Summary 

• Area: Humanities and Social Sciences 
• Applicants: larger research groups with a Swedish connection 
• Granted for: six to eight years 
• Application amount: The average size for previously approved programmes is approximately SEK 40 million, including LKP (employer’s social-insurance contribution top-up) and indirect costs. 
• Call opens: 9 January 2024 at 09:00 
• Call closes: 30 January 2024 at 15.00 
• Decision for interviews:  week 17 
• Final decision: 24 October 2024 
• Programmes start: 2025 

Focus 

RJ Programmes are joint, well-integrated research tasks in the social sciences and humanities that a larger group of researchers connected to Sweden conducts over a relatively long period. 

Programmes require a highly developed research environment or researcher network, with advanced expertise on the part of the researchers and the research leader. Typically, these types of research groups are well-established in the international research community and make significant contributions to national and international research. 

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 (doctoral students may participate in the programme but may only receive a salary after completing their PhD). 
• Limited funding can be applied for unnamed programme research participants (maximum two per programme).
• When submitting an application, the research leader must have submitted final reports for any previous research grants from RJ. 
• The research leader may only submit one application to RJ Programme. 
• A connection with Sweden is required. This means that researchers active in Sweden with a formal link to a Swedish higher education institution participate in the research. 
• Costs may be included for researchers active abroad. 
• The programme is to last six to eight years. 
• Each researcher may work with the programme at most 75% per year. 
• The applicant is responsible for ensuring 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 

A complete application is submitted through RJ’s application system. Familiarise yourself with the application system while reading the instructions below. The application must contain the following parts: 

Summary 

Write the summary in Swedish and English. The summary 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. The description may contain up to 80,000 characters including spaces. Include the following: 

• The research question 
• The purpose 
• The theory and method 
• The programme plan with subprojects and a description of the implementation of the programme 
• The plan for coordinating the programme and keeping it coherent 
• The contribution to the international research front 
• The researchers’ roles in the programme 
• The research leader’s and the researchers’ relevant skills and qualifications 
• The current employment situation of all the researchers 
• The plan for how information about the programme and the research results will be communicated, both within the academic community and in society at large. Learn more about RJ’s guidelines for open access to scientific production. 

Budget 

• Name research staff. List them as project participants with their monthly salaries, employer’s social-insurance contribution top-up (LKP) and working time in the programme. 
• Add any salaries for unnamed researchers, including LKP, under Operating costs. 
• Specify SEK 0 as the monthly salary of project participants who are not being paid in the programme. 
• Report working time and salary costs, including 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. 

Budget specification 

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

The grant administrator must approve the application 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 the scientific quality and the feasibility of the programme. The research leader’s and the research group’s expertise play a central role in how the application is assessed. 

A special review panel assesses applications. The panel consists of researchers from countries other than Sweden with wide-ranging subject expertise. The review process takes place in two rounds. In the first round, several applications are shortlisted for closer review.

External reviewers assess the short-listed applications in the second round and conduct interviews with the research groups. 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 all applications who proceeds to the second assessment round.