2021 Call for Joint Research Proposals

This initiative stems out of a series of meetings between the senior leadership teams and an online workshop for academic staff which took place in December 2020. We have identified four initial key research areas in which to develop collaborations:

• Digital trust, privacy and security
• Sustainability and Circular Economy
• Molecular biosciences
• Water

A second set of workshops will be held in Stockholm in September (if travel is possible) on the above themes. This call gives an opportunity for more academics to engage in these emerging networks. However the fund is open to all areas and we encourage applicants from any discipline to submit proposals. Proposals will be assessed and recommended for selection by a panel composed of academic staff from all 3 partners.

The fund is open for applications from 15 March 2021.
The deadline to submit proposals is 19 April 2021.  Link to the application form

1. Projects

i. To be eligible, a proposal must include a PI from either UoM and KTH, UoM and SU or UoM, KTH and SU. There must be more than one researcher from each partner on the project team.

ii. The seed funding granted will be up to GBP 10,000 (SEK 114,000) in total per project. For 3-way projects (UoM-KTH-SU), total funding will be up to GBP 15,000 (SEK 172,000). We expect to fund approximately 10 projects.

iii. The fund is open to proposals across all research areas.

iv. Projects will be funded for a period of 12 months, starting from June 2021. There is flexibility on start dates but we would expect all projects to be underway by September 2021 at the latest.

v. Proposals with the potential for sustainability beyond the initial funding period are encouraged.

2. Costs and proposal

i. Proposals may include workshops (face-to-face and virtual), symposia, staff exchanges, research seminars/presentations and formation or development of a collaborative network.

ii. Eligible costs include travel and subsistence, consumables and the cost of research assistants e.g. PhD students, research associates and technicians which are directly related to the project. Existing staff time including the Co-PIs time cannot be costed to the project. The fund does not support equipment, scholarships, conference attendance or tuition fees.

iii. UoM only – A fEC costing is not required. Please note that only directly incurred costs are allowed and not directly allocated.

Eligble costs

Travel costs including flights, hotels and subsistence
Directly incurred staff e.g. Research Assistant
Research costs including consumables
Costs associated with organising workshops and meetings

Ineligble costs

Replacement research/teaching costs
Directly allocated costs including applicants’ time
Indirect costs/estates costs
Equipment
Scholarships
Conference attendance
Tuition fees
Honoraria

3. Eligibility

i. Academic staff members from all disciplines and at all levels are welcome to apply. We encourage early career researchers to apply.

ii. Applicants do not need to have a permanent post, but they must have an existing contract at the time of application, and that contract must cover the full period of the grant.

iii. Emeritus and honorary staff are not eligible to apply as Co-PI but may be members of the project team.

4. Funding

i. The seed funding granted will be up to GBP 10,000 (SEK 114,000) in total per project. For 3-way projects (KTH-SU-UoM), total funding will be up to GBP 15,000 (SEK 172,000). We expect approximately 10 projects to be funded.

ii. Each institution will pay funds directly to its researchers. Approval of expenditure will be governed by each university for the portion of funding provided.

5. Timeline

Call for proposals opens
Monday 15th March (11am Swedish time, 12 noon GMT)
Deadline for submission
Monday 19th April (11am Swedish time, 12 noon GMT)
Applicants notified
End of May
Project start date
From June 2021

6. Submission of Proposals

This is a joint call and a single application should be submitted online using SmartSurvey. The form can be previewed here. Applicants can use the ‘save and continue’ feature to save the proposal and continue later (a link is sent to the applicant’s email address).

The full proposal is comprised of the following elements:

i. Proposal cover that includes the faculty member and affiliations from each institution with contact details.

ii. A project description that includes the following items (in alignment with the selection criteria listed below):

- Abstract that describes the project.
- Description of the planned activities including rationale and timeline.
- Project impact: Description of the expected academic gains for the project as a result of the proposed cooperation and mobility, and the identification of corresponding performance indicators e.g. a publication, blog, meeting report etc.
- Impact of collaboration: Anticipated benefits of the collaboration to the faculty member’s other active research projects and on strengthening the overall partnership between KTH and UoM.
- Graduate student involvement: Any opportunities for graduate student(s) engagement and anticipated benefits to the project and the student(s) themselves as applicable.
- Capacity for future collaboration: A description of the potential future collaborations and outcomes that will be possible as a result of having undertaken the current collaboration. For example: joint publications, joint supervision of PhD students, joint teaching, joint patent applications, joint reports to governments, joint funding applications
- Proposed budget: A breakdown of the cost of the activity e.g. flights, travel, hotels etc.

iii. Abbreviated Curriculum Vitae (not more than 2 pages) of the Co-PIs with a selected list of publications.

iv. A letter of support from your Line Manager or Head of Department to apply for the grant, including an explanation of how the project aligns with your Faculty’s research strategy.

i. A joint review panel will assess each proposal according to the academic merit and the following criteria:
- Project design and rationale: how clearly presented and justified is the design and basis for the collaboration (15% of the evaluation score)
- Project impact: how clearly linked are the academic gains to the planned activities and performance indicators (15%).
- Impact of collaboration: how strong is the link between the proposed collaboration and the research project, in other words - would it be possible to complete the project and achieve the results without this partnership? (30%).
- Graduate researcher involvement: are opportunities provided for postgraduate students and early-career researchers to engage in the collaboration? What are the anticipated benefits of their involvement in the project? (10%)
- Capacity for future collaboration/funding: What is the extent to which future collaborations are possible as a result of the proposed project? What is the likelihood of the proposal to leverage future external funding? (30%)

7. Reporting After Project Completion

All awardees must, as a condition of receiving an award under this call, complete a narrative report that describes the outcomes, nature of collaboration, project impact, trainee involvement and opportunities for future collaboration that evolved from their project.

8. Information about this Call

KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Christina Murray, Advisor to the President Internationalisation
Email: tina@kth.se
Phone: +46-8-790 65 50