Swedish Research Council Consolidator Grants

The purpose of the grant is to give the most prominent junior researchers the opportunity to consolidate their research and broaden their activities as independent researchers. Within the framework of the call, the Swedish Research Council wishes to support researchers who have a scientifically interesting research idea, and who can convert and conduct the research task and thereby move the frontiers of research forward, or fill in existing gaps in knowledge.

Outline application

Applications for consolidation grants are submitted in a two-stage process. First, you as applicant must submit an outline application for evaluation. Applicants whose outline applications are approved may then submit a full application, with a more comprehensive research plan and possibly a more detailed description of ethical considerations. There must not be any other differences between the outline and full applications. For further information on the differences between an outline application and a full application, please see below under the heading “What happens next?”.

Eligibility criteria for grant applications

The following criteria must be fulfilled in order for you to be eligible to apply for the grant. We carry out checks to ensure unqualified applications are rejected from further processing.

Applicant

The applicant for a consolidation grant must be an individual researcher. You will be the project leader and have scientific responsibility for the project, and your level of activity in the project must be no less than 50 per cent of a full-time equivalent. You must hold a Swedish doctoral degree or a corresponding foreign degree, awarded no later than 7 years and no earlier than 12 years before the deadline for this call. The degree award date we use is the date you fulfilled all the criteria for a doctoral degree, such as mandatory courses, oral defence and an approved doctoral thesis. For applicants with Swedish doctoral degrees, the award date listed in Ladok applies.

Grants from the Swedish Research Council shall be administered by a Swedish university or HEI or another Swedish public organisation that fulfils our criteria for administrating organisations. To apply, your organisation must therefore be approved as an administrating organisation.

If you are awarded a grant, you must be employed by the administrating organisation at the start of and throughout the grant period, unless the Swedish Research Council approves an exception. The employment must equal at least 50 per cent of a full-time equivalent. You do not have to be employed by the administrating organisation at the time of applying.

Career age

To apply for a consolidation grant, your doctoral degree must have been awarded no later than 7 years ago and no earlier than 12 years ago at the deadline for the call, that is to say awarded no later than 27 February 2011 and no earlier than 27 February 2006. The degree award date we use is the date you fulfilled all the criteria for a doctoral degree, such as mandatory courses, oral defence and an approved doctoral thesis. For applicants with Swedish doctoral degrees, the award date listed in Ladok applies. You will not be able to complete your application if your doctoral degree was awarded less than 7 years ago or more than 12 years ago.

If your doctoral degree was awarded earlier, it is however still possible to apply if there are grounds for deductible time that are recognised by the Swedish Research Council. The Swedish Research Council’s recognised grounds are parental leave, positions of trust in trade union organisations and student organisations, mandatory service in the total defence forces, illness (own illness or care of close family members), general medical internship (maximum 24 months) or further training/specialist medical internship for clinically active professionals (maximum 24 months). Please note that we do not accept other employment, unemployment or holidays as deductible time. If you wish to claim deductible time, you must specify the recognised grounds and time involved in your application (please see instructions under “Descriptive information” below).

We carry out random checks and may request confirmation that supports the grounds for deductible time stated by you.

Number of applications and previous grants

What grants may I apply for simultaneously from the Swedish Research Council?

You may only submit one application for this grant under this call. Other restrictions on the grants you may apply for during the same year are shown in the table below.

Please note that if you are awarded a consolidation grant, you will not be able to apply for the Swedish Research Council’s undirected project grants for an overlapping grant period.

What eligibility criteria apply if I already have a grant from the Swedish Research Council?

There are certain restrictions if you are the project leader of a previously awarded grant that is ongoing, that is to say where the grant period (disbursement period from the Swedish Research Council) overlaps the grant period of the grant the application covers. Please note that the availability period, that is to say the time during which you can draw down the grant awarded, is normally longer than the grant period. Information about the criteria for your previous grant can be found in the “Approval of Conditions” you received from the Swedish Research Council. Please note that if you are awarded a consolidator grant and have an ongoing undirected project grant, or a project grant for junior researchers, this amount will be deducted from the standard amount of 2 million SEK during the grant period that overlaps your awarded consolidation grant.

Note: If you have been the project leader for previous grants from the Swedish Research Council that have ended, final financial reports for all of these must have been submitted within the permitted time frame in order for you to apply for a new grant. Please contact your administrating organisation if you are unsure whether all your final reports have been submitted.

What applies for applications to or grants from other funding bodies?

If your application to the Swedish Research Council relates to the same project idea as a grant you have already been awarded by, or are applying for to another funding body, please describe this.

Participating researchers

No participating researchers may be included in this application.

Costs and grant amounts

The amount you may apply for is a standard amount of 2 000 000 SEK per year, including indirect costs. The grant may be used for all types of project-related costs, but must not be used to finance your own salary or for scholarships. An exception applies for researchers within humanities and social sciences and within educational sciences, where the grant may be used to finance up to 50 per cent of your own salary.

The Swedish Research Council assumes that the administrating organisation will cover any costs in excess of the amount received.

Grant period

The grant period is 6 years, starting in January 2019. The first payment will be made during January 2019 at the earliest.

Three years after the start of the grant period, the project leader shall submit a mandatory report in the form of a presentation to the Swedish Research Council. The presentation shall focus on the scientific advances that the grant has enabled and how the researcher’s activities have developed, and may result in a review of the amounts for the remaining grant period.

How do I apply?

You apply electronically in Prisma, which is the application system used by the Swedish Research Council. You create your application in Prisma by filling in the text fields, uploading information from your personal account, and attaching the appendices requested.

To enable you to apply, your organisation must have been approved as an administrating organisation and have created an organisation account in Prisma.

What happens next?

When you have registered your application and the call closes (at 14.00/2 p.m. on the deadline date of the call), the registration of your application is automatically finalised and you are given a registration number.

Thereafter you will find information about the status of the application, registration number and signature of the application in your account in Prisma, under the tab “Applications and grants”.

Evaluation

The scientific evaluation of the application is carried out by active researchers. These peer reviewers evaluate the application in competition with the other applications on the basis of the evaluation criteria set by the Swedish Research Council. If an application is not completed according to the instructions, this will be weighed into the evaluation.

Decision

The Swedish Research Council will make a decision on the outline applications in May 2018. Shortly thereafter you will find a notice of the decision and a final statement on your application in your personal account in Prisma, under the tab “Applications and grants”. If your outline application is accepted, you will also receive notice via email, including instructions for how to submit a full application. Relevant information from the outline application will automatically be transferred to your draft for the full application, and you can then add the new information requested. The call for full applications will be open from 7 June to 28 August 2018.

Differences between a full application and an outline application

In relation to the outline application, the full application must include information such as: a more comprehensive project plan and possibly a more detailed description of the ethical considerations. Contrary to what applies to the outline application, the full application must also be signed by an authorised representative of the administrating organisation.