Funding

Calls for proposals

Information on available grants and external research funding is usually sent to relevant staff via email. You can also find information on current calls for proposals on the Staff Portal. You must log in to view the content via the links. You will also find links to the Research Professional call database and web pages on our external website su.se.

Overview of calls for proposals

Information on funding on the Staff Portal

Research Support

The Research Support Department is a central unit at Stockholm University whose aim is to help individual researchers apply for external grants and to facilitate contact with external funding bodies. On the Staff Portal, they provide, amongst other things, lists of current calls for proposals, research funders and information on the EU’s research programmes.

The Research Support Department also publishes a newsletter approximately eight times a year, featuring a selection of current and upcoming calls for proposals, news on research funding, and information on the activities, courses and seminars organised by the department. Sign up as a subscriber by emailing nyhetsbrev@fs.su.se

When applying for external funding at the department

Notify the department that you are applying for research funding

When applying for external research projects, the Head of Department must be informed. Your application must also be registered with the department’s administrative manager: anneli.hilmersson@su.se (rejections must also be registered)

Please state: a) the type of application and the funding body; b) the closing date for applications; c) whether you are the principal applicant or a co-applicant; and d) whether other higher education institutions or departments are involved, and if so, which ones. Book a budget meeting with the head of administration no later than three weeks before the application deadline.

Go through the budget with the head of administration

If, instead, you would like help drawing up a budget, please contact the head of administration. In that case, please include the following information in your email:

• People who will be participating in the project during each year and the percentage of their working hours dedicated to the project (e.g. 20 per cent per year). If these people are not employed by our department, Anneli needs to know their salary, year of birth and nationality, as well as whether they are employed by another higher education institution or similar organisation.
• Costs for planned travel and conferences.
• Publication costs/language editing/open access.
• Equipment, computers, video cameras, microphones and any literature.
• Ethics review fee.
• Other operating costs.
• The extent to which the funding body covers overheads (e.g. a certain percentage or a fixed sum).

Where a research project is to be funded by external funders, the application must include a budget comprising, amongst other things, indirect and direct costs associated with the project. What the various items entail is described in more detail on the Staff Portal. A template for calculating project costs is also available here, which researchers can use themselves.

Ethical review

Many research projects require ethical review, which you apply for via the Ethics Review Authority. A data management plan may also be required, in which you describe how research data will be managed. If you have any questions regarding ethics, you can contact the ethics support unit at the Department for Research and Collaboration Support. If this is the first time you are submitting an application, you can also contact the Head of Department or Acting Head of Department for advice. On the Staff Portal, you will find contact details for the ethics support unit and further information on ethics and legal matters.

Ethics and legal matters on the Staff Portal

Co-funding by the department

The Head of Administration calculates, amongst other things, whether indirect costs are covered by the grant from the funding body. Co-funding must be approved by the Head of Department (and the project director where relevant). For large projects, an application for co-funding may need to be submitted to the faculty. Commissioned projects must never be co-funded.

Contact the Head of Department for approval and signing of the application

The application must be approved and, in some cases, formally signed by the Head of Department. Applications to the Swedish Research Council (and several other funding bodies) must be signed electronically by the Head of Department in PRISMA. In isolated cases, the Head of Department must also formally submit the application; this applies, for example, to certain applications involving internal review within SU. These have earlier application deadlines than those specified by the funding body. Sometimes a written statement from the Head of Department is required. In such cases, you should draft the text yourself and send it to the Head of Department for finalisation.

To submit applications to organisations such as Forte and VR, you must first create an account in Prisma. Only staff with a PhD may hold such an account. You can find more information on how to create an account here: Prisma account

Registration of the application

Immediately after you have submitted your application, it must be registered and assigned a reference number, regardless of whether you are the principal or co-applicant. You should send your application in digital form to the Head of Administration (anneli.hilmersson@su.se), who will provide you with a reference number.

Notify the Head of Department and the Head of Administration of a rejection or approval

Whether you are the principal applicant or a co-applicant, you must forward notification of rejection or approval to the Head of Department and the Head of Administration.

Upon approval of external research funding

Once you have received a decision regarding external research funding, the Head of Department and the Head of Administration must be informed of this.

Registering the decision

The decision must be registered under the same reference number as your application. Send the reference number and the decision in digital form to the head of administration.

Awaiting approval

Approval to accept external research funding is granted by the head of department for amounts up to SEK 5 million, or by the Vice-Chancellor (for amounts over SEK 5 million). The decision is often signed in Prisma.

Agreement with the funding body and new budget

Following the decision, you will receive an agreement and, where applicable, a new financial framework from the funding body (in some cases, not all costs in the original budget may have been approved, or other adjustments may have been made by the funding body). If co-funding is required (often overheads), the Head of Department and/or the Head of Administration must approve the source of the funds.

Project home department and project number

If you are the principal applicant, the project must be based at the department. The Head of Administration applies to the Finance Department for a project number once the project has been approved. The Finance Department requires a signed agreement, the start and end dates for when the funds may be used, the date for the final report, the budget and information regarding the requisition of funds.
Thereafter, always use the project number in all communications with the department’s administration and provide it for all expenses (outlays, invoices, etc.) to the administrative manager.

Agreements with other higher education institutions

If other higher education institutions or organisations are involved, we always draw up an agreement, primarily to regulate how much funding is to be transferred and when, but also to clarify how co-funding is to be covered.

Research project page on the website and in SU’s digital research catalogue

Write a description of the research project for the website and SU’s central digital research catalogue and send it to communications officer Ulrica Nordström. Please feel free to update the information if anything special happens, such as a book publication, workshop, guest speakers, events, etc.

Workload planning

Plan well in advance, together with the director of studies or the staffing manager, how your time on the project is to be allocated. If you are allocated 50 per cent research time funded by external grants, you will teach for the remaining percentage in accordance with the allocation specified in your post (e.g. a senior lecturer whose post comprises 70 per cent teaching and 30 per cent research would, in this example, have a total research time of 65 per cent and teaching time of 35 per cent).

Recruitment of staff

If you have funding to recruit additional staff for the project, such as other researchers, post-docs, assistants or similar, please contact the Head of Department and the Head of Administration regarding recruitment, salary, office space, etc. Vacancies must be advertised if the individuals have not been named and their CVs included in the approved project application.

Purchase of procured equipment

If your budget includes funds for the purchase of computers, technical equipment, video cameras, software licences, etc., please contact the IT manager (Fredric Ericsson), who will make the purchases via call-off framework agreements. Please state the project number for accounting purposes.

Research data is stored on the university’s servers

Please ensure you handle and store data relating to the project in accordance with your data management plan. No files may be stored on personal computers, and all data and files must be regularly backed up to SU’s servers. As the project leader, you, and the department as the grant administrator, are responsible for security in relation to the collection, storage, backup and archiving of research data. Fredric Ericsson or the IT department can provide further information about servers.

Rules on travel and meetings

When travelling, attending conferences, inviting researchers or organising workshops etc., the project must comply with the government’s and SU’s rules on travel and meetings. Researchers are responsible for entering their own receipts, expenses and travel claims into Primula.

Monitoring and reporting

The department’s administrative manager carries out regular checks on the projects and assists with financial reporting to the funding body, but the primary responsibility for ensuring the project adheres to the approved budget lies with the project manager. Please feel free to contact the Head of Administration regularly to check the current balance and how much has been spent on each budget item. We would prefer to avoid having to repay funds, so please pay particular attention to the budget during the final year.