Proof of concept within the infection area

Information and support to make the planning ahead of making the application easier

Public access to information (and secrecy)

Documents submitted to the Swedish Research Council become offical documents. The main rule is that the general public is entitled to partake of these, according to the principle of public access to official documents. This also applies to applications that are rejected, or recalled by the applicant.

The Swedish Research Council does not have the option to classify as secret information in applications received relating to individuals’ business or operating circumstances, inventions or research results. This means that the starting point is that such information is official and may be disclosed when we receive a request to disclose an official document. Before you submit your application to the Swedish Research Council, you therefore need to decide whether publication of information in your application may affect the opportunity for you or others to make beneficial use of inventions or research results, including any impact on the preconditions for a patent application or other commercialisation. If you then consider that some information is not suitable for making public, then that information should not be part of your application to the Swedish Research Council.

Collaboration of actors within PoC projects

The focus of the call means that it may be relevant to collaborate with both stakeholders with needs (proposed customers/users) and experts on commercialisation (such as innovation offices, holding companies, companies, industry organisation, and others). Other actors who are experts on utilisation from a non-commercial perspective may also be relevant.

Application procedure

Applications for proof of concept (PoC) grants are submitted in a two-stage process. First, you must submit a written application for evaluation. In a second step, applicants whose projects have been prioritised will be called for a short interview with the review panel.

The interviews will only be held during the period 23–24 October 2024. We would therefore ask that you book these dates in advance, so that you will be able to participate if so asked.

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.

Focus

The Swedish Research Council will support proof of concept (PoC) projects relating to further development of methods, products or processes developed from an earlier research project, and to carry out activities preparatory to innovation or commercialisation, aimed at improved treatment, prevention or diagnostics. PoC funding may not be used for further research, writing articles or reports, communication initiatives, or general product development.

The call covers two subsidiary focuses within the infection field: Antibiotic resistance, and Viruses and pandemics. Your application must relate to one or both of these.

Antibiotic resistance

Infections caused by bacteria, fungi or parasites are a major global clinical challenge through increased spread of resistance against antibacterial, antifungal or antiparasitic medicines, which impedes or prevents effective treatment. New methods, processes and products are needed to increase the chances of preventing the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance, and of diagnosing or treating these infections in the best way possible.

The projects may, for example, cover the following:

• New or improved antibacterial, antifungal and antiparasitic medicines or vaccines
• Diagnostic methods and tools
• New therapy methods
• Methods and processes for strengthening the rational use of antibacterial, antifungal and antiparasitic medicines
• Development of healthcare hygiene procedures and processes.

Viruses and pandemics

Virus-caused infections are a leading cause of illness and high mortality around the world, and thereby a great strain on healthcare and societal finances. The COVID-19 pandemic illustrates the problems that follow from limited knowledge about fundamental characteristics of a new virus, and the lack of effective antiviral treatments or vaccines against both unknown and known virus-caused infections.

The projects may, for example, cover the following:

• New or improved antiviral medicines and vaccines
• Interventions during and after virus infections
• New methods for monitoring, behavioural change, prevention and treatment
• Development of healthcare hygiene procedures and processes.

Applicant

The applicant for a PoC grant must be an individual researcher together with their organisation (a Swedish higher education institution (HEI) or another Swedish organisation that fulfils our criteria for administrating organisations for Swedish Research Council grants). 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 shall be the project leader and have scientific responsibility 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.

At the time of applying, you must be or have been the recipient of, that is been the project leader for, a previous grant from the Swedish Research Council, Forte or Formas, with a grant period ending in 2022, 2023 or 2024 (see below for the relevant grant forms). You cannot apply if your grant period ends later than 2024. Your application for a PoC grant shall be based on research results within the framework for the previously awarded grant.

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 submit several applications under this call provided they relate to different previously awarded grants with different project concepts, and thus different PoC ideas. If several applications are approved, you must choose one of the grants.

What applies for my previous grant?

To apply under this call, you must be or have been the project leader for a previous grant from the Swedish Research Council, Forte or Formas. Below is a list of the types of previous grant that are required as the basis for applicants to be eligible to apply. Irrespective of which funding body awarded the grant, the final year of the grant period must be 2022, 2023 or 2024.

Swedish Research Council

Project grant (including project grants for international collaboration, for example JPIAMR), one of our career support funding forms (international postdoc, starting grant, consolidator grant, grant for employment as a half-time researcher in a clinical environment, grant for research time), or a research environment grant. The grant may have been awarded within any of the Swedish Research Council’s subject areas, but must be relevant to the infection field according to the information under “Focus” above.

Forte (Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare)

Project grant, junior researcher grant, postdoc grant, or programme grant. The grant may have been awarded within any of Forte’s subject areas, but must be relevant to the infection field according to the information under “Focus” above.

Formas (Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development)

Research grant or mobility grant. The grant may have been awarded within any of Formas’ subject areas, but must be relevant to the infection field according to the information under “Focus” above.

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 may include up to 6 participating researchers in your application. Participating researchers are other researchers with a doctoral degree or equivalent qualification (not doctoral students) whose scientific competence will be crucial for the implementation of the planned project. 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 project plan (please see instructions under “Project plan” below).

Costs and grant amounts

You may apply for a grant to cover costs linked to the implementation of the project, such as funding salary for the project leader (however at most corresponding to the activity level in the project), other researchers, technical personnel or sub-contractors, as well as premises, running costs (such as consumables, travel, prototype development and manufacturing), and collaboration activities.

Sub-contractors are allowed if they participate in delimited parts of the project. Examples of sub-contractors are innovation offices or patent or business consultants, and they should be procured according to the rules of the administrating organisation. For innovation offices, the costs must relate to activities over and above what the innovation offices already do for the HEI’s researchers.

The grant may not be used for research expenses, doctoral student salaries or scholarships.

The minimum amount you may apply for is 500 000 SEK, including indirect costs. The maximum amount you may apply for is 2 000 000 SEK.

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

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.

International experts are involved in the scientific assessment of the applications. To ensure fair and equitable assessment and efficient processing, please therefore complete your application in English, apart from the popular science description, which you must write in Swedish.

The information we request under each tab in the application form is described below.

Descriptive information

Abstract

In the abstract, please describe in brief the following:

• project organisation and activity plan
• the innovation potential of the project
• what is important about the planned project, including societal gains

The abstract shall provide a summary picture of the purpose and implementation of the project. 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.

Popular science description

Describe the planned research in such a way that a person who is not a researcher can understand it. Do this by answering the following questions:

• What is the project about?
• Why is this important to research?
• In what way may the project results be important?

The popular science description is important when we inform about the research funded by the Swedish Research Council.

The text must be in Swedish and 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.

Other applications or grants

Describe the relationship between the different projects 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 with the grant you are now applying for
• there are applications or grants relating to the same project concept/purpose from 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.

Subsidiary focus

Please mark which of the two subsidiary focuses, Antimicrobial resistance or Viruses and pandemics, that your project relates to.

Research description

Ethical aspects

Legal and formal requirements

State whether the project covers the handling of personal data, or experiments on animals and/or studies involving humans.

If the project covers any of the above, you must also describe/state the approvals and permits your research project requires, and how you plan to obtain these. Describe any other permits that affect your application, such as whether parts of the project will be done in a country other than Sweden. If no approvals or permits are needed, 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.

Further information is available on the page Conducting ethical research.

Ethical considerations

Reflect on the ethical issues that may arise for your project, and describe these. You must also describe how you plan to address ethical dilemmas that may arise. Please justify why the project should be carried out against the background of the ethical issues you have identified. Examples of issues to reflect on:

• How do your research questions and expected results measure up in relation to the ethical issues?
• What (direct) risks (physical, mental, or integrity) will research participants or animals be exposed to?
• What long-term risks may arise from the research? Is there any risk that the research may be used in a way that is detrimental to animals, nature/the environment, or society (whole or parts of the same) in other respects?
• Is the research expected to contribute to other values over and above the knowledge gain? If so, to whom?
• How do you weigh up the risks (in particular short-term risks) against the value (which is often more long-term) of the research?

If no ethical issues are raised, please justify this. The description 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.

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

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.

Project plan

The project plan shall be forward-looking and consist of a brief but complete description of the project. It must cover a maximum of 5 page-numbered A4 pages in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing and 2.5 cm margins, including references (hyperlinks must not be used) and any images.

The project 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 project.

Innovation potential

• Description of proof of concept idea: Describe the project, explain what the idea is about, what needs it fulfils, and what the expected results are. The description must be understandable even for a non-specialist.
• Demonstration of innovation potential: Explain the link between the proposed project and the previous project funded by the Swedish Research Council, Forte, or Formas.

Activity plan

Describe the planning of the proposed project, the management plan for the project, and the organisation that will implement the project. You should show the relevance of the method chosen to establish the technical feasibility of the project. The following shall be included:

• Activity plan
• Project management plan
• Team (roles, competence, experience, etc.) and any additional collaboration partners
• Description of how stakeholders and utilisation/commercialisation expertise will be involved in the project.

Expected outcome:

Describe the expected outcome of the proof of concept project, including societal gains, focusing on treatment, prevention and diagnosis of disease conditions. Describe the following:

• The commercialisation process and/or any other implementation process
• Societal gains
• Future plans for moving the project forward

Provide the following information also. If a heading is not relevant to your application, please state this under the heading.

Equipment

Describe the basic equipment you and your team have at your disposal for the project.

Description of previously awarded grant from the Swedish Research Council, Forte or Formas

Please describe your previously awarded project that the PoC idea relates to. State the project title, grant form, registration number and amount, grant period, and availability period for your previously awarded project. You can find information about the criteria for your previous grant in the “Approval of Conditions” you received from the Swedish Research Council, Forte or Formas.

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.

Relevance

Describe how your project is relevant for one of the subsidiary focuses on Antimicrobial resistance and/or Viruses and pandemics (see the definition in the introduction to the call text).

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

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

Attach all (the applicant’s and any participating researchers’) publication lists, merged into one 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 works
• other outputs

and

Non peer-reviewed research outputs

Budget and research resources

Project personnel

State the activity level (per cent of a full-time equivalent) of all personnel active within the project, that is to say yourself, any other researchers, doctoral students and other personnel. Please also state the salary you are applying for, for yourself and/or other personnel active within the project, both as a percentage of a full-time salary and as actual annual amounts (including social security contributions). Please state the amounts in Swedish krona, rounded to the nearest 1 000 SEK.

Other costs

Describe any other costs of the project (premises costs, running costs and depreciation costs). Please state the amounts in Swedish krona, rounded to the nearest 1 000 SEK.

You may include depreciation costs for equipment to be used in the project, provided that

• the equipment has an economic life of at least three years
• the equipment has an acquisition value above a certain amount
• the need cannot be satisfied through use of national or international infrastructure supported by the Swedish Research Council and thereby open to all.

You may only include the proportion of depreciation costs that corresponds to the use of the equipment in the proposed project, and you may not include depreciation costs for equipment that is wholly funded by other grants. Please contact your administrating organisation for information about what is included in local research infrastructure, acquisition values or how to calculate depreciation costs.

Total cost of the project

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.

Justification of the budget applied for

Justify briefly each cost applied for in your budget. The description 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.

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 may invite other participating researchers and 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. Any 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 employments 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. State specifically if you have any experience of innovation, utilisation, commercialisation, or other competence of relevance to the proposed PoC project.

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 proof of concept within the infection area is evaluated by a review panel where the members have competence within innovation, commercialisation of research and the area of infection medicine and health.

Review panel

For proof of concept grants a two-stage procedure is used. First, the review panel assess the quality of all the applications. 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. In order to enable more in-depth discussions of applications of higher quality that have a reasonable chance of being funded, the applications that received the highest grades from the panel members are selected for a second step. This step includes interviews with the applicants as part of an overall assessment of each project.

Online interviews will be held 23-24 October 2024 and take approximately 20 minutes per application. All applicants of proof of concept grants are advised to reserve these dates for a possible interview.

The entire review panel meets at a review panel meeting to discuss and prioritise the applications, and finally to make a proposal for a decision to the Scientific council for medicine and health. Following the grant decision, all applications receive a final statement that includes the review panels’ grading of the application. The applications that were selected for step two and were discussed at the panel meeting receive an individual final statement which, in addition to the grades, also contains a summary of the review panel’s discussion and overall assessment of the innovation potential 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

The evaluation of the quality of your application is made based on three criteria (Innovation potential, Team skills and experience, and Feasibility). The purpose of using several components is to achieve a multi-faceted evaluation. The overall grade should reflect the application’s overall quality with the emphasis on the criterion Innovation potential. The criteria are assessed on a seven-grade scale, except for feasibility, which is assessed on a three-grade scale.

In addition to these criteria, your application is also evaluated using an additional criterion (Relevance) 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.

Innovation potential (1–7)

Guiding questions:

• How much potential does the project have to solve a relevant need in demand, and is this clearly described in the application?
• How much potential does the project have to develop and/or validate the findings from the previous research project that can lead to new methods, products or solutions for e.g. diagnosis, treatment or prevention of diseases that are relevant to the call?
• To what extent does the project have the potential to develop the concept towards innovation/implementation/commercialisation?
• Are the ethical considerations for the proposed project properly described and addressed? Does the applicant adequately consider risk/value/suffering for humans, animals, nature and/or society?

Team skills and experience (1-7)

Guiding questions:

• To what extent does the project leader possess the competence and ability to carry out the project?
• To what extent does the project manager have previous experience of developing proof-of-concept projects?
• To which degree is the project organisation and the overall competence sufficient and relevant to carry out the project?
• To what extent is the expertise necessary for the project within, for example, innovation/implementation/commercialisation involved in/linked to the project?

Feasibility (1–3)

Guiding questions:

• Are the planned activities and work plan realistic for achieving the expected results during the project period?
• How well are the work plan and budget adapted to the project's structure and the expected results?
• Does the applicant adequately consider relevant legal and formal requirements for the proposed research, such as ethical permits and guidelines?

Overall grade (1–7)

The above subsidiary criteria are weighed together into an overall grade, which reflects the review panel’s joint evaluation of the application’s quality. The emphasis should be on the criterion Innovation potential.

Relevance (1-2)

Guiding questions:

• How well are the planned activities focused on verification and validation of a new innovative method, process or product?
• How well does the project meet the purpose of the call and the chosen subject orientation?