Extreme weather: effects, measures and solutions for a long-term sustainable and resilient society

To apply for a grant in this call for proposals, the following applies:

Main applicant (project leader)

• The main applicant must hold a doctoral degree by the close of the call at the latest.
• A licentiate degree or research competence corresponding to a doctoral degree is not counted as a doctoral degree.
• The proposed grant recipient must be stated as the main applicant in the application.
• The main applicant may register a maximum of one project application to Formas in the call. If the main applicant has more than one final registered application in Prisma after the close of the call, all the main applicant’s applications in the call will be rejected.
• A main applicant is allowed to simultaneously apply as a participating researcher (co-applicant) in other applications in the call.
• It is not permitted to submit the same application with different main applicants in the call. Submitted applications that have the same or similar content will all be rejected.
• There is no upper age limit for the main applicant and participating researchers. However, researchers who are full-time pensioners are ineligible to receive funding towards salaries, without first reducing their pension by the corresponding percentage.

Participating researcher

• A participating researcher is a researcher with a doctoral degree that is a co-applicant for the project. Participating researchers must hold a doctoral degree by the time the call closes and be affiliated with a Swedish or foreign academic institution such as a university, university college or research institute.
• Researchers that are working in and are employed by companies and other organisations that carry out economic activities cannot be invited as participating researchers (co-applicant) and cannot be included in the budget for the grant you apply for. However, it is possible to have funds from other sources in the project, from companies in-kind, which means that they do not take part in the grant from Formas.
• Note that a licentiate degree or research competence corresponding to a doctoral degree is not counted as a doctoral degree. Therefore, doctoral students cannot be participating researchers. Applications where participating researchers do not have a doctoral degree will be rejected. Other staff involved in the project do not need to have a doctoral degree.
• There is no upper age limit for the main applicant and participating researchers. However, researchers who are full-time pensioners are ineligible to receive funding towards salaries, without first reducing their pension by the corresponding percentage.
• All participating researchers must have a user account in Prisma. The main applicant must invite participating researchers to the application in Prisma.

Other staff members

• Having obtained a doctoral degree is not a requirement for other staff involved in the project.
• Other staff in the project may, however, be researchers with a doctoral degree, but they do not act as participants in the project (i.e., they are not invited by the main applicant to the application). Since these people do not have a Prisma account linked to the application, their participation and competence must be described in the research programme. It is not possible to attach a CV for other staff.
• The main applicant can also add a participating administrator who is not part of the project but who will help fill out the application in Prisma using the ‘Invite participating administrator’ feature. Search for their given name, surname, and email address in Prisma (note that exact spelling of names and email addresses is required).

Administrating organisations

Grants for research projects in the call may only be administered by a Swedish University, university college or public agency that meets Formas’ criteria for administrating organisations.

Become an administrating organisation for all types of calls External link.

When you apply for project funding, you can apply for grants to cover both direct and indirect costs. Direct costs include costs for salaries, equipment, and travel. Indirect costs are costs that are shared with others in your organisation, such as for administration, IT and renting of premises. Indirect costs are sometimes called overhead costs.

• Grants for research projects can be used to cover salaries for researchers, doctoral students, and other staff.
• Funds can be granted for annual salary increases.
• Grants for research projects can include, in addition to salary funding, funding to cover operating costs (for example consumables, purchase of services, equipment, travel, conferences, publication in peer-reviewed journals and open access databases), depreciation costs for equipment and premises costs. The maximum amount allowed for equipment and depreciation costs is a total of 500 000 SEK for both costs.
• If funds will be transferred from the grant administrating organisation to another organisation that participates in the project, the receiving organisation’s overhead costs can be applied to the funds transferred. Explain and report the various overhead costs in the budget specification. The total overhead cost of the project should be entered into the budget table.

International collaboration. Grants from Formas can be used to fund research that is partly conducted outside Sweden, although the research must be initiated and managed from Sweden. The administrating organisation must be in Sweden and approved by Formas and is responsible for hiring any foreign staff or paying for activities or services outside Sweden in accordance with the administrating organisation’s guidelines.

Exception - due to the war in Ukraine, Formas will not grant research funds to projects involving researchers working at state or federal research institutions in Russia or Belarus. Neither can funds from Formas be transferred to Russia or Belarus.

• Grants for research projects can cover a maximum of 2 million SEK per year, on average, over the years the application is valid for. So, applicants can apply for more than 2 million SEK for one calendar year as long as the amount applied for during another year of the project period is less than 2 million SEK. Applicants may not apply for 6 million SEK in total for a period shorter than 36 months.
• If the total amount applied for exceeds the average amount of 2 million SEK per calendar year, the application will be rejected.
• Note that the total salary amount for a single researcher, doctoral student or other staff must not exceed 100 percent of full-time employment. This means that additional salary funding cannot be granted to researchers, doctoral students or other staff who already receive grants or contributions with full salary funding.
• You can apply for 12, 24, or 36 months, that is one, two, or three years. You can apply for funding for a maximum of three years (36 months).
• A research project in this call can start on January 1, 2024, at the earliest and is expected to start during the 2024 calendar year. In Prisma the default start date is January 1, 2024, and cannot be changed.

You should write the application in English since the review panel consists of many international reviewers. For applications written entirely in Swedish, only the research program will be translated by professional translators into English. In such cases, it will not be possible for applicants to view or make linguistic adjustments to the application after it is translated and submitted to Formas’ review panel for assessment. The popular science description must be written in Swedish, while the abstract should be in both Swedish and English. Please note that you should always write the budget specification and your CV in English. Any Swedish budget specification or CV will not be translated. You should write the budget specification and your CV in English, even if you write the application in Swedish and you are working in the Swedish version in Prisma.

Please note that if you have installed an automatic translation plugin in your browser, you risk having your text translated into the language you have set as default when you paste your text into Prisma. We recommend that you check the language in the text well in advance of your final registration of the application.

According to Swedish law, your application and its appendices are considered as general public documents once they have been submitted to us. This means that anyone can request and read your application. Before we disclose any applications, we always conduct a confidentiality assessment, but we can only hide information as legislated for in the Public Access and Secrecy Act (2009:400).

The popular science description and project abstracts in Swedish and English will, if the project is granted funding, be published in open access project databases without a confidentiality review. Therefore, the contents of these fields should not contain sensitive information.

We at Formas are very keen to fund projects that maximise positive and minimise negative impacts on the environment and climate. We therefore encourage grant applicants to design their projects so that collaboration takes place primarily through online meetings and that any necessary travel takes place in a climate-smart way. We also suggest that you include measures that minimise energy use and other resource consumption, emissions, and waste in project planning. However, this will not be part of the assessment of your application.

Sustainability at Formas External link.

To apply for a grant from Formas, you as main applicant should register an application online in the Prisma application system. To create an application in Prisma, you need a user account. We recommend that you create an account and an application as early as possible and contact Formas with any questions in good time.

Apply in Prisma External link.

In order to register an application, you as main applicant must have one, by Formas approved administrating organisation for all types of calls.

Become an administrating organisation for all types of calls External link.

We first verify if your application fulfills the criteria of the call. If it does, it continues to a review panel for assessment. If it does not, it is rejected. Your application will be rejected if:

• If your application does not fall within Formas’ areas of responsibility and the scope of the call.
• Your application does not meet the requirements described in the section “applicant and organisation requirements”.
• It contains procedural errors or is incomplete, meaning that it lacks the necessary information in the application form. The basic requirements that must be met in this call can be found in the section “Applicant and organisation requirements”.
• It has not been signed within 7 days or is rejected by the administrating organisation.
• The main applicant has not finalised their reporting for completed projects in any of Formas’ other calls.
• The main applicant has applied for more than two million per year, on average.

All applications are assessed by an external review panel for the call on the basis of what is described in the application. It is therefore important that the application is as clear as possible in its content and that all important and relevant information is included.

The application assessment process External link.

Applications will be assessed by an international review panel broadly defined to cover the current theme of the call and social, economic and environmental objectives within Formas' areas of responsibility. The review panel includes both active researchers and users of research results, with a majority of the review panel consisting of researchers. The review panel has the expertise required to review humanities, natural, social, health and technical sciences within Formas' areas of responsibility. The review panel can also review multi- and interdisciplinary research.

An assessment of whether or not an application falls within the scope of the call is made on the basis of a complete application. Assessments are therefore only made after the call has closed.

In this call, Formas will apply a portfolio perspective to enable funding of projects that address a wide range of challenges and perspectives within the framework of the call. The portfolio perspective will be considered by the review panel only after each application has been assessed on its own merits.

Applications are assessed with respect to scientific quality and societal relevance

This includes the following five criteria:

Criteria for scientific quality:

• Research question
• Scientific relevance of the purpose.
• Originality and novelty of the purpose, theory and hypotheses.
• Possibility of significant scientific results.

• Method and performance
• Feasibility and suitability of the scientific methods.
• Well-defined and realistic work plan.
• Coordination of the project and the research group.
• The appropriateness of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches, where relevant.
• Where the proposed research requires ethical considerations, how these are taken into account.
• Reasonability of the budget in relation to the implementation of the project.

• Scientific competence
• Scientific quality of the publications.
• Ability to carry out the project according to the project plan.
• Experience of supervision.
• Project management experience.
• National and international activities, including projects, networks, commissions, honorary commissions, participation in or organisation of workshops and conferences.
• Interest in, experience and ability to disseminate research and research results to stakeholders/end users.
• Strength and competitiveness of the research group.

Criteria for societal relevance:

Societal value of the research question

• The research question relates to important societal or sectoral issues linked to the purpose of the call.
• The project's potential, in the short or long term, to be utilised and contribute to sustainable development.
• The most important areas where impact can be expected are identified.
• The objectives for impact are clear, realistic and appropriately formulated.
• The project has the potential to generate a clear shift in the state of knowledge, regarding effects, measures and solutions to the difficult societal disruptions and challenges caused by extreme weather events, to societal stakeholders and users.
• The nature of the project in terms of the implementation of its continuous interaction and anchorage with affected and relevant stakeholders.

Communication with stakeholders/end users

• The work plan and potential for the project's involvement of societal actors and other users is concrete and realistic.
• The plan to clearly communicate and utilise the results of the project is realistic and well developed.
• The potential for how the significant expertise and competence developed within the framework of the project, among societal stakeholders and users, can benefit Swedish society, both in the short and long term.

All five criteria must be addressed in the application. We advise applicants to clearly relate their application to each of these five criteria as they are of equal importance. Each criterion is graded by each of the reviewers assessing the application. We also strongly advise applicants to structure and write the application clearly and accurately, as the review is based solely on the information contained in the application.

Formas is expected to reach a decision on December 19, 2023, concerning which projects will be granted funding. Decisions will be announced the following day, at the latest, on Formas’ website. Information that decisions have been made will be sent out via email from Prisma. The applicant’s decision is available in Prisma. Decisions about funding grants cannot be appealed.

The final financial and scientific reports for projects granted funding must be submitted to Formas within three months of the end of the availability period. For projects longer than 18 months, financial statements must be submitted each year.

How to report expenses and results External link.

Formas has a clear requirement for knowledge dissemination for the consortia awarded funding in this call, which is to actively participate in two joint open seminars organised by Formas, one in mid-2025 and one at the end of 2026. Formas may impose additional requirements regarding participation in conferences and similar events to create synergies and platforms for learning and knowledge exchange, and how the projects should report content and results to enable dissemination and utilisation. This will be stated in the project decision in the event of funding.

Results from research funded by Formas must be published with open access.

Open access to research results and data External link.

You need to have a data management plan for the data produced in the project. If you receive funding, you need to develop a plan for data management. The plan should not be sent to us but you should be able to present the plan upon request. We recommend that you follow the guidelines for data management plans developed by Science Europe. Read more about the guidelines in the report Practical Guide to the International Alignment of Research Data Management (pdf) External link.