Securing future water supply through sustainable management

With regards to this call for research projects, grants can only be administered by a Swedish university, institution of higher education, research institute, government agency with a research mandate, or other primarily research-focused organisations.

To apply for a grant in this call, the following criteria must be met:

• The principal applicant has obtained a PhD by the call's closing date.
• Participating researchers have obtained a PhD by the call's closing date. Other staff involved in the project do not need to have a PhD degree.
• The proposed grant recipient is identified as project manager on the application.
• There is no upper age limit for the principal applicant and participating researchers. However, full-time retired researchers are not eligible to receive funding for salaries.
• The principal applicant may submit a maximum of one application in this call. However, there are no restrictions on how many applications an individual can be a co-applicant for.
• An applicant is not allowed to submit the same application with different principal applicants. Applications that have the same content will be rejected.

When applying for project funding, you can seek to have both direct and indirect expenses covered. Direct expenses include salaries, equipment and travel. Indirect expenses are those shared with others in your organisation, such as administration, IT and renting of premises. Indirect costs are sometimes referred to as overhead.

• Grants for research projects can be used to cover salaries for researchers, PhD students and other staff.
• In addition to salary funding, grants for research projects can include funding to cover operating costs (consumables, consulting services, equipment, travel, conferences, publication in journals and open-access databases), depreciation costs for equipment, and premises costs. The maximum amount allowed for equipment and depreciation costs is a total of 1 000 000 kronor.
• If funds are to be transferred from the administrating organisation to another organisation involved in the project, then the overhead cost of the latter can be applied to the funds transferred. Explain and report the different overhead costs in the budget specification. The project's total overhead must be entered into the budget table.
• If grant money is to be transferred from the administrating organisation to another organisation or be used to purchase services, it must be done in accordance with the administrating organisation’s guidelines.

You can apply for funding for 3 – 4 years´ projects with a maximum budget of 12 million kronor for a three-year project and a total maximum budget of 16 million kronor for a four-year project. The total budget for this call is up to 160 million SEK.

Applications with a requested amount or project duration that does not fall within the above range will be rejected by Formas at an early stage and will not proceed to review.

The project start date is predefined in Prisma and cannot be changed. Funds for the first 12 months of the project will be paid out in 2022 (no funds are paid out in the final project year). Applicants should enter their budget in the application based on actual costs. Research project funding may be appropriated for one year after the end of the project. For administrative reasons, Formas can apply a payout plan that differs from the application’s allocation of the budget over time. The funds obtained must be used within 12 months of the end of the project.

The application should be written in English since the review panel is international. If you write your application in Swedish, a professional translator will translate into English only the section describing the research programme. You will not be able to amend the translation before the application proceeds to assessment. In addition, the popular science description must be written in Swedish, while the abstract should be in both Swedish and English. The budget specification and your CV will not be translated. So, please write these in English, even if you write the other sections in Swedish and submit the Swedish version of your application into our system.

Please note that if you have installed an automatic translation plugin in your browser, you risk having your text translated into the language that you have set as default when you paste your text into Prisma. We recommend that you check the language in the text well in advance of your final registration.

According to Swedish law, your application and its appendices are considered public upon receipt. 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 capacity to keep personal data confidential. Therefore, your application should not contain the personal data of anyone who is not a participating applicant.

If the project is granted funding, the popular science description and project abstracts, written in both Swedish and English, will be published in open-access project databases without a confidentiality review. Therefore, the contents of these sections should not contain sensitive information.

It is of great importance to Formas that the projects we finance are carried out in a way that maximises positive impacts and minimises negative impacts on the environment and climate. Therefore, we encourage grant applicants to design their projects to prioritise collaboration that takes place primarily through online meetings and ensure any necessary travel is as climate-smart as possible. We also suggest that measures for minimising energy use and other resource consumption, emissions and waste are included in your project planning. However, this will not be a part of the application assessment at this time.

Please read about Formas’ own sustainability work.

Formas is tasked with helping to advance society in a more sustainable direction. Equal opportunities and inclusion are crucial to this direction. We therefore encourage applicants to think as much as possible about designing the project so that it can contribute knowledge that reflects and is relevant to different groups in society. We also encourage you to consider gender balance in the project team and include participants with different backgrounds and experiences. However, this will not be a part of the application assessment at this time.

You apply for a grant in our application system, Prisma. This is where you input all necessary information for your application. To do this, you need to create an account.

Apply for a personal account in Prisma. External link.

All limits for the maximum number of characters refer to characters including spaces. We recommend that you use Arial font in size 12 for all information entered into the text boxes.

Note that if you write your application in word processing software and then paste your application into Prisma, you risk losing your formatting. Also note that if you have installed an automatic translation plugin in your browser, you risk having your text translated into the language that you have set as default when you paste your text into Prisma.

Tables and figures with advanced formatting or formulas should be uploaded as an attachment to avoid losing valuable information.

Your application must include a clear description of the project under the following sections:

Basic information

• Number of years for which the application applies.
• Project title in Swedish and English (max. 200 characters including spaces).
• Popular science description in Swedish (max. 4,500 characters including spaces). If the research project is awarded a grant, this will be published within open-access databases without a confidentiality review. The contents of this field should, therefore, not contain any sensitive information.
• Abstract in Swedish and English (max. 1,500 characters each, including spaces). If granted funding, project abstracts will be published in open-access project databases without a confidentiality review. Therefore, the contents of these sections should not contain sensitive information.

Research programmes

• Goals and objectives of the project, and a background description containing an overview of the research area (max. 7,000 characters including spaces).
• Project description, including structure, theory, methodology and implementation as well as a plan for publication in a scientific journal (20,000 characters including spaces).
  
  Include the following points if they are considered relevant to the project:
  • Brief description of existing and future need for new basic equipment
  • Brief description of national and international partnerships including collaboration with societal actors and other users.
  • Confirmation that international agreements and rules are being complied with
  • Principal supervisor if funding is sought for a PhD student

• Description of the project´s societal relevance
  
  Briefly describe the potential societal benefit that results from the research, how the project can contribute in the short or long term to sustainable development, how the project is designed to take stakeholders’ and other users’ needs into account, and how the research and its results will be communicated and benefit users.
  
  In a concrete and realistic work plan, briefly describe which relevant stakeholders and other users that applicants collaborate with, what key competences these collaboration partners have, and how responsibilities are distributed among the participants and how it applies to each work task. It should also include the extent to which the applicants have interacted with the stakeholders and other users in the design of the project, and the extent to which cooperation continues during the implementation of the project.
  
  This part of the description provides support for assessing societal relevance criteria both regarding societal benefit and communication. (15,000 characters including spaces).

• References included in-line under the points above should be entered in a separate field (5,000 characters including spaces).

Budget

The project budget is accounted for in Prisma. Note that the budget (specification) should always be written in English; any budget specification written in Swedish will not be translated, but will instead be assessed as is by the international review panel. In Prisma, write out the total amount you are applying for in kronor using digits. For example, 1 million kronor should be written as: 1,000,000 kronor.

The budget description should include the following

• Salaries, including social security contributions for each project participant. The total amount of the salary for a single researcher, PhD student or other staff must not exceed one hundred percent of full-time employment. This means that someone with a fully-funded salary during the entire project period, cannot receive additional funds for salary. Full-time retired researchers cannot receive funding for their own salary.
• Percent of salary refers to the percentage of the applicant’s full-time salary that corresponds to their salary in the project.
• Degree of activity in the project refers to what percentage of a full-time position is contributed by the participant. It details whether the applicant contributes in-kind or other funding towards the completion of the project.
• Running costs include, for example, consumables, travel, conferences and publication in open-access journals and databases. They can also include research services, technical expertise, consultancy services and equivalent services purchased or licensed from external players on market terms and used exclusively for the project. These purchased services must be reported excluding value-added tax (VAT). Specify operating costs in accordance with the practices applicable to the administrating organisation.
• Equipment and depreciation costs. Specify (depreciated) costs for equipment, if relevant to the application. The total maximum amount you can be granted for equipment and depreciated costs is 1 000,000 SEK.
• Premises. You can apply for funding to cover the cost of facilities, if this is not yet accounted for within the project's overhead. Specify premises costs in accordance with the applicable practices of the administrating organisation.
• Total amount sought/Subtotal refers to costs already entered in the previous budget tables, which will be automatically transferred to these items.
• Indirect costs refers to overhead costs. The overhead costs should be specified in accordance with practices applicable to the organisation that will manage the grant. If funds are to be transferred from the administrating organisation to another organisation involved in the project, then the overhead cost of the latter can be applied to the funds transferred. Explain and report the different overhead costs in the budget specification. The project's total overhead must be entered into the budget table. Formas does not grant funding for overhead costs that are written off for equipment or facilities.
• Other costs refers to funds not sought but relevant to the completion of the project. An example is co-funding received from partners or project funding received from other sources.
• Total cost refers to a budget summary.
• Budget specification explains the budget in words. State how the grant amount you are applying for will be distributed each year, as well as the total amount for each receiving organisation (if funds are to be transferred). Provide a brief justification for the salary expenses that were stated in the budget. All other costs shall be justified, such as participation in conferences, fees for open access to publications and data, any purchase of services, costs related to activities carried out in cooperation with users, etc. Also state the total project budget, including funding from other sources. The budget specification is part of the application assessment.

Ethical considerations

Specify if there are any ethical concerns with the research project. If so, state what they are and how you plan to manage them. Examples include research that uses personal data or research involving experiments on humans or animals.

If you are conducting research on people, human tissue or are processing sensitive personal data, you must obtain ethical approval from the Swedish Ethical Review Authority. Additionally, if you are conducting research on animals, you must also obtain ethical approval. You can apply for approval through the Swedish Board of Agriculture’s online service.

You should state in your application whether or not you have obtained ethical approval. If you have not, but are awarded a grant, then you must obtain approval before the study in question begins.

Even if your research is not expected to warrant ethical concerns, this should be stated and briefly explained within the application.

Classifications

Formas uses the project’s classifications in analyses and supporting documentation at an overall level. These classifications are made when the applicant states the subject area, research topic (SCB code), at least one SDG the project can contribute to, and keywords.

• 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 research topics and two sub-topics that together form the entire code.

• Global sustainable development goals (SDGs)
  Select a minimum of one and a maximum of three sustainable development goals (SDGs) that best fit your project. When selecting more than one SDG, specify them in priority order. 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 goals you intend to specify to ensure that the intended research contributes towards achieving that particular goal.

• Keywords
  Enter a minimum of one and a maximum of three keywords describing the project.

Administrating organisation – the organisation receiving the grant

In this call, only applicants from Formas’ administrating organisations that are approved for all calls can submit an application. Prisma contains a default list of approved administrating organisations.

• Select your administrating organisation from the drop-down list.
• Project site.

An administrating organisation is the organisation that receives the grant from Formas. Applicants under this call must have an administrating organisation that is approved by Formas.

Become an administrating organisation for all types of calls

Project participants

• The principal applicant invites participating researchers to the application, in Prisma.
• A participating researcher is a PhD-researcher who is considered a co-applicant for the project. Participating researchers must have obtained their PhD degree by the time the call closes. This must be stated in their CV. See the next section, “CVs”. Note that licentiate degrees or other research expertise that is equivalent to a doctoral degree does not count as a PhD degree. PhD students cannot be participating researchers.
• You can also have participating administrators who are not involved in the project but who help you fill in the application form. Participating administrators cannot register the application; this must be done by the principal applicant.
• All participants must have created their own personal account in Prisma.
• Principal applicants invite people to participate in the application process by searching for their given name, surname and email address in Prisma (note that exact spelling of names and email addresses is required).
• Note that invited participating researchers must accept the invitation to become a participating researcher and transfer their CVs and publications to the application so that the principal applicant can register the application when it is ready. See the next section, “CVs”.
• Also note that the principal applicant will not be able to register their application if there are outstanding invitations to participating researchers or participating administrators. These must be removed before proceeding.

Please note that stakeholders and other userswho are not active researchers but are involved in the project cannot be participants (co-applicants) in the application. These can instead be described in the application's project description.

CVs

The project manager and participating researchers retrieve CV information from their respective accounts in Prisma and add it to the application. Applicants should review their CV in Prisma, to ensure that it is complete and up-to-date. If participating researchers have not accepted the invitation or have not filled-in the required fields correctly, the principal applicant will not be able to complete registration of the application. Participants who are not co-applicants do not have the ability to attach CV information. Instead, their qualifications for the project should be described in the research programme.

The following CV information should be added to the application.

• Education
  • Postgraduate studies
  • Undergraduate and graduate studies
• Employment history
  • Current employment and any relevant previous long-term employment
  • Postdoctoral assignments
  • Research exchanges relevant to the proposed research
  • Any significant gaps in the research (such as parental leave, illness, military service or political duties)
• Qualifications and merits:
  • Lectureships
  • Supervised students: PhD students, postdocs, graduate thesis students; add either as an individual person or as a group. When adding groups, enter the total number for each category. When adding an individual person, name the most relevant (max. 10).
  • Grants received in competition: Specify the most relevant ones (max. 10).
  • Awards and distinctions: Specify the most relevant ones (max. 10).
  • Other qualifications, including summary of publications:
    • Other relevant qualifications should be listed here, such as popular science publications and documented experience with collaboration and research communication (max. 10).
    • The principal applicant and participating researchers should also provide a brief summary of their publications during the past five years, as well as in total, if the applicant’s active research period exceeds five years (max. 800 characters including spaces). This summary should include the following:
      • The number of various types of publications (such as articles in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, books and other monographs, conference papers and popular science contributions)
      • The summary must not contain information about journal impact factors or any other type of metric used to rank publishers or journals.

Publications

The principal applicant and participating researchers should list up to ten of their most relevant publications. The publications should be linked from the applicants’ personal profiles in Prisma. You must present the publication summary in Prisma under “Other qualifications”.

Appendices

Appendix for illustrations. If figures, tables or images are needed to describe your project idea, you can attach them as an appendix. A maximum of one PDF attachment (4 MB) can be uploaded.

First, Formas verifies that the application meets the procedural requirements set out in the call. If it 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 requirements for project managers, project participants and organisations under “Applicant and organisation requirements” are met.
• The principal applicant who is 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.

The applications are assessed based on the following criteria:

Applications are assessed with respect to scientific quality and societal relevance. This includes the following five assessment criteria.

Assessment criteria for scientific quality

Research question

The review panel will assess your application according to the following:

• Scientific significance of the project's purpose.
• Originality and novelty of the application's purpose, theory, and hypotheses.
• Potential for scientifically significant findings.
• Whether the purpose is aligned with the call

The evaluators will also note multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches as they relate to the current research question.

Method and performance

The review panel assesses the following:

• Feasibility and suitability of the scientific method
• Whether the work plan is well-defined and realistic.
• The degree of inclusion of stakeholders and other users in the project’s planning and implementation
• Whether the plan for scientific publication and dissemination of information is well-defined and realistic
• Coordination of the project and research team
• Appropriateness of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches if these are chosen
• Whether the proposed research requires ethical considerations and how the applicant plans to take these into account.
• Whether the budget is reasonable in relation to the project’s organisation and expected results.

Scientific competence

Here, the review panel weighs the following:

• Scientific quality of the publications.
• Ability to complete the project according to plan.
• Knowledge of user perspectives and useful application relevant to the project.
• Supervisory experience.
• Project management experience.
• National and international activities including projects, networks, assignments, honorary assignments, as well as participation in or arranging workshops or conferences.
• Interest, experience and ability to communicate the research (findings) with stakeholders and users.
• Strength and competitiveness of the research team.
• The review panel evaluates the quality of scientific publications with respect to the standards pertaining to each discipline. The evaluation focuses on the content and quality of the publications rather than on where they were published.
• Publications are only part of what is factored into the criteria of scientific excellence. In their evaluations, the reviewers also consider other forms of results achieved and experience. This includes, for example, the dissemination of knowledge and training, patents, products, or impact on policy.
• The evaluation accounts for any relevant reasons for gaps in the research, such as parental or sick leave, that might have had an impact on the applicant’s overall productivity. That is, the findings and experiences described by the applicant are assessed in relation to active research time.

Assessment criteria for societal relevance

Potential societal values of the research question

The review panel will assess how well you motivate how your proposed research addresses the following considerations:

• The research question addresses significant societal issues, or a sector covered by the call, nationally, internationally or both.
• The needs of stakeholders and/or users for the research findings are considered by the applicants within the project’s design.
• The project design takes into consideration the degree to which applicants have collaborated with relevant stakeholders and other users in the design of the project as well as the degree of collaboration during the project execution.
• The project and its results can create short- or long-term benefits and contribute to sustainable development, nationally or internationally, or both.
• The purpose of the research must be aligned with the call.

The term “stakeholders and other users” may include public organisations, municipalities, municipal companies, regions, companies, trade associations, industry organisations, within all sectors of society (agriculture, forestry, aquaculture, industry, water services, tourism, etc.). Their engagement and impact on the development and implementation of the project can promote and provide added value to the project and its findings.

The terms “stakeholders” and “users” are broadly defined as actors who can benefit from the research findings or enable their future use throughout society. This includes actors outside or inside the research community (depending on whether the project is of a more basic or applied nature), nationally or internationally.

Communication with stakeholders and users

In this call, the review panel will evaluate the degree of involvement of stakeholders and other users relevant to the project throughout the project.

The review panel assesses whether the application contains:

• A description of the relevant stakeholders and other users included in the work.
• A concrete, realistic work plan for involving the above-mentioned stakeholders and other users in the project that contains distribution of responsibilities, type of work tasks and deliveries.
• A description of (a) other stakeholders and/or users who may benefit from the generated findings and (b) how the project and its findings will be communicated to stakeholders and/or users. Communication with stakeholders and/or users can take place in different ways and within different timeframes, depending on the research question. However, it should include various forms of dialogue with stakeholders and potential users of the research.

All assessment criteria must be addressed within the application, and we advise the applicants to ensure these correlations are clear. We also strongly advise applicants to be very attentive to how the application is structured, as well as its clarity, as the evaluation is based solely on the enclosed information.

A decision on which projects are granted funding is expected to be taken on 23 November 2022. The decisions will be published on the Formas website the following day, at the latest, and you will get later an email saying that the decision is available in Prisma. Grant decisions cannot be appealed.

All approved projects must report financial and project findings to Formas within three months of the end of the disposition period. An annual financial statement must be submitted to Formas for projects that are longer than 18 months. All reports are submitted in Prisma.

How to report expenses and findings

Formas may impose requirements on how projects must be reported in terms of content and findings to enable distribution and utilisation. In such cases, more information will be presented with the approval decision. 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 open access.

You must also have a management plan for the data produced in the project. If you receive funding from us, you must develop such a plan. 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.

Open access to research results and data

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