KTH-POSTECH Collaborative Research Seed Funding 2025/26
Open for applications from 15 September to 15 October 2025
These funds, provided by KTH in partnership with Pohang University of Science and Technology, are offered to support collaborative research projects. The funds aim to catalyse new collaborations and build international teams that are well-positioned to apply for external research funding. Applications are open to the universities' staff, including early-career researchers, across all faculties and departments.
KTH-POSTECH Collaborative Research Seed Funding 2025/26 are funds offered to support collaborative research projects. The funds’ purpose is to catalyse new collaborations and to build international teams who are well positioned to apply for external research funding.
Up to 100 000 SEK / 14,000,000 KRW is available from each university to each project with a Principal Investigator from that university. So the maximum possible award could be 14,000,000 KRW from POSTECH and 100 000 SEK from KTH.
In 2025, a total of four projects will be selected for support, and the research fields will be open to all disciplines. The project period is from 1 December 2025 to 28 February 2027 (15 months).
What can be funded and when?
Funds must be for a new activity (not activity that has already happened or that is, in substance, covered by other research funds). The new activity can build upon outcomes from a previous project.
- Proposals that can demonstrate follow-up and sustainability beyond the initial funding period are particularly encouraged.
- Activities for which the funds are allocated must take place before 28 February 2027.
- Proposals may include but are not limited to workshops (face-to-face and virtual), symposia, staff exchanges, research seminars/presentations and formation or development of a collaborative network.
- Each institution will pay funds directly to its researchers. Approval of expenditure will be governed by each university for the portion of funding provided.
- Each partner should pay its own costs and there can be no transfer of funds between institutions. For example, travel costs for POSTECH staff should be in the POSTECH budget, costs for subsistence for KTH staff should be allocated in the KTH budget, and so on.
Eligible costs |
Ineligible costs |
Travel costs including flights, hotels and subsistence costs
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Replacement research/teaching costs
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* Directly Incurred costs are project-specific (i.e. they arise as a direct consequence of the project taking place). POSTECH cannot provide support for personnel expenses.
** Directly Allocated costs are not project-specific (i.e. they are incurred whether or not the project takes place), and are estimated at project level e.g. Investigator time, Technician time (where not directly incurred).
Who are the Collaborative Research Seed Funds open to?
Applications are open to the universities’ staff, including early-career researchers, across all faculties and departments.
Each research team should comprise one Principal Investigator (PI) from POSTECH and one PI from KTH. Inclusion of students and other personnel is optional. PIs must be full-time faculty members at their respective universities.
Co-Investigators (Co-Is) can hold any of the following roles:
- Professor or equivalent
- Associate Professor/ Reader or equivalent
- Senior Lecturer/Principal Researcher/Principal Research Associate or equivalent
- Lecturer/Senior Research Associate or equivalent
- Post Doc/Researcher/Research Associate or equivalent
Co-Is must have an open-ended contract or a fixed-term contract which lasts until at least March 2027. If an applicant has a fixed-term contract that does not last until March 2027 they can apply if their contract covers the dates in which the project is due to take place and have a co-applicant who is a university staff member with an open-ended contract. In this case, the co-applicant will be responsible for reporting outcomes to the panel.
There must be two or more researchers i.e. academic member of staff, post-doctoral researcher or PhD student, from each university on the project team. Applicants are not required to have a doctorate to apply. PhD students are not eligible to apply as the main applicant but can be involved as collaborators in a project.
Honorary staff members are not eligible to apply as main applicants but may be co-applicants or contribute to the project. Honorary staff members cannot commit or authorise expenditure of university funds.
In line with the universities’ commitment to equality and diversity, we encourage applications from a range of backgrounds regardless of career stage, age, disability, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and religion.
Timeline
The deadline for applications is 11:59 pm (BST), Wednesday October 15 (00:59 CEST, 07:59 KST Thursday October 16) 2025.
- Applicants will be notified of panel decisions on 15 November, 2025.
- The collaborative research project will start on 1 December 2025.
- All activity must be concluded by 28 February, 2027.
- Award recipients will receive funds using the internal transfer processes in each university.