Guest researcher stays at the Swedish Mediterranean Institutes

RJ hereby announces grants to cover costs for scholarly work at the Swedish Mediterranean Institutes in Athens, Istanbul and Rome.

Summary

  • Area: humanities and social sciences, including theology and jurisprudence
  • Applicants: individual researchers who have obtained a PhD (completed no later than the deadline for applications) and who have employment during the period in which the stay is planned
  • Guest researcher stays begin: no earlier than 1 January 2020
  • Guest researcher stays conclude: no later than 31 December 2022
  • Guest researcher stays cover: 4–12 months that may be divided between at most two periods
  • Grant amount: max SEK 500,000
  • The application system opens: 1 October 2019
  • The application period closes 29 October 2019 at 16:00
  • Decision date: in December 2019

Application requirements

Focus and applicant

RJ has announced hereby announces grants to cover costs for scholarly work at the Swedish Mediterranean Institutes in Athens, Istanbul and Rome. You can apply for grants to conduct scholarly work within the humanities and social sciences. Scholarly work in this context means research and other advanced work of an academic nature at museums, archives, libraries or equivalent.

Recipients of RJ grants are expected to actively participate in the institute's activities and to keep the relevant institute director or equivalent informed of the progress of work.

Grants for research stays are applied for by individual researchers. You are to have obtained a PhD before the deadline for this grant application and need to be in either fixed-term or permanent employment with a Swedish university, archive, museum or the equivalent. The employment is to continue through the period that the research stay is planned.

The stay at the institute is to be 4–12 months and may be divided between at most two periods. The stay begins no earlier than 1 January 2020 and concludes no later than 31 December 2022.

Costs and amounts

The maximum amount that may be applied for per applicant is SEK 500,000.

Grants can cover:

  1. Salary costs (own salary including LKP) for the length of the stay
  2. Travel costs to and from the institute
  3. Cost of living according to Swedish rules for per diem abroad

RJ assumes that the applicant's Swedish employer has approved the stay at one of the institutes. RJ encourages employers to co-fund all or part of the salary costs for the duration of the stay abroad.

RJ will make special arrangements to provide a grant for the institute's costs associated with the visiting researcher's stay. Funding for indirect costs and costs of premises in general are not included.

The applicant is responsible for the planning and all practical arrangements for a stay abroad (insurance, accommodation, visa and the like). This is done in consultation with the applicant's home HEI and the institute where the stay takes place.

Cost of living expenses are calculated according to the URA government agreement. Applicants are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the terms and conditions for working abroad, including the risks of losing social welfare benefits for longer periods abroad. URA is a central framework agreement with guidelines for employment conditions during employment abroad. This flexible contract allows for individual adjustments to the terms of employment through written agreements about the employment (known as a contract abroad) signed between the employing authority and the employee. More information on working abroad for government employees is available at the Swedish Agency for Government Employers' website https://www.arbetsgivarverket.se/in-english/ Questions regarding the calculation of cost for stays abroad are to be addressed to the researcher's home HEI or equivalent.

Number of applications and previous grants

You may only submit one grant application in this grant process for a research stay abroad at one of the three institutes.

If you have another ongoing grant from RJ that involves financing of your salary costs, you may apply for a guest researcher stay but you will not be granted funding for salary costs for the stay.

How to apply

Apply through RJ's electronic application system, read the instructions for the application at "Make an application" to the right.

Applications must be written in English except for the summary which is to be written in both Swedish and English.

The applicant is responsible for ensuring that the research is compatible with the ethical guidelines of the Swedish Research Council and that ethical review is carried out where necessary.

Applications include the following:

  • Title – Your title should specify which institute your stay will be at, perhaps by indicating the city in parenthesis at the end of the title (Athens, Istanbul or Rome).
  • Grant administrator – The institution or equivalent where you are employed during the stay. Grants are paid after request to the grant administrator in direct connection with the stay at the institute.
  • Summary – Explain briefly why the research stay is important, its purpose and how it will be conducted. The summary must be formulated in such a way as to be intelligible to an interested layperson. The summary may contain at most 1,500 characters including spaces.
  • Budget – The salary you indicate in the application is based on your current salary, which will also apply during your stay abroad (including normal annual salary increases). Indicate the LKP that applies for your employer. Under Operations, only indicate the cost of travel to and from the institute and related costs in accordance with the URA agreement for all budget years (1 January – 31 December) during which the stay takes place.
  • Budget comments – Specify and explain all costs related to the stay. List here any co-financing from your employer. Unspecified or unexplained costs will not be approved. RJ has no obligation to cover the costs that are reported and, instead, enjoys full freedom to decide on the scale of grants that can be awarded.
  • Project description – Add your plan for the guest research stay. This should be a detailed plan for the stay with specified times for the stay and a presentation of how the planned work will be conducted. It needs to explain why the stay is important for your own research and for the work carried out at your institution, museum, archive and library or equivalent and what relevance the stay has for the institute you plan to visit. The plan may contain at most 20,000 characters including spaces.
  • References – Any sources included in the project description.
  • Project description – Add your qualifications here. Provide relevant qualifications in the context of the grant, your employment at the time of the planned research stay and present contacts at and associated with the relevant institute in the form of researchers, scholarly settings, museums, archives and libraries.

The application is to be approved by the grant administrator by printing the cover page which is then signed by the researcher and the head of department or equivalent. This is then posted to RJ within a week after the deadline. Only the cover pages with the budget and signatures are to be sent in, not the entire application.

Assessment of your application

Applications are assessed by RJ based on their quality and relevance and in consultation with the relevant institutes.

If the application is not done according to the application instructions, this will be weighed into the assessment or lead to a rejection of the application.

Funding decisions are taken by RJ. No reasons will be given for decisions.

What happens next?

The decision will be taken in December 2019. Applicants will be informed by e-mail.

Three months after RJ's funding ends, the researcher is to submit a financial and scholarly final report on the research stay. See RJ's website for instructions.

Contact

Questions about the application or technical issues:

Eva Stensköld

Questions about the institutes and their operations are directed to the relevant institute: