including spaces).
Describe in what way the project is relevant for society. Make explicit what parts of society the project is relevant for and in what ways. This could for example be about sustainability issues, societal challenges, sectors, or stakeholders. It could also be about places, countries, regions, or levels of decision-making. Describe the societal benefits the results from the project could contribute to, in shorter or longer timeframes, nationally or internationally.
Describe how the project design and expected results has taken relevant consideration to the needs and conditions of different societal groups. Societal groups include stakeholders and other groups that may be affected by or make use of the project and its results.
Describe the contribution the project makes to open science, during the project process and/or through disseminating methods, databases, and results, and what the target audiences for this is. If you are unsure of what is meant by open science, you should familiarise yourself with this before writing this section, for example by reading Unesco’s recommendations on open science External link. (in English only) or the Swedish national guidelines for open science External link. (in Swedish only) - Work plan and competence (max. 8,000 characters including spaces).
Describe the work plan for the project, including time plan. Describe and motivate the project participants’ activity levels. Describe relevant risks and how you plan to address these. Describe access to infrastructure, materials and other resources needed to carry out the project.
Describe and motivate the choice of project participants, what competences and experiences they contribute with, and in what parts of the project they contribute. - References (max. 5,000 characters including spaces).
List the references used in the project description. Please use any of the reference formats Harvard or Vancouver. Provide DOI-numbers when available.
Budget
The project’s budget is provided in Prisma.
In Prisma, write the entire requested amount in numbers, for example 1 million kroner is written: SEK 1,000,000.
The budget is described in the following sections:
- Salaries, including social fees for each project participant. The amount you may be awarded for the salaries of each researcher, doctoral student, and other staff may never exceed 100 percent of full-time employment. This also means that an individual with full salary funding from a research funder during the entire project period, cannot receive additional salary funding. Researchers that are fully retired may not receive funding for their own salary.
- Percentage of salary refers to how many percent of the applicant’s full-time salary that corresponds to the salary applied for in the project.
- Activity level in the project refers to how many percent of a full-time position the participant will be contributing with in the project. A positive difference between the activity level and percentage of salary shows that the applicant is contributing in-kind or with other funding to their salary.
- Running costs refer to consumables, travel, conferences, publication in open access journals and databases, etc. Formas only grants funds for some publication costs. Read more under Publishing costs. Running costs also include purchased services, for example for consultants. Purchased services are described excluding VAT. Specify running costs according to the administrating organisation’s standard procedure.
- Equipment and depreciations. List equipment costs and depreciations for equipment if relevant to the application. The maximum awarded amount for equipment and depreciations for equipment is in total SEK 500,000.
- 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 for/Subtotal refers to costs already included in the previous budget tables and that are automatically be transferred to these items.
- Indirect costs refer to overhead costs. When entering overhead costs in the application, do so as per the administrating organisation’s standard procedure. If funds are to be transferred from the administrating organisation to another organisation participating in the project, the receiving organisation’s overhead cost can instead be applied to these funds. Formas does not award funding for overhead on costs that you indicate are for equipment or for premises. Explain and report the various overhead costs in the budget specification. The total overhead cost for the project should be listed in the budget table.
- Other cost refers to funds that are not applied for but are relevant to completing your project. Examples of this include co-funding from partners or if the project receives funds from other sources.
- Total cost refers to a budget total.
- Budget specification (max. 7,000 characters including spaces) is a description and motivation of the applied grant. The budget specification is included in the assessment of the application. Describe the total budget for the project, including any funding from other sources. All cost must be explained and motivated. It must be clear how items in the budget have been calculated. If relevant, also describe how the applied grant is allocated across years and participating organisations.
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 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 in your application 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 no approvals or permits are needed, you need to motivate why this is the case.
Ethical considerations (max. 4,000 characters including spaces)
Reflect on your project from a research ethics perspective. This includes both questions related to people who are researched or affected by the research, other stakeholders and about the researcher’s relationship to the project’s research task. This could be about animal experiment ethics, privacy issues, how findings are used, whose interests are considered in the research, and how research material and findings are made accessible.
Describe which ethical issues are relevant for your project. Describe how you plan to handle the ethical aspects of the project. Describe how you balance different legitimate interests, such as the interest in knowledge and the interest in privacy.
If you are unsure of what is meant by research ethics and ethical issues, you should familiarise yourself with this before writing this section, for example by reading the Swedish Research Council’s guide on conducting ethical research External link. and the Codex rules and guidelines for research External link..
If no ethical issues are relevant, you must motivate why this is the case.
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 up to three key words that describe the project.
Administrating organisation – the organisation receiving the grant
In this call, the administrating organisation must be a Swedish higher education institution, research institute, or government agency with a research mission. The administrating organisation also needs to be approved for all Formas’ calls. Other organisations that are approved for all Formas’ calls, may not act as administrating organisation in this call.
- Select your administrating organisation (home organisation) from the drop-down menu.
- Select project site from the drop-down menu.
Participating researchers
- The main applicant invites participating researchers to the application in Prisma.
- Participating researchers are researchers with a doctorate that are the most relevant for the project. It is only the main applicant and participating researchers that may include their academic profiles in the application.
- All participating researchers must have created their own personal account in Prisma to be invited.
- The main applicant will not be able to register the application if invited participating researchers have not accepted the invitation or failed to fill out the mandatory fields correctly.
- The main applicant invites participating researchers through searching for their names and e-mail addresses in Prisma. Names and email addresses must be spelled exactly right.
Participating administrators
- The main applicant may invite participating administrators.
- Participating administrators are not active in the project but are persons who help you to fill out the application form.
- Participating administrators cannot register the application. Only the main applicant can register an application.
CV and academic profile
In this call, parts of your CV are to be entered into Prisma and parts into the Academic profile template
, 59 kB.. Academic profiles for the main applicant and participating researchers are submitted as an appendix (Appendix 1) that you attach to the application.
The main applicant and participating researchers are recommended to start filling out the Academic profile well in time before the call closes. They should also make sure that their CV in Prisma is complete and up to date.
Project participants that are not invited as participating researchers cannot add their CV via Prisma or describe their competence in an Academic profile. Their competence in relation to the project can instead be described in the project description
CV – for main applicant and participating researchers
It is only information about your education and working life that can be retrieved from your personal account in Prisma. All other merits are described in the Academic profile.
The following CV-information should be added to the application via Prisma:
- Education
- Doctoral education
- Bachelor’s and master’s education
- Working life
- Current employment and longer relevant previous employment.
- Any longer breaks in research that might be of relevance to the assessment.
Academic profile (appendix 1) – for main applicant and participating researchers
In the template for Academic profile, you describe your experience, competences, and contributions of relevance to the project.
The main applicant and participating researchers, if any, fill out one Academic profile each. These are then compiled and uploaded as a single PFD-file under “Academic profile” (max. 10 Mb).
The template for Academic profile is only available in English and should be filled out in English since it is not translated.
Template for Academic profile (locked) , 59 kB.
Some people have experienced problems with the locked version of the template. We have therefore decided to also publish an unlocked version of the template. Since the template is unlocked, you need to be careful so that you only work in the text fields. It is not allowed to change the layout of the template or the instructions.
Template for Academic profile (unlocked) , 61.5 kB.
Other appendices
Maps, figures, tables, or images
If you need to use maps, figures, tables, or images to describe your project you may upload these as a single PFD-file (max. 4 MB).
After submitting your application
First, Formas verifies that the application meets the formal requirements set out in the call. If the application does not meet these requirements, it is rejected.
The following requirements will be verified in this call:
- 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.
- The template for Academic profile has been filled out and appended according to instructions or the main applicants and all participating researchers.
- The application is not entirely or to large parts the same as an application that has been granted funding from Formas or another funder.
- The requirements for project leaders, project participants and organisations under Applicant and organisation requirements are met.
- The administering organisation is a Swedish higher education institution, research institute or government agency with a research mission, that is also approved for all of Formas’ calls.
- The main applicant has a career age of at least four years.
- The main applicant is not the project manager for an ongoing project that has been granted through one of Formas’ researcher-initiated calls, with the exception of Akutbidrag, and has a grant period including one or more months of 20205.
- The same application has not been registered with different main applicants.
- Only researchers that has obtained a doctorate by the time the call closes are invited as participating researchers.
- The application does not include any invited participating researchers that are active and employed at companies or other organisations engaged in economic activity.
- The grant applied for does not include funds for participating researchers active and employed at companies or other organisations engaged in economic activity.
- That the part of the grant applied for project participants based in other countries than Sweden does not exceed 15 percent of the total grant applied for.
- The main applicant responsible for other projects or activities funded by Formas has submitted any requested reports by the stated deadline.
All applications are assessed by an external review panel based on the contents of the application. It is therefore important to write the application as clearly as possible and include all important and relevant information.
Each application will be assessed by 4–5 reviewers.
Competence of the review panel
Each review panel consists of active researchers and users of research results. Each application is read and reviewed by at least four reviewers. In each review panel there will be broad competence that covers all of Formas’ areas of responsibility, disciplines, and combinations of disciplines such as multi- and interdisciplinary research.
The applications submitted in Formas open calls often show a striking diversity when it comes to subject matters, study objects, theory, and method. For the review panel to match this diversity, we need to use reviewers that are primarily experts within a field of knowledge rather than experts on a specific study object, theory, or method. You should therefore write your application so that someone with generalist knowledge, skills, and experience within you field of study will understand what you want to do and why.
Review panels
In this call, there are no pre-defined review panels. Instead, review panels will be formed inductively, also called bottom-up, based on the submitted applications.
A two-step review process
In this call, a two-step review process is used. In the first step, all applications are read and assessed by reviewers that are active researchers. These reviewers assess the applications using all assessment criteria. The reviewers also assign a priority for each application, i.e. a recommendation on whether the application should be rejected, discussed, or granted. The result of the assessment is used to develop a recommended shortlist of the most highly qualified applications. Based on this recommendation, Formas makes a first decision to reject all applications that does not qualify to the shortlist. Depending on the number of applications submitted, we expect that around 70 percent of the applicants will get a decision (rejection) already at this point.
In the second step, reviewers that are users of research results read and assess the applications that qualified to the shortlist. These reviewers only assess the criteria for societal relevance and open science. Thereafter, all reviewers in a panel meet for a digital panel meeting. There, the shortlisted applications are discussed one at the time and the panel agrees on new grades for each assessment criteria. Each application is also given an overall grade.
When all applications are discussed, a ranking list is developed. If any application has gotten the grade four or lower on any criteria, this is placed at the bottom of the ranking list. Thereafter, the remaining applications are sorted based on their overall grade. If more than one application has the same overall grade, these are sorted based on the sum of the grades awarded to the individual criteria. If this is not enough to distinguish between applications, priority is given to the application(s) where the main applicants legal gender is underrepresented amongst the applications higher up in the ranking list. If this does not help, balloting is used. Based on the recommendation from the panel, Formas decides on what applications to award funding and what applications to reject. We expect that around half of the applications that proceed to the second steg are awarded funding.
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?
Societal relevance and open science
- What is the potential of the project to contribute to addressing issues of relevance to society?
- To what extent does the project contribute to open science and science communication, during the project process and/or through disseminating methods and results?
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?
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 Exceptional (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.
Grading rubric for Explore – Formas open call for research projects 2024
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Using AI as support in the review process
Formas' reviewers are currently not allowed to use AI tools to support the review of applications. There are several reasons for this. On the one hand, there is a great risk that information that is uploaded will be disseminated further. There are also risks related to secrecy and handling of personal data. Uploading an application or information from an application to any kind of AI tool means an unauthorized dissemination of information. This applies not only to AI tools but also to many other services and tools for storing and sharing data.
Using AI tools in the review of applications can also be difficult to comply with the principles of responsible assessment. The European Commission, together with the countries within the European Research Area, ERA, and other stakeholders has launched Guidelines for the responsible use of generative AI in research and innovation External link.. The guidelines state that the use of AI tools should be avoided in peer review.
AI as support in other parts of the review process
In this call, Formas will test two AI tools to support the clustering of applications into review panels for the call. The AI tools make use of semantic analysis to identify similarities across applications based on their content.
Formas makes two grant decisions in this call. On March 13, 2025, Formas decides what applications that do not proceed to the second step of the review process. On May 27, 2025, Formas decides what projects, of those that proceeded to the second step, that are awarded grants. You will receive an email when you can view the decision in Prisma. Information on granted projects is also published on Formas’ website, no later than the day after the decision was made. Grant award 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 longer than 18 months, a financial statement must also be submitted to Formas annually. All reports are submitted in Prisma.
How to report expenses and results.
Formas may impose requirements on how projects must be reported in terms of content and results to enable distribution and application. In such cases, the award decision will contain more information about this. Formas may also require you to participate in conferences and similar events in order to create synergies and platforms for learning and knowledge sharing.
Results of research funded by Formas must be published using immediate open access.
You must also have a data management plan for the data produced 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.
Digital information event about the call
Recording and presentation from the information event , 7.6 MB. about the call.
Contact information
Chat with us
You find the chat here on this webpage for Explore at these times:
- October 14 9.00-12.30
- October 15 12.30-16.00
- October 16 9.00-12.00
Frequently asked questions
We recommend that you visit our compilation of Frequently asked questions and answers.
For other questions about the call or Prisma
For questions that you do not find the answer to in Frequently asked questions and answers, please contact explore@formas.se.
