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The purpose of the grant is to establish a network around a specific research idea, aimed at a joint research project. The grant shall support the development of long-term joint research between Swedish researchers and researchers from the state of São Paulo in Brazil. Applications may relate to already ongoing or new collaborations. The Swedish Research Council rewards research of the highest scientific quality in national competition.

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Summary
Support form:	Research environment and research collaboration support
Area:	All areas
Focus:	Brazil-Sweden
Applicant:	Individual researchers active in Sweden in collaboration with Brazilian researchers active in the state of São Paulo.
Participating researchers:	The Brazilian applicant/project leader shall be invited as a participating researcher in the application.
Grant period:	1 year
Grant amount:	7 500 EUR for the Swedish applicant
Call deadline:	27 January 2020 (14.00/2 p.m.)
Publication of grant award:	No later than the beginning of May 2020
Start of the grant period:	July 2020

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Please note: Please read and follow the instructions. In addition to this specific call text, you also need to read our Guide for applicants. The applicant from São Paulo need to have a ongoing project grant from FAPESP in order to apply to the Call. Information about researchers funded by FAPESP are available at https://bv.fapesp.br/en/

About the network grant

The Swedish Research Council and FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation) have entered into a cooperation agreement aimed at promoting scientific and technical collaboration between Swedish researchers and researchers from the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The call is part of FAPESP’s SPRINT programme. The purpose of the grant is to give research teams in Sweden and São Paulo the opportunity to establish or continue building on already existing collaborations aimed at a joint research project. The collaboration shall be based on the principle of mutual benefit for the participants from the respective countries.

+ Application requirements

The following conditions must be fulfilled in order for the Swedish researcher and the collaborating partner from São Paulo to be duly qualified to apply for the grant. The Swedish Research Council and FAPESP carry out checks to ensure unqualified applications are rejected from further processing.

Applicants from São Paulo must submit parallel applications to FAPESP themselves. Please contact FAPESP for further information on this.

The project leaders from Sweden and São Paulo, Brazil are funded by each country’s research funding body, and the funds are managed by each project leader’s administrating organisation.

Applicant

The applicant for a network grant must be an individual researcher. You shall be the project leader and have scientific responsibility for the collaboration. You must hold a Swedish doctoral degree or a corresponding foreign degree, awarded no later than the deadline for this call. The degree award date we use is the date you fulfilled all the requirements for a doctoral degree, such as mandatory courses, oral defence and an approved doctoral thesis. For applicants with Swedish doctoral degrees, the award date listed in Ladok applies.

The application must include an ongoing or a new collaboration with researchers and/or research teams active at a university or research institute in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. One of the collaborating researchers is the applicant/project leader from São Paulo, who must hold the equivalent academic qualifications to the Swedish counterpart. Please note that the applicant/project leader from São Paulo must submit a separate application, comprising the identical collaboration plan, to FAPESP.

Grants from the Swedish Research Council shall be administered by a Swedish HEI or another Swedish public organisation that fulfils our criteria for administrating organisations. Your organisation must therefore be approved as an administrating organisation for you to apply.

If you are awarded a grant, you must be employed by the administrating organisation at the start of and throughout the grant period and any additional availability period, unless the Swedish Research Council approves an exception. The employment must equal at least 20 per cent of a full-time equivalent. You do not have to be employed by the administrating organisation at the time of applying.

Number of applications and previous grants

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

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

You may only submit one application for this grant under this call. Other restrictions on the grants you may apply for during the same year are shown here on the Swedish Research Council’s website.

Participating researchers

Your application must include the applicant/project leader from São Paulo as a participating researcher.

Participating researchers shall provide the necessary information themselves in Prisma, and upload these to the application. Any further participating partners and their roles shall be described in the collaboration plan (please see instructions under “Collaboration plan” below). The proposals must aim to respect the principle of reciprocity with regard to academic qualifications of those who will take part in the exchange activities.

Costs and grant amounts

The grant relates to costs associated with international network building and collaboration, such as

• research and/or working stays between the collaborating partners (travel costs, food and accommodation, insurance)

• joint seminars, courses or workshops aimed at further developing the joint research basis and the research agenda

• preparation/planning of joint research applications

• joint publications and other joint information dissemination

• joint conferences.

Grants may not be used for scholarships. The grant amount is a standard amount of 75 000 SEK, including indirect costs. The São Paulo counterpart with receive a corresponding amount from FAPESP.

Please note that any funds not used for the purpose intended shall be repaid to the Swedish Research Council in their entirety at the end of the availability period.

The Swedish Research Council assumes that the administrating organisation will cover any costs in excess of the amount received.

Grant period

The grant period is 12 months, starting in July 2020. The entire grant amount will be paid during 2020, starting in July 2020 at the earliest.

Mutual benefit

The principle of mutual benefit for the participating countries applies for the grant. This means that exchanges and activities within the network shall be conducted in both Sweden and São Paulo.

+ 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.

Language

Foreign 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.

Sections of the application

The application form includes the following tabs:

• Descriptive information;
• Research description;
• CV (full CV only for the Brazilian project leader);
• Publications;
• Administrating organisation;
• Participants;
• CV (both researchers);

Descriptions of the call-specific information requested under each tab follow below.

Descriptive information

Abstract

The abstract shall include a brief description of the following:

• The research activities to be conducted within the collaboration;
• Implementation of the research collaboration: project organisations, time plan and the scientific methods planned;
• Effect and added value of the research collaboration.

The abstract shall provide a summary guide to the purpose and implementation of the research collaboration. 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 (approximately one third of an A4 page in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing).

Popular science description

Describe the project in such a way that a person who is not familiar with the subject can understand it. Describe what is to be done and why, and explain in what way the new knowledge may be important.

The popular science description is an important tool when we inform about the research funded by the Swedish Research Council. If we grant your application, we reserve the right to use the description for information purposes.

Note: The popular science description must be written in Swedish, unlike the rest of the application.

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

Research description

Collaboration plan

The plan shall consist of a brief but complete description of the collaboration. The focus of the plan shall be forward-looking, and it shall cover a maximum of 5 page-numbered A4 pages in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing, including references and any images.

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

• Purpose and aims: Describe summarily the purpose (developing a joint research project) and other specific goals for the collaboration project.

• Research idea: Make a summary of the research theme and the research questions planned to be in focus for the project, how gender aspects will be included in the project idea (where applicable), and describe your own and others’ previous research and any preliminary results within the research area. State key references.

• Significance and scientific novelty: Describe briefly how the collaboration project relates to previous research within the area, and its importance to the research area in the short and long term. If the network is not intended to develop new research projects, but to construct a network around existing research, the application must state forceful grounds for why this is of great importance for the ongoing collaboration/project.

• Network description and mode of cooperation: Provide a summary of the planned work including the following items:

- A substantive description of the exchange activities, emasizing their relevance. If possible the proposal must state clearly how the exchange activities to be carried out by each team would contribute to any ongoing research projects funded by FAPESP and the Swedish Research Council;

- Detailed schedule of the exchange missions to be carried out by the partner team at the São Paulo institution and the team at the Swedish institution. The exchange must be reciprocal, but the number of researchers can differ

- Performance indicators for the planned activities, indicating the expected results;

- A description of each PI/applicant’s contribution to the implementation of the collaboration. Describe and explain the competences and roles of other participating researchers in the collaboration and their gender distribution, and also those of any other researchers or corresponding who are important for the implementation of the exchange.

- Foreseen actions that will add to the impact of the exchange for teams on both sides of the cooperation, e.g. by means of seminars, short courses etc.

Added value of the collaboration

Describe the added value of the collaboration, including the following items:

• The added value of the network collaboration for the research and the research environments.
• Description of how the Principal Investigators in São Paulo and in Sweden intend to prepare a joint research project, resulting from the exchange activities developed from the proposal submitted in this call, to be submitted to research funding agencies accessible in their regions in order to create a medium to long term collaboration (up to one page).
• If the application concerns an already ongoing collaboration, the planned dissemination of results and new knowledge, co-production of publications and other contributions, should also be described.

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

Budget and research resources

The grant is a standard amount and you therefore do not need to enter any budget applied for in the application form.

Justification of the budget applied for

Describe briefly the primary costs you intend to cover within the framework for the grant budget. The description may cover a maximum of 2 000 characters including blank spaces (approximately 1 A4 page in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing).

Other funding

Please state your or any other researcher’s funding over and above what is applied for in this application. Please state rounded amounts in SEK.

CV (São Paulo applicant)

Please attach the CV of the Brazilian applicant/project leader from São Paulo comprising no more than 4 A4 pages. The CV shall be identical to the CV submitted to FAPESP.

Please note that the publication list(s) shall be included under the separate “Publications” tab below.

Publications

Under this tab, please attach your and the participating researcher’s publication lists to the respective fields (Swedish and participant from São Paulo sorted separately).

Please attach your publication list drawn up according to the instructions below. The list shall cover a maximum of 1 A4 page in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing.

Please sort the publications in reverse chronological order, so that the latest publication is at the top of the list. Please only include articles or corresponding that are published or accepted for publication at the time of applying. The author order shall be identical to that of the published work. The application cannot be supplemented with publications after the deadline for the call.

Selection of publications: List the maximum 10 publications of greatest importance to your application.

The publications shall be of the types: Peer-reviewed original articles, conference contributions, edited volumes, research review articles, books and book chapters, and other publications including popular science books/presentations.

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.

Swedish project leader:

The following information, where available, must always be included in your CV, taking into account the stated limitation in numbers:

• Education: First, second and third cycle higher education and specialist degrees.
• Work: Current employment (including employment form) and longer relevant employment, postdoctoral visits (also included as employment if relevant), research exchanges relevant to the research described and any longer interruptions in the research that have impacted on your opportunity to gain merits as a researcher.
• Merits and awards: Docentship/associate professorship, supervisees (postdoctoral and doctoral students; state the overall number of each category and list the 10 most relevant to you), up to 10 of your most relevant grants awarded in competition, up to 10 of your most relevant prizes and awards, and up to 20 other merits relevant to the application.
• Intellectual property rights: For example, patents and open access computer programs developed by you; state up to 10 of your most relevant.

São Paulo applicant/project leader:

The participant from São Paulo is only required to upload their doctoral degree as well as current employment from the personal Prisma account. The full CV is attached in PDF format as instructed above under “CV (Brazilian applicant)”.

+ How your application is assessed

+ Contact

Questions about application content

If you have any questions about application content, please contact one of the following persons:

Johan Fanger johan.fanger@vr.se, 08-546 44 200

Paola Norlin, paola.norlin@vr.se, 08-546 44 311

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