Instructions on funding applications for research networks in 2025
16/12/2024
The Research Network Support offers funding to establish or sustain networks of researchers who initiate collaborative projects, foster academic exchange, and develop ideas that may lead to future research funding applications.
Overview
- Eligible Applicants: Groups of researchers. The project manager must be affiliated with a Swedish higher education institution, with at least one member from Södertörn University. Preference is given to networks primarily composed of international participants. Doctoral students are welcome to participate.
- Project Duration: Maximum of one year.
- Maximum Grant Amount: SEK 150,000.
- Grant Administrator: A Swedish higher education institution.
- System: All applications are submitted via the Foundation’s application system.
Key Dates
- Application Opening: 16 December 2024, 9:00 am.
- Application Deadline: 31 January 2025, 3:00 pm.
- Decision Notification: May 2025.
Instructions and Conditions
A. General Requirements
- Language: Applications must be in English. Applications incomplete or partially in Swedish will not be reviewed.
- Applicable Funding Period: Begins 1 September 2025.
- Documentation: Submit project descriptions, references, and CVs as individual PDF files. No additional attachments are allowed.
- Grant Administrator: Must be a A Swedish higher education institution. A different Swedish institution may be allowed, but the Foundations approval is required prior to submission.
- Signatures: Obtain digital or scanned signatures from the project manager and grant administrator (usually the head of department, prefekt) by the application deadline. Applications that have not been signed by the project manager and grant administrator’s authorised representative will not be processed.
- Additional Funding: If seeking funds from other sources for similar projects, disclose this in the application. Should funding from another source be secured, notify the Foundation immediately and select one source of funding.
- Co-Funding: Typically, co-funding with another research funder is not allowed.
- Data Privacy: Project managers are responsible for informing participants about data collection as outlined in the Foundation’s Data Privacy Policy.
- Grant Publication: Information on awarded grants, including project details and a summary, will be published on the Foundation’s website.
- SweCRIS Reporting: Grant information is shared with the national SweCRIS database.
- Extension: Applications for extensions of previously awarded network grants are permitted.
B. Applicants
- Project Manager: Must hold a doctoral degree and be affiliated with a Swedish higher education institution. The Project manager oversees the network’s progress and serves as the Foundation’s main contact.
- Composition: The network should preferably be largely international, with a core group including at least one Södertörn University researcher. The network must be based in a Swedish higher education institution.
- Core Group: Name participants in the application and attach their CVs.
- Doctoral Students: May participate in the network.
- Participation Limit: Each researcher can be included in only one network application per year.
- Ongoing projects: Researchers with ongoing Foundation-funded projects may apply for a network grant without submitting a final report on their existing projects. For details see overview Which grants may I apply for and have simultanously?.
- Baltic Sea and Eastern Europe Programme: Participants may apply for or join network applications even if involved in this program.
- Age Limit: There is no age limit.
- Exclusions: The Foundation is complying with the Government’s request to ensure that contacts and collaborations with Russian and Belarusian state institutions cease immediately and no new ones are initiated. The Foundation will not fund research collaborations linked to the state in Russia or Belarus.
C. Budget and Costs
- Maximum Amount: SEK 150,000.
- Eligible Costs: Meeting-related expenses, indirect costs as per grant administrator policies.
- Travel and Hospitality: Expenses must adhere to grant administrator´s policies.
- Ineligible Costs: Salaries, conferences, publications, and pilot studies.
- Conference Funding: Funding for organization of conferences may be applied for separately under conference grants.
D. Project Duration, Grant Period, and Reporting
- Maximum Duration: One year. No additional availability period is added.
- Final Report: The project manager must submit a financial and scientific report within four months after the grant period ends. Reports will be published on the Foundation’s website.
E. Assessment
- Evaluation: A specialized panel assesses applications and makes recommendations for approval or rejection. Decisions are final and no reasons for the decisions are given. See the composition of the panel.
- Criteria: Evaluation is based on:
- Scientific potential
- Relevance to the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe
- Network composition
- Quality of planned activities
- Impact on Södertörn University research and doctoral programs
- Relevance to society
- The content of the research network must be highly relevant to the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe. The same description of this relevance as the one applying to research projects is also applied with respect to research networks. See below.
Research network’s relevance to the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe
According to the Statutes, the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies funds research related to ‘the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe’. The ‘Baltic Sea Region’ is the Baltic Sea itself and the surrounding areas. ‘Eastern Europe’ refers to post-communist Central, Southern and Eastern Europe (see further information on the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe). The Foundation does not fund research relating exclusively to Sweden or Swedish conditions. However, support may be provided for research that concerns Sweden, or countries entirely outside the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe, in comparative studies where this is scientifically justified.
For the research to be deemed highly relevant to the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe, it must make a practical contribution to our knowledge of this area. Research within the region that involves collaboration with researchers, research institutions and other stakeholders in the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe is particularly relevant. Research with a more theoretical main question, in which the importance of the Baltic Sea Region or Eastern Europe is not justified in terms of the main question or where the link to the region is indirect, is regarded as less relevant.
Relevance to society
The relevance of the research to society, where it can be applied, is another key criterion in the assessment of a funding application. The findings from such research may bring practical benefits to the communities or societies under investigation and/or help to solve current problems there. Alternatively, the results may provide a background theoretical or empirical explanation for these problems.
F. Application Instructions
- Submission: Use the Foundation’s application system (Apply).
- Application Components
- Summary: Up to 1,500 characters describing the network’s purpose and implementation.
- Project Description: Max. three pages, Times New Roman 12 points, line spacing 1.5. Include:
- purpose
- planned activities
- research relevance to the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe
- how the research network contributes to research and/or doctoral studies at Södertörn University
- time schedule (with dates as precise as possible) and implementation
- participants’ functions
- expected output
- relevance to society
- Application for continuation: If the application is for an extension of previous approved funding for a research network it must also, in addition to the above points, clearly describe what has been achieved in the network and how the network is to be managed in the period ahead.
- References: Maximum five pages with complete citations.
- CVs: Up to two pages per participant, including essential academic achievements.
- Budget: Detailed cost estimates and justification. Specify indirect costs per administrator rules. Note that all costs must be specified and justified in detail in the space for ‘Budget commentary’. This means, first, that you must provide a realistic calculation of individual costs, and define them precisely at a level of detail that permits assessment of their suitability in relation to the purpose of the network. Second, that the costs must be justified and arguments for them presented, based on the purpose and implementation of the individual network. Unspecified or unjustified costs are not approved.
- Signatures: The application is digitally signed with BankID in the Foundation’s application system Apply. If BankID is not available a special signature form is downloaded from the application system. The application must be signed by both the project manager and grant administrator’s representative, confirming understanding and agreement with grant conditions.
- Post-Submission Changes: Contact the Foundation’s secretariat for amendments after submission.
Contact information
Zofia Makowska, e-mail: zofia.makowska@ostersjostiftelsen.se