Climate adaptation of the built environment

To apply for a grant from Formas, you as main applicant should register an application online in the Prisma application system. To create an application in Prisma, you need a user account. We recommend that you create an account and an application as early as possible and contact Formas with any questions in good time.

Prisma

In order to register an application, you as main applicant must have one, by Formas approved administrating organisation for all types of calls.

Who can become an administrating organisation for all types of calls?

All limits for the maximum number of characters refer to characters including spaces. A recommendation is to choose the Arial font in font size 12 for the information you enter in all text boxes. Note, that if you write your application in a word processing program and then paste your application into Prisma, there is a risk the formatting will disappear. To ensure you don’t risk losing valuable information, tables and figures with advanced formatting or formulas should be uploaded as an appendix. Your application must include a clear description of the project under the following sections:

Basic information

• Number of years applied for.
• Project title in Swedish (max. 200 characters including spaces).
• Project title in English (max. 200 characters including spaces).
• Popular science description in Swedish (max. 4 500 characters including spaces). The popular science description will, if the project is granted funding, be published in open access project databases without a confidentiality review. Therefore, the contents of this field should not contain sensitive information.
• Abstract in Swedish (max. 1 500 characters including spaces).
• Abstract in English (max. 1 500 characters including spaces). The project abstracts in Swedish and English will, if the project is granted funding, be published in open access project databases without a confidentiality review. Therefore, the contents of these fields should not contain sensitive information.
• Check the box if you intend to apply for a grant from Vinnova
• Project title for your application at Vinnova

Research programme

• Aims and objectives of the proposed project, and a background description containing an overview of the research area (max. 7 000 characters including spaces).
• Description of the project, including a summary of the structure, theory, methods, performance, and a concrete and realistic plan for scientific publication and communication of results (max. 15 000 characters including spaces). Include the following points if you consider them relevant to the project:
  • a short description of existing and future needs for basic equipment
  • a brief description of national and international collaboration
  • confirmation of compliance with international agreements and regulations
  • supervisor if funding is sought for a doctoral student.

• Description of the societal value of the research question and planned communication with stakeholders and end users (max. 8 000 characters including spaces). Briefly describe the societal relevance of the research, how the project in the short or long term can contribute to sustainable development, how stakeholders and/or end users' needs have been taken into account in the design of the project and how the research and its results are communicated with and benefit stakeholders and end users. Support-grounds-of-assessment-societal-relevance-communication.pdf
• References (max. 5 000 characters including spaces). List the in-line references pertaining to the above sections in a separate field.

Budget

You report the project budget in Prisma Note that you should always write the budget and budget specification in English; any Swedish budget specification will not be translated but will instead be reviewed as it is by the international review panel. In Prisma, amounts should be written in full. For example, 1 million SEK should be written as: 1 000 000 SEK.

The budget should include

• Salaries including social fees for each person in the project, that is, researchers, doctoral students and other staff for whom there is an employment relationship. Note that the total salary amount for a single researcher, PhD student or other staff must not exceed 100 percent of full-time employment. This means that additional salary funding cannot be granted to researchers, PhD students or other staff who already receive grants or contributions with full salary funding. Researchers who are full-time pensioners cannot, in addition to their pension, receive funding for their own salary, without first reducing their pension by the corresponding percentage.
• Percentage of salary refers to the percentage of the applicant’s full-time salary that is equivalent to the salary in the project.
• Activity level in the project refers to the percentage of full-time service a project participant contributes. It indicates whether the applicant contributes in-kind services or other funding for completing the project.
• 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. These purchased services must be reported excluding VAT. Specify running costs in accordance with practices at the administrating organisation.
• Equipment costs and depreciation costs. Specify depreciation costs for equipment if relevant to the application. The total maximum amount you can be granted for equipment and equipment depreciation costs is 500 000 SEK in total.
• Premises. You can apply for funding for premises if this is not already included in the overhead cost in the project budget. Specify premises costs in accordance with practices at the administrating organisation.
• Total applied/Subtotal regard data already completed in previous budget tables and will be automatically transferred to this table.
• Indirect costs relate to overhead costs. Specify the indirect costs in the project budget in accordance with the practices at the administrating organisation. If funds will be transferred from the grant administrating organisation to another organisation that participates in the project, the receiving organisation’s overhead costs can be applied to the funds transferred. Explain and report the various overhead costs in the budget specification. The total overhead cost of the project should be entered into the budget table. Formas does not allow overhead for equipment depreciation costs or costs of premises.
• Other costs refer to funds that are not sought for but that are relevant for completing the project. An example is co-funding from collaborative partners. Also specify whether the project receives funding from other sources.
• Total cost refers to a budget summary.
• Budget specification. Provide a brief justification of the budget in words. Indicate how the amount applied for is divided into the amount per year and the total amount per organisation if several organisations are applying. Provide a brief justification for all salary costs and other costs. A description of the total project budget, including funding from other sources, should also be included. All other costs must be clearly justified, such as costs for participating in conferences, publication fees for open access to publications and data, etc. If you write in Swedish, please note that a budget specification in Swedish will not be translated to English but is a part of the evaluation of the international review panel.

When applying for funding from Vinnova, the project must ensure that double funding will not occur.

Ethical considerations

You must specify whether there are specific ethical concerns in your project. If so, you must describe the relevant ethical considerations and how they will be managed. Examples include research that uses personal data, or experiments on humans or animals.

If you are researching people, human tissue or sensitive personal data, you must obtain ethical approval from the Swedish Ethical Review Authority. In the case of animal testing, you must also have ethical approval. You can apply for this via the Swedish Board of Agriculture's e-service.

You must state in your application whether you have ethical approval or not. If you do not have it, and your application is granted funding, you must have ethical approval before the described experiments begin.

Even if your research is not expected to involve ethical approval, you should write this in your application, and justify how and why.

Classifications

Formas uses project classifications only in internal analyses and supporting documentation on an overall level. The classifications are made when the applicant states the subject area, SCB codes and at least one Sustainable Development Goal the project can contribute to.

Subject area.

Select at least one and a maximum of three subject areas and add a sub-heading.

Research subject (SCB code).

Select at least one and a maximum of three SCB codes with two sub-levels that together form the entire code.

Sustainable Development Goals

Select a minimum of one and a maximum of three Sustainable Development Goals that fit your project. When selecting more than one goal, set the goals in order of priority. As the meaning of the goals is sometimes narrower than what the title indicates, we encourage you to follow the link and read in more detail about the goal/goals you intend to specify to ensure that the intended research contributes towards achieving that particular goal. Sustainable Development (un.org)

Keywords

Administrating organisation - the organisation receiving the grant

In this call, only applicants who have an approved administrating organisation for all types of calls can register an application. Prisma contains a default list of approved administrating organisations.

• Select your approved administrating organisation from the drop-down list.
• Select your project site in the drop-down list.

An administrating organisation is the organisation that receives the grant from Formas when a grant is awarded. The main applicant must have a, by Formas, approved administrating organisation. Please see the instruction: Who can become an administrating organisation for all types av calls?

Participants

Participating researchers

• The main applicant invites participating researchers.
• A participating researcher is a researcher with a doctoral degree that is considered as a co-applicant for the project. A participating researcher must hold a doctoral degree by the close of the call at the latest. This must be outlined in the CV. See the CV section. Please note that a licentiate degree or research competence corresponding to a doctoral degree is not counted as a doctoral degree. Doctoral students cannot be participating researchers. It is also possible to have participating administrators, they are not involved in the project but help you fill in the application form.
• Each participating researcher must have created a user account in Prisma.
• The main applicant invites participating researchers into the application via the function Invite a participating researcher and by searching for their given name, surname and email address in Prisma (note that exact spelling of names and email addresses is required).
• Please note that invited participating researchers must accept the invitation to be a participating researcher and transfer their CVs and publications in the application so that the main applicant can register the application when it is completed. See further details in the CV section.

Participating co-applicants none-researchers

• The main applicant shall not invite participating co-applicants that are not researchers via Prisma.
• The main applicant uploads participating co-applicants (none-researchers) CV as a single PDF-attachment of max 4 MB.

Participation administrator

• The main applicant invites participating administrator via the function Invite a participating administrator and by searching for the administrator’s first and last name as well as e-mail address in Prisma (note that exact spelling of name and e-mail address is required).
• The main applicant can also add participating administrators into the application, who is not part of the project but helps to fill in the application in Prisma.

Note! The main applicant cannot register the application if there are unanswered invitations to participating participants or participating administrators. If so, these must first be removed.

CV for researchers

• Applicants should review their CV in Prisma in good time to ensure that it is complete and up to date.
• If participating researchers have not filled in the required fields correctly, the main applicant will not be able to complete the registration of the application.
• The following information regarding the main applicant and participating researchers' CVs must be added to the application:

Education. Postgraduate (doctoral), undergraduate and graduate level.

Professional history. Current position and relevant previous longer-term positions, postdoctoral residencies, research exchange visits relevant to the described research project, and any significant period of interruption in the research (such as parental leave, illness, military service, or political duties).

Merits and awards:

• Associate professorships.
• Supervision. Doctoral students, postdoctoral students, and exam project students; add as an individual or/and a group. When adding a group, state the total number in each respective category. When adding an individual provide the names of the most relevant supervisions (max. 10).
• Grants awarded in competition. Specify the most relevant grants (max. 10).
• Merits and awards. Specify the most relevant ones (max. 10).
• Other merits, including summary of publications. Here the main applicant and participating researcher’s publication history, for the last five years and in total if the applicant's active research period is longer than five years, should be summarised (max. 800 characters including spaces).
  
  This summary should include:
  • The number of publications of various types (such as articles in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, books and other monographs, conference papers and popular science contributions).
  • Any citation measures must be stated without self-citations and from which database these are retrieved.
  • The summary should not contain information about the H-index, Journal Impact Factor or any other type of measure used to rank publishers or journals. Under “Other merits,” you can list other qualifications that are relevant to the application, such as any popular science publications or proven experience of collaboration and research communication (max. 10).

• Intellectual property: For example, patents and open source software that you have developed (max. 10).

Appendices

CV-attachment for participating co-applicants (none-researchers). Maximum of a single attachment of 4MB in PDF-format can be uploaded. Recommended number av pages is 2 A4-pages per CV.

Appendix for illustrations. If you need figures, tables or images to describe the project, you can upload them as attachments here. A maximum of one PDF attachment of 4 MB can be uploaded.

We first verify whether your application falls within Formas’ areas of responsibility and the scope of the call. If it does, it continues to a review panel for assessment. If it does not, it is rejected. Your application can also be rejected if:

• It has not been signed or is rejected by the administrating organisation.
• The main applicant has applied for more than two million per year, on average.
• It contains procedural errors or is incomplete, meaning that it lacks the necessary information in the application form or the appendix. The basic requirements that must be met in this call can be found on page 5 “Applicant and organisation requirements”.
• If the basic requirements listed in the section ”Requirements for you and your project group” in this call are not fulfilled.
• The main applicant has not finalised their reporting for completed projects in any of Formas’ other calls.

Receiving a decision on your application

The applications will be assessed by an international evaluation group with competence to cover the current topic for the call. Each application is read and assessed by several members of the group. The evaluation group is appointed by Formas.

The application assessment process

The applications are assessed based on what is described in the application. It is therefore important that the application is clear, and that all important and relevant information is included.

Applications are assessed with respect to scientific quality and societal relevance. This includes the following four assessment criteria. Each criterion weighs equally heavily. Applications are assessed on the basis of the following criteria:

Research question

• Scientific relevance of the purpose.
• Originality and novelty of the purpose, theory and hypotheses.
• Possibility of significant scientific results.

​Method and performance

• Feasibility and suitability of the scientific methods.
• Well-defined and realistic work plan.
• Coordination of the project and the research group.
• The appropriateness of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches, where relevant.
• Where the proposed research requires ethical considerations, how these are taken into account.
• Reasonability of the budget in relation to the implementation of the project.

Scientific competence

• Scientific quality of the publications.
• Ability to carry out the project according to the project plan.
• Experience of supervision.
• Project management experience.
• National and international activities, including projects, networks, commissions, honorary commissions, participation in or organisation of workshops and conferences.
• Interest in, experience and ability to disseminate research and research results to stakeholders/end users.
• The composition of the project team is well motivated regarding gender, competence, and experience.

Societal value of the research question and communication of the result

• The research question involves important social/sectoral issues, nationally and/or internationally.
• The project has the potential over a short-term or long-term perspective to be utilised and contribute to sustainable development nationally and/or internationally.
• Stakeholder/end user needs have been taken into account in the design of the project.
• A concrete and realistic plan for both, scientific publishing and communication of results with relevant stakeholders and/or end users throughout the project’s duration.
• In the project’s design, relevant consideration is given to the needs of stakeholders or users. It is clearly stated for whom the results of the project will be of value.
• All criteria must be addressed in the application, and we advise applicants to clearly relate their application to these grounds of assessment. We also strongly advise applicants to structure and write the application clearly and accurately, as the review is based solely on the information contained in the application.

Formas’ Scientific Council is expected to reach a decision on 25 November 2021 concerning which projects will be granted funding. Decisions will be announced the following day, at the latest, on Formas’ website. Information that decisions have been made will be sent out via email from Prisma. The applicant’s decision is available in Prisma. Decisions about funding grants cannot be appealed.

The final financial and scientific reports for projects granted funding must be submitted to Formas within three months of the end of the availability period. For projects longer than 18 months, financial statements must be submitted each year.

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 from research funded by Formas must be published with open access.

Good to know before you apply

You need to have a data management plan for the data produced in the project. If you receive funding, you need to develop a plan for data management. The plan should not be sent into us but you should be able to present the plan upon request. We recommend that you follow the guidelines for data management plans developed by Science Europe. Read more about the guidelines in the report. Practical Guide to the International Alignment of Research Data Management (pdf).

Formas shares information about awarded grants to SweCRIS, a national database of grant-funded research that was instituted by request of the government.