Ragnar Söderberg project grants in law 2023

Open 9 May to 13 October at 3:00 pm.

About the call

The foundation announces project grants for early career researchers, i.e. up to ten years after PhD, in law. With this call we want to support researchers with innovative ideas, a proven scientific track record and high ambitions to develop their research. We welcome applications both from individuals and groups of up to four researchers. Given that the project has a clear focus on a research question in law we also welcome interdisciplinary applications and groups.

Objectives of the call

To support novel research of the highest quality by providing substantial funding for projects addressing research questions in law.

Open call

The application portal opens on 9th May and closes on 13th October at 15:00.

How to apply

Applications are submitted through our online platform SBS. Login here. Detailed instructions for how to write and submit the application are found here. SBS requires a Swedish Bank-ID to login in. If you do not have this, you need to contact us at least two weeks ahead of the deadline.

Note that we work with both national and international reviewers and thus all applications must be written in English.

Conditions for the grant

The main applicant – and hence the project leader if there is a group – must hold a PhD in law or an equivalent foreign degree awarded during 2013-2022* and be employed by a university in Sweden during the grant period.
If the application concerns a project group the above criteria apply to all project members, with the exception below.
- To allow for interdisciplinary collaborations we accept that half of the members in a project group have a PhD in another subject than law (i.e. one person in a group of two or three, two persons in a group of four).
A project group may consist of a maximum of four researchers, including the project leader.
It is only possible to participate in one application in this call, this applies to both the main applicant and other project members.
We do not fund PhD students.
The main applicant must spend at least 30% of a full time on the project.

We welcome applications, and participation in projects, from researchers that are not yet established in Sweden. In such cases, the researcher must be employed at a Swedish university by the start of the grant period. Since the application must be signed by the Head of Department the necessary arrangements with the host institution in Sweden needs to be made well in advance.

* This period may me extended by a maximum of two years to allow for parental leave, long-term illness, care of a close family member or clinical work (only applicable for researchers in medicine).

The grant

The grant may be used for salaries and any direct project related costs.

Eligible costs are:

salary for the main applicant and project members,
all direct project-related costs, including e.g. equipment*, data collection and analysis, transcription of interviews, publication and dissemination of results to peers and the public. If a research assistant is hired to do e.g. data collection or transcription of interviews their salary is an eligible cost, but not the overhead costs for that person,
funding for attending national and international conferences, **
if the project requires visits abroad this may also be applied for. **

* Not personal computers or office equipment.

** Such costs will be paid directly to the applicant as a personal stipend. The stipend is individually adapted and may cover reasonable accommodation costs, travel, and visa costs.

Indirect costs (overhead) including rental costs for ofﬁce space are not eligible costs. We provide a fixed amount for overhead and rental costs according to the policy of the foundation (link to policy text, in Swedish), the remaining indirect costs are expected to be covered by the university.

Grant period

The grant period is a maximum of four years. The starting date is decided by the applicant but cannot be earlier than 1st February 2024 or later than 1st October 2024.

Evaluation

Applications will be evaluated by a review panel consisting of prominent law scholars from Sweden and abroad. If needed, external reviewers will provide specific expert knowledge in addition to the competence of the review panel. Applications are evaluated regarding scientific quality, novelty, and feasibility, where the latter includes merits of the researcher(s).

Decision

The board of the foundation will decide in December 2023 which applications to fund. All applicants will receive notification by e-mail and a list of all awarded grants will be published on our website.

Queries

Please contact us at kansli@soderbergs.se. Note that we have a small office and may not be able to answer questions at short notice.

Time table

The call is announced in March 2023.
9th May: full instructions are published and the application platform opens.
13th October at 15:00: deadline for applications.
January/February 2024: announcement of awarded grants.
Spring 2024: networking event and dinner for grantees.

Awarded grants in the call

Grants were awarded to the following projects.

Linnea Wegerstad (Lund University) for the project ”Understanding sentencing – proportionality, conformity and sources of law in judicial decision-making”.

Elisabeth Ahlinder och Åsa Örnberg (Stockholm University) for the project ”Managing conflicts within in the wild ungulate legal framework”.

Members of the review panel

For transparency we publish the names of the reviewers after all decisions on funding have been made. The reviewers will not answer any questions regarding the call or applications. All such questions are handled by the secretariat.

The review panel for this call consisted of five national and international scholars in law. Professor Sanja Bogojevic (University of Oxford and Lund University) chaired the panel. The other members were Associate Professor Ebrahim Afsah (Copenhagen University), Professor Jenny Julén-Votinius (Lund University), Professor Johan Lindholm (Umeå University), Professor Mårten Schultz (Stockholm University and Institute for Future Studies).