Crossroads for climate transformation – research centres

• The coordinating organisation must be a university, higher-education institution, research institute or research-mandated public agency with a Swedish organisation number, approved to administer funding across all Formas calls. Include at least two academic and two non-academic organisations, and no more than 15 partners in total. All partners must be legal entities; individuals and sole traders cannot participate. One administrator can lead at most two applications, but may participate in others.
• Every partner must have an active, justified role, its own budget including personnel costs, employer registration, and F-tax/VAT registration where its legal form requires it. It must have a robust financial position and have been registered by 20 May 2023 and active since then. Newly formed organisations cannot participate.
• Foreign universities, higher-education institutions and research institutes may receive funding. Other organisations without a Swedish organisation number may participate only through their own funding or working time. The centre must be initiated and led from Sweden and address issues relevant to Sweden. Work abroad must be justified, limited, and conducted at universities, higher-education institutions or research institutes. Research collaboration with state or federal research institutions in Russia or Belarus is excluded.
• The coordinator role must average at least 60% of full-time work across the project. Two people may share it, but one is the main applicant; at least that person must be employed by the administrator and hold a substantial share of the role. An individual may coordinate only one Formas-funded centre. A communicator or equivalent must contribute at least 75% of full-time work; this can also be shared by two people and need not be based at the administrator.
• Costs must directly relate to establishing and operating the centre and add to ordinary activities. Salary funding across projects cannot exceed 100% of a full-time position or duplicate other salary funding; fully retired researchers cannot receive salary funding. Doctoral positions, including supervision and administration, are capped at SEK 3 million per centre per year.
• Equipment, land and buildings qualify only to the extent and for the period they are used for the centre. If instruments or equipment are not used throughout the centre’s lifetime, only depreciation corresponding to that lifetime is eligible. For buildings, only this depreciation is eligible, rather than the full purchase cost. Depreciation is the portion of an asset’s cost allocated over time under generally accepted accounting principles. Eligible land costs are transfer costs on commercial terms or actual capital costs. Equipment, land, buildings and their eligible depreciation share a combined ceiling of 5% of the requested budget. Consultants must work exclusively on centre activities, on market terms.
• Indirect costs cover shared support, such as administration and IT, that relates to the centre without arising directly from its activities. Each partner normally claims these costs up to 30% of its eligible personnel costs. Universities and higher-education institutions may instead allocate these shared costs using their own full-cost accounting method. Actual indirect costs up to 45% of the partner’s eligible personnel costs are allowed for non-economic work by state-controlled research companies or partnerships, foundations with government-appointed board members, and public agencies mandated to conduct their own research, provided they receive government-decided funding for independent research. No overhead is funded on equipment depreciation or premises costs.
• A partner requesting at least SEK 3 million may include up to SEK 30,000 for an authorised or approved auditor’s certificate. Municipalities, regions, government agencies and higher-education institutions may use an internal auditor’s certificate.
• Identify ethical issues and obtain any required human-research or animal-experiment approval before the relevant work begins. If no ethical approval is needed, explain why.

Statut

clos

Clôture

20 mai 2026

Conditions de cette période de candidature

• Applications closed on 20 May 2026 at 14:00. Decisions are expected on 21 October 2026.

Applications closed on 20 May 2026 at 14:00. Formas expects to decide awards on 21 October 2026. Any planned later continuation call would be restricted to centres funded in this call and depend on a positive evaluation and available budget.

Applications used Prisma’s organisation account. The account manager opens the organisation call, invites the coordinator to complete the application and submits it. The administrator must sign within seven calendar days after the call closes. Do not submit the same proposal with different leads, or duplicate its content in the parallel centre call on robust and resilient infrastructure and the built environment.

Required attachments include a rector-signed or equivalent host certificate, signed support letters from every partner, combined CVs, role and time-allocation descriptions, and relevant publication lists. English is recommended for the application; a Swedish application is translated without an opportunity to review the translation. The public description must be Swedish, with summaries in both languages. Write the budget specification in English: it is not translated for the international panel.

Before the first payment, each partner must submit its signed commitment and any requested supplementary information. Put a partnership agreement in place during year one and send Formas a copy, together with the required communication and use-of-results plan. Periodic financial reports and progress/final reports are required, including a two-year progress report. Publish research results openly and have a maintained data-management plan before research begins.