Instructions on funding applications for publication grants in 2024

02/11/2023

Researchers who have had a research project funded by the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies can, within three years after the final report is issued on a two- or three-year project, postdoctoral project or grand project, apply for grants to publish research results from the project. This form of support may also be applied for by project managers awarded conference grants.

Eligible to apply: a former project manager for a research project on which the final report has been issued, or for a conference grant with funding from the Foundation.

Intended for: results produced in research projects funded by the Foundation, or a conference anthology issued by a publisher in conjunction with a conference grant funded by the Foundation. This grant may be sought for actual, specified costs connected with publication and listed by written agreement with a publisher, and also for other services purchased — language editing, graphic design and illustrations, for example. Publishing must take place with immediate open access. This form of support does not relate to publication in the course of an ongoing research project.

Grant administrator: a higher education institution in Sweden.

Key dates:

• The call opens on Monday 8 January 2024at 9:00 am and closes on Friday 29 November 2024 at 3:00 pm.
• Applications may be submitted at any time during the call.
• Decisions are taken four times annually: in March, June, September and December. Deadlines for submission of applications before respective decision are: 29 February 2024, 31 May 2024, 31 August 2024 and 29 November 2024.

Applications are submitted in the Foundation’s application system.

Instructions and conditions

A. General

1. Please note that the whole application must be written in English. Incomplete applications and/or applications written partly in Swedish will not be considered. Neither will applications that clearly fail to meet the Foundation’s basic requirement of relevance to the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe.

2. The project description and agreement with the publisher are uploaded as separate PDF files. No appendices may be attached, other than the PDF files requested in the application system.

3. The grant administrator for an approved publication grant must be a Swedish higher education institution. There may be other Swedish grant administrators, but the Foundation’s approval must be obtained before the application is submitted.

4. The application must be approved by the grant administrator. This is attested by means of either digital signatures in the Foundation’s application system or a form signed by the project manager and the grant administrator’s authorised representative (usually the head of department, prefekt). This form is downloaded from the application system. The digital signatures or the undersigned form must be enclosed with the application form at the same time as the funding application is submitted. Applications that have not been signed by the project manager and the grant administrator’s authorised representative will not be processed. See more about what signing means under the heading ’Signatures’.

5. The project manager is responsible for work on the publication. The project manager is also the contact person for the publication vis-à-vis the Foundation and the grant administrator when the application is generated, during the assessment period and after a funding decision has been made.

6. If funds for the same publication are also sought from another funder, this must be stated in the application. If funding is received from another funder, the Foundation’s secretariat must always be notified of this fact. The project manager may then choose which of the grants to utilise.

7. The Foundation does not normally approve co-funding of a publication with another research funder.

8. For results published with the Foundation’s publication grants, there must be immediate open access. This applies to monographs as well.

9. When an application is submitted to the Foundation, particulars are collected and processed to enable management of the application. If the project involves more than one project participant, the project manager is in charge of ensuring that all the participants are informed that the Foundation collects personal data required for the processing. See also the Foundation’s Data Privacy Policy. Confirmation in the application system that the project manager has received the Foundation’s Data Policy is obligatory before the application is submitted.

B. Applicants

1. Only researchers who have had a research project or a conference grant funded by the Foundation may be applicants.

2. Funds for publication may be applied for within three years after issue of an approved final report on a research project or in connection with an approved conference grant funded by the Foundation.

3. Only the project manager for a project funded by the Foundation on which a final report has been issued or for an approved conference grant may be an applicant for a publication grant. Project participants from a previous project funded by the Foundation cannot apply for funding within this form of support.

4. 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. Costs and amount of grant

1. The application must relate to actual, specified costs connected with the publication.

2. Funds may be applied for to cover costs related to the publication, such as language editing, layout, images, printing and publishing with open access, and for indirect costs (overheads). Translation should primarily be done by the researcher, but if there is an agreement with a publisher that involves translation into a language that the researcher does not master, funding for translation may be granted.

3. Publication grants may relate to articles in journals; monographs and anthologies; and conference anthologies issued by publishers in conjunction with conference grants funded by the Foundation.

4. Funding of conference publications of two types, abstract collections and proceedings, cannot be applied within this form of support. However, funding for these two types of publications can be included in an application for conference grants.

5. Funding awarded is disbursed by the Foundation once the final report is approved.

D. Application period, grant availability and reporting

1. Publication grants may be applied for within three years after the final report on a research project funded by the Foundation has been submitted or in connection with an approved conference grant.

2. An approved publication grant must be used within 12 months at most after the award date.

3. Within four months after the end of the availability period, a final report comprising a financial part and a scientific part must be submitted to the Foundation. Other forms of follow-up may also occur.

4. The final report must contain information on where the publication is being published and a link to the publication. The final financial report must contain a specification of costs claimed and also particulars for disbursement of the funds.

E. Assessment

Applications to the Foundation for publication grants undergo assessment by the Foundation’s research director and the chair of the research committee. Decisions are taken four times annually: in March, June, September and December. Documentation for the assessment comprises the application and the written agreement with a publisher. Note that all research supported by the Foundation must be relevant to the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe.

The publication must be highly relevant to the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe. The same description of this relevance as that relating to research projects is also applicable to publication grants. See below.

Under its 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 when this is scientifically justified.

For the research to be judged highly relevant to the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe, it must make a specific contribution to our knowledge of this area. Research within the area involving 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 explained in terms of the main question, or where the link to the region is indirect, is judged less relevant.

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

1. Applications are submitted in the Foundation’s application system.

2. The whole application must be written in English.

3. The project manager must have an account in the Foundation’s application system Apply and submit the application. The account must be registered to the project manager’s email address. No other person than the project manager has access to the application in the application system.

4. In the application system, it is important to choose the application form for the correct category of support. Otherwise, there is a risk of the application being rejected without consideration.

5. All the information filled in is saved automatically in the application system. A project manager who stops working in the system for 60 minutes is automatically logged out (with the information saved automatically).

6. Once the application has been sent in, the project manager personally cannot change it. If changes in the application are necessary, contact the Foundation’s secretariat.

7. The application system does not send confirmation that an application has been submitted. To verify its submission, log in to the application system and check that the space under ‘Status’ in the application shows ‘Submitted’. There, the application sent in can also be downloaded as a PDF file.

8. For a person with no Swedish Personal ID number, write ‘-XXXX’ after the date of birth, as follows: YYYYMMDD-XXXX.

Application

Summary 

The summary may be up to 1,500 characters, including spaces, in length. It must describe the content of the publication and, in particular, its relevance to the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe and its target group. The summary must be written in a way that people with other research specialisations, too, can understand.

Project description

The project description may comprise a maximum of two pages of text. It must cover the research task, especially its relevance to the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe; relevance to society; the content of the publication; and the target group.

Agreement with publisher

Here, the agreement with the publisher must be uploaded. Note that only one agreement, with a single publisher only, may be uploaded.

Project costs

Here, a budget in SEK for the publication and indirect costs is provided.

Figures for indirect costs (overheads) are estimated according to, and must be compatible with, the grant administrator’s rules for indirect costs.

Within this form of support, funding for salaries is not available.

Budget commentary

Note that all direct costs must be specified and justified in detail in the space for ‘Budget commentary’. Specify the various costs of the publication, such as language editing, layout, images, printing and publishing with open access. Unspecified or unjustified costs are not approved.

The calculation of total indirect costs (overheads) must be explained in the budget commentary.

Note that the commentary, too, must be written in English and that it is obligatory. The budget commentary may be up to 3,000 characters, including spaces, in length.

Signatures

The application must be signed by the project manager and the grant administrator’s authorised representative, who is usually the head of the department (prefekt) where the project is intended to be based. The Foundation processes signed applications only.

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 signature form must be signed by both parties manually, on paper, scanned and uploaded to the application system.The project manager’s signature represents confirmation that:

• the information in the application is correct and in line with the Foundation’s instructions
• the project manager will comply with all the conditions applying to the grant.

The grant administrator’s signature represents confirmation that:

• the grant administrator approves the cost calculation in the application
• the grant administrator will comply with all the conditions applying to the grant.

The parties must have discussed the above points before the project manager and the grant administrator’s representative approve and sign the application.