Explore puts chance to work
In Explore, you can apply for funding for innovative research projects
Explore is one of Formas’ most competitive calls. To get funded, you need a truly strong application – but also a certain amount of luck. Formas is now taking further steps to develop the review process through using chance as a support rather than a challenge, through what is known as partial randomisation.
In Explore, researchers can apply for funding for innovative research projects in the fields of environment, agricultural sciences, or spatial planning. The call for 2025 is now closed for applications and is currently in the review process. Since partial randomisation involves a change in the review process compared with previous years, we would like to draw your attention to this change and clarify what it means for you as a researcher .
Partial randomisation is a method for selecting which applications should receive funding, where some applications are chosen by chance. Partial randomisation has been developed as a way to address or mitigate the challenges and limitations that peer review may entail.
Partial randomisation can be carried out in many ways, depending on the intended outcome and on how much influence one wants peer review to have on the final decision (Shaw 2023). For most funders who have tested partial randomisation, it does not replace peer review but complements it.
“Partial randomisation offered a tool to improve their selection procedures while maintaining the core mechanism for the necessary quality control: expert reviewers’ judgement.” (Bendiscioli et al. 2022, p. 72).
If one wants to keep peer review as the core of the evaluation process, then partial randomisation with cut-offs at the top and at the bottom is the recommended and most widely used model (Shaw 2023). This means that, following peer review, applications are divided into groups based on their quality:
- Group 1: Applications of outstanding quality are not subject to randomisation – these are granted funding.
- Group 2: Applications of high and equivalent quality – here, randomisation is used to decide which are granted funding and which are rejected.
- Group 3: Applications that are not competitive or of low quality – these are rejected.
Thus, only applications in Group 2 undergo randomisation, hence the name “partial randomisation”. Group 2 corresponds to what is often referred to in the literature on partial randomisation as the “grey zone,” and comprises one of the main reasons why partial randomisation is expected to strengthen fairness in the assessment process:
“One of the limits of peer review is the inability to make absolute rankings when [applications] are very similar. This happens in particular after a first peer reviewed selection or ranking of a short-list of proposals that will definitely be funded, and rejection of those proposals that will definitely not be funded. In between these extremes, there is a “grey zone” of applications that differ so little from each other that they can essentially be considered equal in quality, and peer reviewers have difficulties in selecting among them.” (Bendiscoli & Garfinkel 2021, p.5)
Explore is one of Formas’ largest calls, where researchers can freely formulate a research question in the fields of environment, agricultural sciences, or spatial planning – or with an overarching perspective on sustainable development. Projects must be of the highest scientific quality and show great potential to contribute to sustainable development and other societal benefits
Which research projects receive funding through Explore?
Explore is one of Formas’ calls with the highest number of applications and the lowest success rate. To secure funding through Explore, you need a genuinely strong and well-developed project idea. But you also need a certain amount of luck. A large proportion of the applications submitted to Explore are of such high quality that it is difficult for the reviewers to identify relevant differences in quality in an objective manner.
“This increases the risk that various types of ‘noise’ will influence the assessment and the outcome,” says Josefin Wangel, who is responsible for the call. Examples of noise is when details are given greater weight than they should, or when some reviewers find it easier to argue their case than others.
How does random selection improve the process?
By using random selection, we can replace the noise with controlled elements of randomness.
"This reduces the risk of bias and power structures influencing the outcome," continues Josefin Wangel. All applications that are assessed as being of equivalent quality are given the same chance of receiving funding.
Does partial randomisation replace peer review?
As before, each application is reviewed by experts. In Explore, it is primarily active researchers from countries other than Sweden who review applications.
“Partial randomisation does not replace the peer review, but the panel meeting,” clarifies Josefin Wangel.
Once the peer review is complete, Formas compiles and standardises the grades, priority values and comments. If the grades for an application differ greatly, we ask the reviewers to look at the application again. We then divide the applications into three groups.
“Applications of outstanding quality go straight to funding,” says Josefin Wangel. This will apply to just a few applications. Applications of high and competitive quality go to randomisation. We believe that around 20–30 per cent of applications will end up here. And applications of lower quality or that are not competitive will be rejected.
How does this affect me as a researcher in terms of obtaining funding?
For a researcher with an outstanding application, there will be no major difference from today. Those most affected will be researchers with a truly strong application that is of the same high quality as several others. The biggest difference is that the noise that previously affected the outcome has now been replaced by a controlled randomisation.
Another change is that all applicants will now receive a so-called standard statement, as we do not have any panel meetings. In the standard statement, you will see. To let you know what priority value your application received and which randomisation group it ended up in, we will make lists available for each review panel when we publish funding decisions. Here you will also be able to see what standardised score your application received.
Funding decisions in May 2026
Formas will make its funding decisions on Explore on 21 April 2026. All applicants will be notified at the same time.
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