Call for grant applications for research on premodernity

Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (RJ) is to award funds in the form of grants for research on premodernity, i.e. the period before about 1800.

Internationally, research on the premodern period is relatively strong. This international research does not, for example, seem to have abandoned its ties with classical, mediaeval and early modern thinking in the same way as its Swedish counterpart has done. On the contrary, it shows that there are scientific opportunities that have not been found possible to exploit in Sweden. Swedish experience shows, too, that it is difficult to write a thesis on a premodern subject during the stipulated period for postgraduate studies. The source material may be fairly impenetrable and call for considerable prior knowledge of classical languages, for example. Since 2006, in order to improve this situation, RJ has paid particular attention to the premodern period in ways that include setting up a special ‘Sector Committee for Research on Premodernity’. This committee’s work is to be discontinued during autumn 2011.
 

Focus of this call

RJ is now to devote further resources to research on the premodern period. The intention is, through a vigorous initiative, to attempt to exert a lasting impact in this field of research. The call is open for applications in subjects within the Humanities and Social Sciences, including Law and Theology. Accordingly, it does not focus on particular disciplines in the premodern field. RJ invites researchers to formulate their applications freely. However, RJ has laid down a number of conditions for applications. These are listed below.

Who can apply?

All research staff must have obtained doctoral degrees by the application date. An applicant can submit only one application as project leader, but may be a project participant in other applications as well. The application must be approved by the responsible faculty or equivalent. Applying for funds within the framework of this initiative does not rule out the option of applying within RJ’s regular forms of support. Within the scope of this call for applications, collaboration among researchers from several higher education institutions (HEIs) or with other grant administrators, inside and outside Sweden, is possible.

What can the funds be used for?

RJ’s objective is that its grants should make it possible to realise collaboration that, in the long term, strengthens research on the premodern period. These funds can be used not only for research but also for infrastructure and environmental support, for example. RJ is open to applications with divergent ideas about both content and design.

Project leaders who are granted funding are responsible, during the years in which they are receiving grants from RJ, for arranging get-togethers for other projects funded in this call for applications, and for keeping one another informed about developments in these projects, to ensure that the premodernity research initiative has synergic effects.

Note that RJ does not fund doctoral studentships and that applications comprising only, for example workshops and networks, should be submitted in RJ’s regular forms of support.

How large a grant can be applied for?
 

The maximum amount RJ will, in total, be able to award for a project is SEK 5 million. This includes a contribution to indirect costs and costs of premises, at a corresponding level to that granted by RJ for regular projects and programmes. RJ will set the exact size of its grants after negotiations with the grant administrators concerned.

The projects may be of varying length but must last at least three years. RJ expects to be able to fund seven or eight projects of the above-mentioned order of size, and regards grant administrators’ financial involvement as crucial in safeguarding the desirable long-term focus of the initiative. Joint responsibility for funding and implementation is therefore a condition imposed by RJ. Grant administrators outside Sweden may also cofund projects. RJ would like to see cofunding in the shape of for example activities within postgraduate education.  
 

Conditions for applications
 

Applications must:

• Concern a research area relating to a period before about 1800.
• Provide considerable, long-term reinforcement and renewal of premodern research.
• Include collaboration across disciplinary boundaries and between junior and senior researchers, in order thereby to promote accumulation of skills and regeneration.
• Generate interest in further research on premodernity.
• Promote national and international collaboration.
• Involve cofunding from HEIs and grant administrators concerned.

Content of applications

Applications, written in English, are to be made through RJ’s online application system. The application system will open in January 2012,
 

The project description must give an account of:

• Both the content of the project and the forms it will take, and how these meet the requirements of the call.
• Research issues addressed by the project; its purpose, theory and method; and how these relate to the international research front.
• The researcher’s and/or research team’s skills and qualifications for the project.
• Clear comments on the various budget items and particulars of cofunding.

The application must contain at least 25,000 and not more than 50,000 characters, including spaces,

The application

Only electronic applications may be submitted, instructions for electronic applications are found here.

Please note that for applications for research in premodernity costs of premises and indirect costs should be listed in the field “Budget”. These costs should also be specified and motivated in the description of the project (“Projektbeskrivning”). Further, in the project description, you should list any co-funding from other financing bodies. Only 1 (one) grant administrator can be listed, even if the project is a cooperation between researchers with different grant administrators. Please also note that a researcher can apply for 100 percent financing by RJs’ grant. The application, including title and summary, must be in English. You can apply for support in this call even if you haven’t submitted your final reports on grants previously awarded by RJ.
 

The application must be approved by the dean (or equivalent). This is done by sending a signed printed application to RJ. Both the applicant’s and the dean’s signatures are required. The electronic application must be submitted no later than 8 February 2012 at 4.00 pm. The printed and signed application must be submitted to RJ no later than 15 February 2012.
 

Preparation process

In a first step the applications will be assessed by a special panel composed of members from outside Sweden. A selection of applications is then reviewed by at least two external experts. The panel then makes a recommendation to RJ on which applications should be funded. The Board makes the final decision at its board meeting in October 2012. Besides academic quality the applications are assessed due to how they fulfill the above mentioned conditions. In the choice between two equivalent applications, applications with a higher degree of co-funding get higher priority.

Queries should be addressed to Research Officer Dr Britta Lövgren, britta.lovgren@rj.se and phone +46-8-5062 6408, or Chief Executive Göran Blomqvist, phone +46-70-35 27 130.