RJ Infrastructure for research 2020

RJ's support form Infrastructure for Research comprises initiatives aimed at making possible and promoting future research in the social sciences and humanities.

 Grants are awarded for activities involving preparation for research, such as:

  • Creating platforms where cooperation between the research community and other institutions is developed.
  • Making important archive and library collections available.
  • Setting up databases.

Instructions

  • Each project leader may send in only one application for funding of infrastructure for research.
  • The grant administrator is to contribute to funding of infrastructure for research.
  • The applicant is to report on permissions and any agreements that are required for the project implementation.
  • By the application date, the applicant is to have a data management plan for long-term management of the infrastructure, and reciprocal legal, institutional and financial obligations and rights are to have been determined. Read more about RJ's data management plan.
  • Professors can be paid in the project.
  • Project participants aged 67 and over can be paid in the project provided that the project participant is employed by a grant administrator approved by RJ.
  • Costs of non-Swedish project participants working in Sweden or other countries may be included.
  • The research infrastructure and research data from the infrastructure are to be made openly accessible free of charge for the research community and society at large as soon as possible.
  • No indirect costs are to be stated in the application.
  • For every project grant, RJ adds a grant for indirect costs and costs of premises according to the model applied by RJ.
  • It must be ensured that the project is compatible with the ethical guidelines established by the Swedish Research Council and that ethical review is carried out where necessary.

Assessment criteria

RJ encourages innovative thinking and originality within research infrastructures. The crucial criteria for RJ's decisions are the academic quality of the application, including the design and feasibility of the project, research needs, the international connections of the research and the long-term sustainability of solutions proposed.

Review process

The application process takes place in two stages. Applications are first assessed and ranked in a special review panel. Projects selected for second stage submit a more detailed application, which is then reviewed by external experts from Sweden or abroad, whose opinions are included in the review panel's second round.

RJ's Board makes the formal decisions. Written statements from the external experts are sent, after the decision-making meeting in October, to all applicants whose applications have proceeded to the second stage.

First stage

In the first application stage, the project leader informs the head of department or equivalent that funding from RJ is being applied for. The application is to clarify whether activities in the infrastructure project lie within a government agency's own area of responsibility.

The summary is to be written in Swedish and English and may contain up to 1,500 characters including spaces. It should explain why the project is important, its purpose and how it will be implemented. The summary is to be formulated in such a way as to be intelligible to an interested layman. If the application is approved, the summary will be posted on RJ's website.

The project description may contain up to 19,200 characters including spaces. It is to be written in English and is to include:

  • Purpose
  • Method
  • The project plan and reasons for the project period
  • How the project relates to existing infrastructures, if any, and how these are to be coordinated
  • Infrastructural needs from the viewpoint of the research community
  • The project participants' relevant skills and qualifications
  • The current employment situation of all those involved
  • Agreements and cooperation with the parties concerned
  • How the initiative will be received, maintained and developed further in the longer term
  • A plan describing how the infrastructure and data from the infrastructure will be made openly accessible

Budget

  • Name all project participants, 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 are not being paid within the project.
  • Report working time and salary costs for any other staff, such as assistants and technical staff, as well, but do not name them. The costs are to be stated under Drift (operation).
  • Resource needs (salaries and operation) are to be specified and explained.
  • Any funding from the grant administrator.
  • No indirect costs must be reported in the application.
  • For each project awarded, a contribution is added to indirect costs and costs of premises according to the model that RJ applies. This also includes costs emerging at other research-carrying units, both in Sweden and abroad.

Under Budget specification all costs must be specified and motivated. No unspecified or unexplained costs will be approved.

Second stage

The application in the second stage is to be approved by the grant administrator and signed by the project leader and head of department or equivalent. Only the cover pages with the budget and signature should be sent in, not the whole application. RJ will process only signed applications.

The project description in the second stage may consist of up to 64,000 characters including spaces, is to be written in English and is to contain the same points as the first stage but be more detailed and, in addition list international contacts, if any.

RJ allows only minor corrections of the budget between the first and second application stages. RJ has no obligation to cover the costs that are reported and, instead, enjoys full freedom to decide on the scale of support that can be awarded.