Summary

• Area: Humanities and Social Sciences 
• Applicants: individual researchers or smaller research groups with a Swedish connection 
• Approved for: maximum three years 
• Call opens: 9 January 2024 at 09:00 
• Call closes: 30 January 2024 at 15:00 
• Decision for first round: week 13 (March 25–29) 2024 
• Second round closes: 23 April 2024 at 15:00 
• Final decision: 24 October 2024 
• Project starts: 2025 

Focus

RJ Projects are well-defined research tasks in the social sciences and humanities conducted by individual researchers or by small research groups with a connection to Sweden. 

Requirements

• All participating researchers applying for salary funding must be named.
• All participating researchers applying for salary funding must have obtained a PhD by the application date.
• By the application date, all participating researchers applying for the salary funding are to have submitted final reports for previous research grants awarded by RJ. 
• It is only allowed to participate in one project application as a project leader or project participant. 
• A connection with Sweden is required. This means that researchers active in Sweden with a formal connection to a Swedish higher education institution participate in the research. 
• It is permitted to include costs for project participants active abroad. 
• Project leaders or project participants who have been unsuccessful in the first stage of the application process two years running may not apply for project grants in the following year. 
• Each researcher may only work in the project at most 75 per cent per year. 
• The project leader must work in the project at least 20 per cent per year. 
• RJ fully funds approved projects and does not allow co-funding with other external sources of funding. RJ does not fund projects that have already begun. 
• Applicants must report any ongoing research grants and grants obtained in parallel with a project grant from RJ. 
• The project leader is to ensure that the research is compatible with the ethical guidelines established by the Swedish Research Council and that ethical review is carried out where necessary. 
• All Swedish higher education institutions are approved grant administrators. RJ reserves the right to determine what other organisations can be approved for each application. 

Applications

Applications are submitted through RJ's application system. Familiarise yourself with the application form while reading the instructions below. 

The application process has two rounds. Projects selected for closer review submit a more detailed application in the second round. The application must include the following parts for the relevant rounds: 

First round

In the first application round, the project leader must inform the head of department or equivalent about the application for RJ funding. 

Summary

Write the summary in Swedish and English. It may contain up to 1,500 characters including spaces and should explain why the research task is important, its purpose and how it will be conducted. Formulate the summary so that a layperson can understand it. If the application is approved, the summary will be posted immediately on RJ’s website. 

Project description

Write the project description in English and formulate it to allow one of RJ’s multidisciplinary review panels to assess its scientific quality. The description may contain up to 9,600 characters including spaces and is to present: 

• The research question 
• The purpose 
• The theory and method 
• The research plan and explanation for the project period 
• The most important work in the research area  
• The project’s contribution to the international research front 
• The role of the researcher(s) in the project and their relevant skills and qualifications 
• The current employment situation of all research staff involved 
• The plan for how the project and the research results will be communicated, both within the academic community and in society at large.  
  Read more about RJ’s guidelines for open access to scientific production 
  Read more about how RJ supports collaboration 

Budget

• Name all research staff. List them as project participants with their monthly salaries, employer’s social-insurance contribution top-up (LKP) and working time in the project. 
• Specify SEK 0 as the monthly salary of project participants who will not be paid in the project. 
• Report working time, salary costs and LKP for any non-research staff, such as assistants and technical staff, under Operating costs. Do not name them. 
• Specify and explain resource needs (salaries and operating costs) and working time for non-research staff. 
• Specify costs for data management or other infrastructural related costs, under Operating costs.
• Specify costs for disseminating results, including costs for open access and production support. 
• Do not list any indirect costs or university-wide fees (e.g., IT, premises and administration) in the application. 
• RJ adds an additional amount to each grant for indirect costs and costs of premises based on RJ’s own model for determining such costs. This also includes costs arising at other research units, both in Sweden and abroad. 
• For every project grant, RJ adds a collaboration grant. 

Budget specification

Write the budget specification in Swedish or English. Specify and explain all budgeted costs. Unspecified or unexplained expenses will not be approved. 

Second round

Write the project description in the second round in English. The description may consist of up to 32,000 characters including spaces and is to include the same points as the first round but in more detail. RJ allows only minor corrections to the budget between the first and second application rounds.  

The grant administrator must approve the application in the second round, and the project leader and head of department or equivalent must sign the application electronically when the application is submitted. RJ will only process signed applications. 

Data management plan

You need a data management plan for the data generated in the research for which RJ has awarded the grant. You are not to submit the plan to RJ, but the project leader and grant administrator guarantee through their signatures that a data management plan will be in place when the project begins, and that the plan is maintained and followed. Read more about data management plans. 

Assessment criteria and review process 

Applications that do not meet the requirements will be rejected.

The crucial criteria for RJ’s decisions are scientific quality and feasibility of the project. One or more of RJ’s multidisciplinary review panels, consisting of Swedish and international researchers, assess and rank the projects.

In the second round, external reviewers review each detailed application. The external reviewers’ reports are included in the review panels’ assessments. Formally, RJ’s board of directors makes the final decision. No explanations for decisions are provided, but the external reviewers’ written reports are sent to applicants that proceed to the second round.