Project grant for international research collaboration within neurodegenerative diseases (JPND)

Application procedure

Grant applications within JPND are made in a two-stage procedure, where a simplified version of the application, known as an outline application/Pre-proposal, is first submitted. Applicants whose outline applications are approved shall then submit a full application/full proposal. Both the outline application and full application are peer reviewed, and ranked in competition with other applications. A check on the consortium’s eligibility is done during both application stages. The Swedish Research Council can reject an application on formal grounds if any of the consortium members is declared ineligible.

The application to the JPND consortium call shall be submitted by the research consortium’s international coordinator using JPND’s application system External link..

As project leader representing a Swedish partner in the research consortium, you must submit the corresponding applications (outline application and full application respectively) via the Swedish Research Council’s application system Prisma in parallel with the international coordinator submitting the consortium application. Please note that for practical reasons, the parallel call in Prisma for you as the Swedish partner will close a few days later than in JPND’s application system. This applies for both the outline application and the full application.

To the application form in Prisma External link.

More information on what to do in practical terms is available in our Guide for applicants.

JPND will make a decision on the outline applications in May 2024. The decision is notified to the coordinator of the consortium with a statement in the form of a written comment.

The content of your outline application will be transferred automatically to the full application if your consortium is invited to submit a full application to JPND. You will thereafter have to update the content of your application to the Swedish Research Council, so that it corresponds to the full consortium application submitted to JPND, and also complete a popular science description and a section on ethical considerations. More information on this is available in the section “What must the application contain?” below.

Those who are invited to submit a full application shall do so in Prisma no later than 2 July 2024.

JPND decides which consortiums will be recommended for funding by the respective national research funding body. The decision is notified to the coordinator of the consortium with a statement in the form of a written comment. The Swedish Research Council makes the grant decisions for Swedish participants. Shortly after the grant decision has been made, a notice of the grant awards will be published on the Swedish Research Council’s website. You will thereafter find a notice of the decision on your application in your personal account in Prisma, under the tab “Applications and grants”.

You are responsible for ensuring the application is complete and corresponds to the application in JPND’s application system, that is to say the application form is correctly filled in, the correct appendices are attached, and the information requested has been provided according to the instructions. Please only submit material specifically requested. We do not accept any additional information after the deadline, except when we specifically ask for it.

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 the project grant must be a participant in a JPND consortium, with 3–6 partners from at least 3 participating countries. You can see full eligibility requirements for the composition of the consortium in the call text on JPND’s website External link.. 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.

The applicant for a project grant must be an individual researcher together with their organisation (a Swedish 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. Please note therefore that Swedish researchers working for a company, for example, cannot be funded and shall therefore not submit an application to the Swedish Research Council, even if they are part of a consortium application. The administrating organisation must sign the full 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 award date listed in Ladok applies.

You do not have to be employed by the administrating organisation at the time of applying, but you must be employed at the start of and throughout the grant period and any additional 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 and 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, and you may only be the Swedish partner of one consortium in this call. Further information about the grants you may apply for during the same year are shown in on the page Several grants simultaneously. Grants under this call are counted as “Project grant with focus”.

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 the requirements for your ongoing grant in the “Approval of terms and conditions” you received from the Swedish Research Council.

If you already have an ongoing grant, then further information about the grants you may apply for are shown in on the page Several grants simultaneously. Grants under this call are counted as ”Project grant with focus”. Please note that if you are the project leader for an ongoing project grant, this must have a different focus than JPND and relate to a different project idea for you to be able to apply.

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 financial 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 idea as a grant you have already been awarded by, or are applying for to another funding body, please describe this in your application to JPND.

Costs and grant amounts

The grant may be used to fund all types of project-related costs, such as:

• salaries (including your own salary), however no more than corresponding to the person’s activity level in the project
• premises
• running costs (such as consumables, travel including stays at research facilities, publication costs, and minor equipment)
• depreciation costs.

The grant amount includes cover of indirect costs as a percentage of the direct costs, according to the model used by your administrating organisation. Grants must not be used for scholarships. If a doctoral student participates, project funds may not be paid out as salary during teaching or other departmental duties.

The maximum amount you may apply for for Swedish participation in a consortium is 2 500 000 SEK in total (approximately 230 000 EUR) per project with 1 Swedish partner. For projects with 2 Swedish partners, the maximum you may apply for is 3 500 000 SEK in total (approximately 305 000 EUR). A Swedish participant who is also the coordinator of the consortium may apply for a further 500 000 SEK (approximately 45 000 EUR).

Please note that the exchange rate 1 EUR = 11.55 SEK shall be used to calculate actual amounts applied for in the application.

Grant period

You may apply for a grant to cover 3 years, starting from January 2025. The first payment will be made no earlier than January 2025.

What must the application contain?

Please refer to JPND’s call text External link. and the application form in Prisma in parallel with reading the instructions below, which describe the call-specific content of the application to the Swedish Research Council. More information on what to do in practical terms is available in our Guide for applicants.

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
• How the research will be carried out: project organisation, time plan and scientific methods
• What is important about the planned research

The abstract shall provide a summary picture of the purpose and implementation of the research. 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 (only applies to those invited to submit a full application)

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 research about?
• Why is it important to research this?
• In what way may the new knowledge 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 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.

Research description

Ethical aspects (only applies to those invited to submit a full application)

Legal and formal requirements

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

If the research 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 research 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.

More 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 research 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 persons 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 also. 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.

Application for the international collaboration

Here you shall attach the application submitted by the consortium to JPND.

Other appendices

No other appendices need to be attached to this field.

Administrating organisation

Please state the administrating organisation and project site.

Participants

Here you may invite participating administrators to your application.

CV

Under this tab, please upload the following CV information from your personal account in Prisma.

Education: Third cycle higher education (doctoral degree)

Work: Current employment (including whether it is permanent employment or not).

How your application is assessed

The scientific assessment of the application is carried out by JPND (see the assessment process in the JPND call text). External link.