Exploratory workshops within educational sciences

Requirements for applicants

The following requirements must be fulfilled for you to be eligible to apply for the grant. We carry out checks and reject applications that do not fulfil the requirements.

Applicant

The applicant for exploratory workshops shall be an individual researcher together with their organisation (a Swedish higher education institution (HEI) or another Swedish organisation that fulfils our requirements for administrating organisations for grants from the Swedish Research Council). We must have approved your organisation as an administrating organisation for you to apply. The administrating organisation must sign your application in Prisma no later than 7 calendar days after the deadline for this call.

You must hold a Swedish doctoral degree or an equivalent foreign degree, awarded no later than the deadline for this call. For applicants with Swedish doctoral degrees, the issue date of the degree registered in Ladok applies.

You shall be the project leader and scientifically responsible for the research activities described. The time you set aside for the project (your activity level, that is the percentage of a full-time equivalent) must be suited to the task and its implementation throughout the grant period.

You do not have to be employed by the administrating organisation at the time of application, but you must be employed at the start of and throughout the grant period and any further availability period. The employment must equal at least 20 per cent of a full-time equivalent.

Number of applications and previous grants

The requirements described in this section only apply to applicants (project leaders).

General information about overlaps between applications and grants

Your application must not cover costs for purposes that are already funded by the Swedish Research Council or any other funding body. Overlaps with other grants or applications may impact on the grant amount you are awarded, or be a reason for us to reject your application.

What grants may I apply for simultaneously from the Swedish Research Council?

You may only submit one application for this grant under this call. Further information about the grants you may apply for during the same year is found on the page Several grants simultaneously. Please note also that you may not apply for an exploratory workshop grant at the same time as applying for other grants for the same project concept.

What requirements apply if I already have a grant from the Swedish Research Council?

There are certain restrictions if you are the project leader of an ongoing grant, that is to say a grant with a grant period that overlaps the period of the grant the application relates to. Please note that the availability period, that is to say the time during which you have the right to use your grant, is normally longer than the grant period. You can find information about your ongoing grant in the “Approval of terms and conditions” you received from the Swedish Research Council.

You may not apply for this grant if you are the project leader for an ongoing exploratory workshop grant within educational sciences. If you already have an ongoing grant, then further information about the grants you may apply for is found on the page Several grants simultaneously.

Note: If you have been the project leader for previous grants from the Swedish Research Council that have ended, final financial reports for all of these must have been submitted within the permitted time frame in order for you to apply for a new grant. Please contact your administrating organisation if you are unsure whether all your final reports have been submitted.

What applies for applications to or grants from other funding bodies?

If your application to the Swedish Research Council relates to the same project concept as a grant you have already been awarded by, or are applying for to, another funding body, please describe this.

Participating researchers

You must include minimum 1 and maximum 6 participating researchers in your application. Participating researchers are other researchers with a doctoral degree or equivalent competence (not doctoral students) whose scientific competence will be crucial for the implementation of the planned research. They do not have to be employed by a Swedish HEI.

Participating researchers shall provide the necessary information themselves in Prisma, and upload these to the application. Any doctoral students and other collaboration partners and their roles shall be described in the collaboration plan (please see instructions under “Collaboration plan” below).

If the application relates to participants from more than one HEI, one contact person from each HEI shall be invited as a participating researcher.

Costs and grant amounts

The grant may be used for costs relating to the workshop, for example meetings and travel. The grant must not be used for salaries, research expenses, or scholarships.

The maximum amount you may apply for is 200 000 SEK per year, including indirect costs.

Grant period

You may apply for a grant for a minimum of 1 year and a maximum of 2 years, starting in January 2025. The planned activities shall be carried out during the grant period. The grant amount will be paid out as annual payments.

The first payment will be made in January 2025 at the earliest.

In the scientific reporting following the end of the grant period, you must report how the research concept can be developed further.

What must the application contain?

Please refer to the application form in Prisma in parallel with reading the instructions below, which describe the call-specific content of the application. More information on what to do in practical terms is available in our Guide for applicants.

We prefer that you complete your application in English, but you may also use Swedish. The popular science description shall always be written in Swedish, however.

The information we request under each tab is described below.

Descriptive information

Abstract

In the abstract, please describe in brief the following:

• What is to be done: purpose and aims of the workshop
• How the workshop will be implemented/conducted: organisation, time plan for the planned workshop activities.
• What is important about the planned workshop.

The abstract shall provide a summary of the purpose and implementation of the workshop. Please use wording to ensure persons with another subject specialisation can understand the information.

The description may cover a maximum of 1 500 characters including blank spaces. This is approximately one third of an A4 page in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing.

Other applications or grants

Describe briefly the different projects and their relationship if

• you are applying for or intend to apply for other grants from the Swedish Research Council
• you are receiving an ongoing grant from the Swedish Research Council with a grant period that wholly or partly overlaps the grant you are now applying for
• there are applications or grants relating to the same project concept/purpose with the Swedish Research Council or other funding bodies (from you or another researcher).

In all cases, you should also justify why you are submitting one or several further applications. If there are no other applications or grants, please state so.

The description may cover a maximum of 2 000 characters including blank spaces. This is approximately half an A4 page in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing.

Thematic classification

Educational sciences are divided up thematically into main areas. Here you shall state the theme that best describes the focus of the project. Please note that the thematic division is only used for follow-up purposes. A summary of all the areas and themes is available in the following document:

Thematic division of the educational sciences field Excel, 13.6 kB. (Excel, 13.6 kB)

Research description

Sex and gender perspectives

Please state whether sex and gender perspectives are applicable in your planned research, and justify your decision. Please note that we are not asking for information about the composition of the research team (women/men). Read more about sex and gender perspectives in research content.

The following applies:

• If you answer “Yes”: Please justify your answer, and describe also how you take account of sex and gender perspectives in the research plan. If you have stated that sex and gender perspectives are applicable, but still choose not to include them in your research plan, you will need to justify this here.
• If you answer “No”: Please justify your answer.

The justification may cover a maximum of 4 000 characters including blank spaces. This is approximately one A4 page in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing.

Collaboration plan

The collaboration plan shall be forward-looking and consist of a brief but complete description of the workshop. It may cover a maximum of 4 page-numbered A4 pages in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing and 2.5 cm margins, including references and any images.

The plan must include the following headings and information, listed in the following order:

Purpose and aims

State the overall purpose and specific aims of the workshop.

Research concept

Summarise the research concept and the research questions planned to be in focus for the workshop, how gender aspects will be included in the project concept (where applicable), and describe briefly your own and others’ previous research within the research area. State key references.

Significance and scientific novelty

Describe briefly how the research concept of the workshop shows innovative thinking in relation to previous research within the area, and its importance to educational sciences research in the short and long term.

Work plan

Summarise the planned work including the following sections:

• Implementation and time plan: Provide a brief description of the planned workshop activities and a time plan. The description of the implementation shall include the workshop activities and how they relate to the overarching research concept. The time plan shall provide an overview of the work on planning, proposed dates and locations for the various workshop activities, any travel, and how the results from the workshop activities are proposed to be used further (for example preparations/planning of joint research applications, information dissemination, etc.).
• Organisation: Clarify the contributions of yourself and the participating researchers to the implementation of the workshop. Describe and explain the competences and roles of the participating researchers in the workshop(s), and also any other researchers or corresponding who are important for the implementation of the workshop.

Description of merits

Describe how the merits you state in your CV and list of publications and other research outputs confirm your competence as project leader and scientifically responsible for implementing the proposed activities. The description may cover a maximum of 2 000 characters including blank spaces. This is approximately half an A4 page in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing.

Publications and other research outputs

The applicant’s publications and other research outputs

Please attach your list drawn up according to the headings and information below. The list may cover a maximum of 5 page-numbered A4 pages in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing and 2.5 cm margins.

Sort the outputs under each heading in reverse chronological order, so that the latest publication is at the top of the list. Please only include articles or equivalent that are published or accepted for publication at the time of applying. The author name order shall be identical to that of the published work. You cannot supplement the application with outputs after the deadline for the call.

1. Selection of research outputs

List the 10 publications or other outputs that are the most important for confirming your competence as project leader and scientifically responsible for implementing the proposed activities. Describe how you contributed to each output, and its relevance to the research project described (maximum 4 lines per output). Highlight your name in bold in the author list/corresponding.

2. Relevant peer-reviewed research outputs from 2016–2024

In this part, the outputs listed under Item 1 shall also be included if they were published during the period in question. Sort them with your name highlighted in bold in the author list/corresponding under headings (type of output) in the following order:

• Original articles
• Conference contributions, the results of which are not included in other publications
• Edited volumes
• Research review articles
• Books and book chapters
• Artistic work
• Other outputs that do not fit under any of the headings above. Please note that intellectual property rights shall be shown in the CV section of the application.

3. Relevant non peer-reviewed research outputs from 2016–2024

In this part, the outputs listed under Item 1 shall also be included if they were published during the period in question. Sort them with your name highlighted in bold in the author list/corresponding under the respective headings (type of output) in the following order:

• Artistic work
• Publications including popular science books/presentations
• Preprints
• Other outputs that do not fit under any of the headings above. Please note that intellectual property rights shall be shown in the CV section of the application.

Participating researchers’ publications and other research outputs

Attach all participating researchers’ publication lists joined together into a single file.

The list for each researcher shall include the 10 publications or other research outputs that are the most relevant for the implementation of the activities described, and shall cover a maximum of 1 A4 page in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing and 2.5 cm margins. The name of the researcher in question shall be highlighted in bold and also be included in the page header of each list.

The outputs may be of the following types and must be published or accepted for publication at the time of applying. The author name order shall be identical to that of the published work. The application cannot be supplemented with publications after the deadline for the call.

Peer-reviewed research outputs

• original articles
• conference contributions
• edited volumes
• research review articles
• books and book chapters
• artistic work
• other outputs

and

Non peer-reviewed research outputs

Budget and research resources

Costs

Describe the various costs of the workshop that you intend to cover using the grant. Please state annual amounts in Swedish krona, rounded to the nearest 1 000 SEK.

Total cost of the workshop

Prisma will automatically add up your budget items in a table. The total amount you are applying for shall also include indirect costs. You will have to add these to the table yourself. Here you can also add any additional costs that the project entails (for which you are not seeking funding under this call).

Indirect costs follow the model that your administrating organisation uses. Please contact your administrating organisation if you have any questions about what constitutes indirect and direct costs.

Other funding

Please state your or any other researcher’s funding for the project over and above what is applied for in this application. Please state the amounts in Swedish krona, rounded to the nearest 1 000 SEK.

Administrating organisation

Please state the administrating organisation and project site.

Participants

Here you shall invite participating researchers and any participating administrators to your application.

CV

Under this tab, please upload your relevant CV information from your personal account in Prisma. The information/merits shall confirm your competence as project leader and scientifically responsible for implementing the proposed research activities. Participating researchers must upload their own CV information to the application.

The following information (where available) must always be included in each CV:

Education

First, second and third cycle higher education and specialist degrees.

Work

• Current employment (including employment form)
• Longer relevant employments
• Post-doctoral visits (also state as employment if applicable)
• Researcher exchanges of relevance to the research described
• Any longer interruptions in the research that have impacted on your opportunity to gain merit as a researcher.

Merits and awards

• Docentship/associate professorship
• Persons you have supervised (postdoctoral and doctoral students; state the number of persons in each category and list the names of the maximum 10 most relevant)
• Relevant grants you have received in competition (list maximum 10)
• Your most relevant prizes and awards (list maximum 10)
• Any other merits of relevance to the application, such as lecture invitations, leadership positions, positions of trust, membership of scientific organisations and similar .

Intellectual property rights

For example, patents and open access computer programs developed by you; state up to 10 of your most relevant.

How your application is assessed

Scientific quality is the fundamental criterion when the Swedish Research Council allocates grants to research. Your application is evaluated in competition with the other applications on the basis of the following evaluation criteria.

Evaluation process

Your application for exploratory workshop within educational sciences is evaluated by a review panel where the members are from the Nordic countries.

At least three members review and grade your application individually. If extra competence is needed, your application might also be evaluated by an additional, external, reviewer. The entire review panel (not including any external reviewers) then meet at a review panel meeting to discuss and prioritise the applications. Lottery is applied when the budget for the call is not sufficient to grant funding to all applications that have received the same grade.

Review panel

Following the grant decision your application will receive an individual final statement containing the grades and a summary of the review panel’s discussion and overall assessment of the scientific quality of the application.

Here you will find a more comprehensive description of the Swedish Research Council's assessment of applications.

Evaluation criteria and guiding questions

Your application is assessed according to the criteria Overall Scientific quality and Relevance for the call. The criteria are assessed on a three-grade scale.

For each criterion, there are guiding questions to support the panel members’ evaluation of your application. These can also function as guidance for you when you write your application.

Scientific quality of the proposed research (1–3)

Guiding questions:

• Are the purpose and aims of the workshop clear and well justified?
• Is the research idea for the workshop clear and well justified?
• Is the exploratory feature described clearly?
• How are issues relating to sex and gender perspectives justified and handled in the research plan?

Relevance to the call (1–3)

Guiding questions:

• To what degree does the application relate to an exploratory workshop within educational sciences?
• To what degree is the application relevant to the call in other respects?