Communication call 2023

The organisation that will receive and administer the funds Formas pays out to an awarded project is called an administrating organisation. Formas distinguishes between administrating organisations that can receive funds in all Formas calls, and administrating organisations that can be approved to receive funds in an individual call. Higher education institutions, government agencies with research assignments and most research institutes are approved as administrating organisations in all Formas calls. Most other public and private organisations must receive individual approval as an administrating organisation. The administrating organisation must have a Swedish corporate identity number.

Who can become an administrating organisation?

Private companies and other organisations engaged in economic activity that want to apply for a grant from Formas are subject to EU rules on aid of minor importance, also called neglectable aid or de minimis-aid. The maximum funding that Formas can disburse according to these regulations is 200,000 euros over three tax years.

All projects seeking funding from Formas must have a responsible project manager and be carried out by the people listed in the application.

In order to secure both the scientific and the communicative quality of the output, we require that the project team has both research expertise and communication expertise.

At least one person who has studied communications at the university level or has equivalent professional experience in communications must be a member of the project team. The starting point is that the communication skills must be relevant for the project goal, for example that implies that performing arts producers, publishers, journalists, exhibition producers and documentary filmmakers can be included when we consider communication skills. In addition, at least one researcher with a PhD degree, or a scientific committee, must be associated with the project.

When you apply for project funding, you can apply for a grant to cover both direct and indirect costs. Direct costs include, for example, staff expenses and operating costs. 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.

We do not award grants for an organisation’s regular communication efforts, or for internal courses or projects that mainly relate to an organisation’s own educational activities. The grant must therefore be clearly linked to the project you wish to fund and must be used to fund activities that are not part of your ordinary activities or operations.

In Formas’ communication call, a project can apply for a maximum of 2,000,000 kronor, for a maximum of 36 months. Projects must start sometime between May 2023 and December 2023. We disburse the awarded funds once a month.

Private companies and other organizations engaged in economic activities are in this call covered by the EU rules on support of minor importance, also called negligible aid or de minimis aid, see rules for state aid- for companies and other economic operations. Please note that these regulations on aid of minor importance do not apply to universities, colleges, research institutes or other generally approved administration organisations.

Information to companies and organisations engaged in economic activity involving the de minimis aid rules as well as grant terms and conditions are available on the Formas website. Note that the de minimis aid rules do not apply to higher education institutions, research institutes or other generally approved administrating organisations.

At a later stage of the process, companies and organisations engaged in economic activity must submit proof of de minimis aid in order to qualify for a grant in this call. Formas will notify the relevant organisations when this statement of proof is due. The statement should indicate the extent of the de minimis aid received, including the amount sought in the call. The reporting must cover the current tax year and the two preceding tax years. In total, the de minimis aid received by the organisation during this period must not exceed EUR 200,000 (approximately 2 million SEK). Prior to any decision, we also conduct credit checks on all companies and financial activities that may be relevant to the awarding of a grant.

We recommend that you write your application in Swedish, since the review panel that will assess your application is Swedish-speaking. You can write your application in English, but it will not be translated into Swedish prior to assessment. Abstracts should be available in both Swedish and English.

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. Information can only be concealed if it is confidential as defined in the Public Access to Information and Confidentiality Act (2009:400).

Formas has limited possibilities to keep personal data confidential. Therefore, your application should not contain the personal data of anyone who is not included in the application.

The popular science description and project abstracts in Swedish and English will, if the project is awarded 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 eager 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 at this time.

Please read about Formas’ own sustainability work.

You apply for a grant in our application system, Prisma, where you add the information needed for your application.

Personal account

In order to fill in information in the application, you need a personal account in Prisma. Apply for this in good time.

Apply for a personal account in Prisma External link..

Organisation account

The organisation that will receive and administer the funds Formas pays out to an awarded project is called an administrating organisation in Formas’ application system. At the time of application, the organisation must have an organisation account.

Formas distinguishes between administrating organisations that can receive funds in all Formas calls, and administrating organisations that can be approved to receive funds in an individual call. In this call, we welcome applicants from both groups.

Applicants from administrating organisations approved for all Formas calls

Higher education institutions, most research institutes and government agencies with research assignments are approved as administrating organisations for all Formas calls and already have an organisation account.

Applicants from administrating organisations who must be individually approved

Most other public and private organisations must be individually approved as administrating organisations in this call. These organisations must have an organisation account with Formas. If the organisation already has an account in Prisma, contact the responsible research officer Kerstin Röver to add the organisation to the list of possible administrating organisations in the call. This applies even if the organisation has applied for funding in other Formas calls.

If your organisation does not have an account in Prisma, an appropriate representative should apply for the organisation account on the Prisma website. Apply in good time before the call closes, at least a week before the call closes.

In the reason for the application, state that you are applying under Formas’ communications call 2022 and state the type of organisation and the organisation’s corporate identity number.

Apply for an organisation account in Prisma External link..

If you do not know whether your organisation has an account, contact research officer Kerstin Röver.

Domicile

To be able to register an application, a domicile within the organisation must be specified. This can be an institute or a department, for example. The person who manages the organisation account must create a structure of units and sub-units (domiciles) in two levels. If the organisation does not have departments, specify a subunit that has the same name as the organisation. For information on how to do this, see Prisma’s user support External link..

First, Formas verifies that the application meets the formal requirements set out in the call. If the application does not meet these requirements, it is rejected.

The following requirements will be verified in this call:

• The administrating organisation has signed the application. This must be done within seven calendar days after the call closes.
• The application has been approved by the administrating organisation.
• The application’s focus falls within Formas’ areas of responsibility.
• The focus of the application falls within the call’s areas.
• The application is complete and contains all mandatory information.
• The application includes both communicator- and research skills.
• The requirements for project managers, project participants and organisations under “Applicant and organisation requirements” are met.
• The principal applicant responsible for other projects or activities funded by Formas has submitted any requested reports by the stated deadline.

Applications in the communication call are evaluated by an external review panel composed of experienced communication specialists and researchers within Formas’ areas of responsibility. The assessments are made based on the contents of your application. It is therefore important to write the application as clearly as possible and include all important and relevant information. Several people will assess each application.

The applications are assessed based on the following criteria.

Societal relevance

• The societal challenge the project addresses is important to solve, and the research on which the project is based is relevant to solving the challenge.
• It is important that the target group takes part of the research results.
• The project’s expected results contribute in the long term to achieving one or more of the SDGs.

Research quality

• The project is well grounded in the research it is based on.
• The project’s description addresses the current state of research in the field.
• The application refers to published reports, scientific articles or other sources relevant to the project.

Goals, communication activities, target groups and communication channel

• The project’s goals are described well and are relevant. Identified target groups, channels and activities are relevant for the desired result.
• There is a relevant plan for monitoring the project’s goals.
• The communication activity has creative quality.

Implementation, timetable and qualifications

• The application has a plan that is appropriate to achieve the project’s objectives.
• The timetable and budgeted costs are reasonable and appropriate in relation to the project’s objectives.
• The resources, skills and experiences required to complete the project are relevant and clearly described in the application. This applies both to the communication and the research.
• The project design addresses gender equality, equity and diversity perspectives in a relevant way.

Decisions on which projects are granted funding are expected to be taken on 26 March 2024. We publish our decisions the following day at the latest on the Formas website and later by email from Prisma. Grant award decisions cannot be appealed. Read more about receiving your funding decision.

All awarded projects must submit a report to Formas containing financial and project results within three months of the end of the availability period. For projects longer than 18 months, a financial statement must also be submitted to Formas annually. All reports are submitted in Prisma.

Financial reporting in Prisma , 187 kB.

Formas may impose requirements on how projects must be reported in terms of content and results to enable distribution and application. In such cases, the award decision will contain more information about this. Formas may also require you to participate in conferences and similar events in order to create synergies and platforms for learning and knowledge sharing.

Results of research funded by Formas must be published using open access.

You must also have a data management plan for the data produced in the project. This plan does not need to be submitted to Formas, but should be presented on request. By signing our grant terms and conditions, you certify that a data management plan will be available before the research begins and that it will be maintained.

Open access to research results and data External link.