Application Guidelines – Project Grants in Economic Sciences 2025

Introduction

In these guidelines you will find information on:

• the required content of different parts of the application,
• how to use the digital platform SBS for writing and submitting your application.

All applications and supporting documentation must be submitted through SBS. Any created, but not submitted, applications will be removed after the submission deadline.

 

Please note that both the applicant and the Head of Department are required to digitally sign the application (using Swedish Bank-ID) before the deadline for the call. By signing the application, the Head of Department verifies that the host institution will comply with the requirement for the grant.

 

Signing in to SBS

Sign in here. You will reach ‘My page’, where you can create a new application, review drafts, and see previously submitted applications.

 

Previous users

If you have created an account previously, please use the same account now.

• If you already have an account connected to Bank ID, choose this option to login.
• If your account is not yet connected to Bank ID, choose the option to log in using your e-mail and password. You will then be asked to fill in some additional information to update the account and link it with Bank ID. When this is completed, please log out and log in again using the Bank ID option.

 

New users – create an account using Swedish Bank ID

Before you create an account, we request that you review the information about handling of your personal data, and agree to the terms and conditions.

 

Enter your personal information and contact details. Note that the e-mail address cannot include upper case letters. A confirmation e-mail will be sent to you for verification, use the link in the e-mail message to sign in. When signed in you can choose language settings (English or Swedish) under ‘My profile.

 

Note that the registration of an application requires that you have a Swedish Bank ID. If you do not have a Bank ID you need to contact us at least two weeks before the deadline to make special arrangements. 

Creating, editing and submitting an application

An application is created in seven steps. At every step you can use the button ‘Exit (save draft)’ in the lower right-hand corner to save your information, provided that the fields are correctly completed; otherwise, a warning will be displayed. The application will be saved under the tab ‘Drafts” on ‘My page’.

 

From step 3, you have the possibility to work with your application in a non-chronological order. Do not use the arrows in your web browser to move between steps; instead, use the ‘Previous’ / ’Next’ buttons in the lower left corner.

 

Your application is editable until you actively choose to submit it at the last step. We recommend writing the application locally using a word processing program and then copy and paste the text into the corresponding fields in the system. Note that any formatting of the text will disappear when pasting your text. Please also note that the grant portal may count the number of characters differently to e.g. Word. If the stated maximum is exceeded, all characters exceeding the maximum will be removed. Therefore, always preview your application before submitting it.

 

Step 1 – Grant manager/Principal investigator

1 A. Grant manager

Choose from a list of Swedish higher education institutions. For other organisations or institutions, state the corporate number of the organisation, and click ‘Search organisation’. To select department, filter the result by searching for your department, for instance ‘Juridiska’ or ‘Juridicum’.

 

1 B. Head of Department – contact details

Upon completion of this application, the Head of department will be requested to co-sign it on behalf of the grant manager.

 

1 B. Applicant / Principal investigator – contact details

The contact information you provided when creating your account is displayed here. Some of the information can be updated under the ‘My profile’ category on ‘My page’.

 

Step 2 – Research area

2 A. Research subject

Select the research subject (i.e. Economics, Business Administration. Economic History or Economic Geography) that best fits your application.

 

2 B. Grant category / Call

Select ‘Project’.

 

2 C. Date for PhD award

This is required to assess eligibility for the call. Please refer to the call text for further information on eligibility criteria.

 

2 D. Upload a copy of PhD diplomas for all project members (max 2mb)

 

2 E. Extension of the eligibility window

Have any of the project members had career breaks and need to request an extension of the eligibility window? If yes, complete tab 2.1.

 

Step 2.1 – Career breaks (if applicable)

The main applicant will fill in the information om career breaks in the web form. I participating researchers also have had career breaks that needs to be accounted for they should include this information in their CVs (state reason and time).

We may request supporting documentation (e.g. documentation from Försäkringskassan or equivalent) during the review process.

 

2.1 B. Indicate the number of days of extension you need to full fill the eligibility criteria.

 

2.1 C. Please specify your eligible career breaks.

 

2.1 D. Comment (if applicable). Use only if you need to describe the career break(s) in more detail.

 

Step 3 – Project summary

3 A. Project title (max 255 characters including spaces).

 

3 B. Grant period should be stated. Refer to the call text for information on allowed starting date for the project.

 

3 C. Scientific summary (1,200–1,500 characters including spaces) of the proposed project.

 

3 D. Popular Web summary (1,200–1,500 characters including spaces) is a popular science summary of your main research question that we will use on our web if the project is funded. This is the only part of the application to be written in Swedish.

 

Step 4 – Other financiers

4 A. Current research grants. Specify all your current grants, submitted applications, and grants that you plan to apply for in 2025-2026. State the funding source, granted amount (or amount applied for) and grant period (year and month).

 

If any of the participating researchers in the project have been granted, applied for, or plan to apply for funding for a project that is similar to this application this should also be stated here. Use the comment section to describe which grants relate to which researcher.

 

To delete saved data, check the box ‘Delete’ next to the line and click ‘Save’.

 

4 B. Comment (max 5,000 characters including spaces). If applicable, comment on how the project and budget of the present application relates to other grants stated above. Also state how much time you work (or plan to work) in the other projects. If you have several grants the total working time for you may not exceed 100%. The same applies to any other researchers in the project who have multiple grants.

 

Step 5 – Budget

The budget should be prepared per calendar year and consist of two parts: costs of personnel and other costs. Please refer to the call text for further information on eligible budget items and how we handle indirect costs and rental costs.

 

Personnel. State the following information about yourself, participating researchers and any other personnel in the project: position, university, department, monthly salary for full-time employment, and % of a full time employment spend on the project  (‘Average monthly worktime’ in the system) Note that we ask for the salary of a 100% employment even though the actual time spent on the project may be less.

 

When you choose university from the drop-down menu the corresponding payroll supplemental wage (LKP) figure* will be generated automatically. If your university is not found in the drop-down menu, please fill in the information manually. Click ‘Save/add new line’ and the sum applied for will automatically be calculated for the stated monthly salary, LKP and working hours spent on the project. When the budget for one year has been saved, you can copy and re-use the budget for the following year by clicking on ‘Copy previous year’. The auto-filled data can be edited.

 

Other costs. Choosing ‘Other’ opens a field enabling manual input of an item. Every item under ‘Other costs’ must be specified in the ‘Project proposal’ (step 6). State the total sum for each item, e.g. equipment, travels etc. Please refer to the call text for information on eligible costs.

 

*Supplemental wage (LKP) is the cost for the employer to employ a person in addition to their salary.

 

Step 6 – Project proposal, CV, publication list and attachments

6 A. Project proposal (maximum 25,000 characters including spaces). The proposal should include the following headlines and sections.

• Purpose and aims: briefly state the purpose and specific aims of the proposed project.
• State of the art: briefly summarise relevant research in the field, including key references.
• Significance and scientific novelty: describe how the proposed project relates to previous work in the field (state of the art) and how the project will add to this. Also describe the anticipated academic impact of the project both short and long term.
• Preliminary and previous work (if applicable): briefly describe your (or other participating researchers’) previous related work and/or pilot studies in the field.
• Project description: describe in detail the project design using the following headlines.
  • Theory and method: describe the underlying theory and method which will be used to achieve the stated aims.
  • Timeline and implementation: briefly describe the timeline for the project and how the project will be implemented. Also describe any important risks that may hamper the project and how you intend to mitigate this. Typical risks are e.g. if the project depends on results, material, personnel or similar from other research projects that are beyond your control.
  • Project organisation
    • What type of competence does each person contribute and what role will they have? How will the collaboration be structured? Show that there is an added value to do this research with this particular group of researchers.
    • If the proposed project is part of a larger research environment/program or similar, describe how they fit together.
  • Access to archives, collections, libraries, specific equipment, research infrastructures and similar (if applicable): briefly describe if you need access to any of these and how you will ensure proper access.
  • Ethics and legal: state if an ethical approval, or other legal documents, are needed or not. If it is needed, also state if it has already been applied for or will be applied for later.*

 

If tables, figures, graphs etc are needed to describe any of the above this may be provided as pdf attachments. Such attachments need to be references in the text.

 

* Note that the ethical approval and/or other legal documents should not be submitted. It is the responsibility of the grant manager to ensure that research conducted complies with the terms and conditions specified in Swedish law and we expect that this is full filled.

 

6 B. Curriculum vitae. The CVs of all participating researchers are attached as a single pdf file. Each CV (maximum 10,000 characters including spaces per CV) should include the following headlines.

• Education: provide information on your PhD including title of thesis, university, and date (year and month) of issuing the degree.
• Work and employment: list your current and previous academic positions including type of employment, employer, and dates for the employment (year and month). If your current employer is not the same as the host institution for the proposed project both should be listed. If applicable, also describe international exchanges and/or other relevant work experiences.
• Merits and awards: list supervised PhD students with name, university, and dates (year and month). List competitive grants that you have received including project name, timeline for the project, amount of funding, funding agency and if you were the main applicant for the grant. Also list awards and any other merits relevant for the application (e.g., research or teaching awards, keynotes, popular science presentations, leadership positions etc).

 

6 C. Attachments to the proposal (max four documents). Additional files may be attached if the content cannot be expressed in the proposal. Always refer to the attachment in the proposal. Attached documents should be in PDF format and each document should not exceed 2 MB. Attached documents can be reviewed in step 7 under ‘Preview’.

 

6 D. Publications List a maximum of ten publications and mark (with an * ) up to three publications of particular importance to this project. Specify the type of publication is (e.g. PhD thesis, peer reviewed articles, books, book chapters). For co-authored publications also describe your role and contribution. Publications in the list may be substituted by other relevant types of research output such as e.g. datasets, software or patents. In such cases include title, id and year of publication.

 

Only the publication list for the main applicant can be submitted in the web form. For all other participating researchers, the publication lists should be submitted as an attachment (under 6c). The structure of these lists should follow the description above, multiple lists of publications may be merged into a single pdf file.

 

Step 7 – Preview and submission

Here you can preview your application before submitting it. Once submitted, the application cannot be changed.

 

Save your application as a draft
. To save your document as a draft, click ‘Exit (save draft)’ on the bottom right. The application will be saved under the tab ‘Drafts’ on ‘My page’.

 

Request signature
. When the application is finished, click on ‘Request signature’ under the section ‘Required signatures’. This generates an e-mail to the Head of Department asking them to co-sign the submission on behalf of the host institution.

 

Final submission. You will receive a confirmation e-mail when the Head of Department has co-signed the application and after this you are able to submit the application. The application will not be submitted (or visible) to the foundation before this step is completed.

 

Confirmation
. After submission you will be redirected to ‘My page’. A notification confirming that ‘Your application is now submitted’ will be displayed, as well as a reference number. We ask that you note this number and refer to it if you are contacting us about the application.