Formas' annual open call

In the annual open call Formas welcomes applications within its three areas of responsibility – Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning. The purpose of the call is to enable researchers to address self-identified research needs.

Next steps for our annual open call

The annual open call is Formas’ biggest call. For 2024, we are adjusting the call so it can better contribute to addressing the major challenges facing Sweden and the world. More specifically, this means that the annual open call will be divided into two separate calls: a call for early-career researchers and a call for research projects.

Annual open call 2023

Fund­ed pro­jects 2023

Decision was given 7 November 2023.

Changes regarding eligibility in Formas’ annual open call for 2023

Are you the main applicant (project manager) for an ongoing research project that Formas is funding? Following changes regarding eligibility might affect you if you want to apply for a grant from us.

Changes in Formas’ annual open call for 2023

Research for sustainable development

Formas funds research for ecologically, economically and socially sustainable development and that can contribute to achieving the global sustainable development goals.

In 2015 the United Nations member countries adopted 17 global sustainable development goals to support and accelerate sustainable development efforts. The goals apply to all countries and levels - global, regional, national and local, and are central to Formas’ areas of responsibility; Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning.

The research that is supported by Formas must be of the highest scientific quality, be of benefit to society in the short-term or long-term and may apply to all levels of society. Formas strives to promote equality between women and men and for the importance of gender and other critical perspectives to be included in the research.

Ten review panels

The subject areas of the review panels are inspired by the global sustainable development goals. The panels are also designed to accommodate both the depth and breadth of content in the more than one thousand applications that are submitted to the Formas annual open call. The review panels are therefore broadly defined in order to encompass the various social, economic and environmental objectives within Formas’ areas of responsibility.

The applicant formulates their own research questions. There are no strict boundaries between the panels. The same application may be relevant to several panels, however will be evaluated by the panel with reviewers with the most appropriate competence.

The purpose of the descriptive text is to help those submitting Formas annual open call applications to determine which panel, or panels, applications are most applicable to.

Review panel structure

The panels are comprised of 15-20 reviewers, including both active researchers and experts with experience of using research results. The reviewers have the competence to evaluate social science, humanities, natural science and technical research within Formas’ areas of responsibility. They also evaluate interdisciplinary research (crossing subject boundaries) and transdisciplinary research (bridging research and societal boundaries).

To ensure that the review panel has the competence to review all of the applications, the composition of each respective review panel is not finalised until after all of the applications have been received. If a specific competence should nonetheless be lacking for a particular application the application will be evaluated by members of the other review panels, or by external reviewers.

Evaluation and decision

The review panels assesss and rank the applications. Formas’ Scientific Council then makes the decision on whether to grant or reject funding for the project. The available funding is allocated according to application pressure, or in other words, according to the number of applications processed by each respective review panel.

Related information

With Weave, researchers from two or three European countries can submit a research application to one of the participating funding organisations and it will then undergo a single evaluation.

Weave – Simplified funding procedures for projects across European borders


Formas will not award grants to projects with participating researchers employed at Russian or Belarussian institutions due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Formas actions due to the ongoing war in Ukraine

Updated:7 February 2024
Page manager: Judit Wefer