Criteria for administrating organisations

The grants paid out by Forte must be administrated by a Swedish organisation that meets certain criteria. The criteria have been drawn up jointly with Formas and the Swedish Research Council, and they accordingly constitute common grounds for the administrating organisations that are approved as recipients of the research councils’ grants.

Criteria for approving administrating organisations

An approved administrating organisation must:

1. Be a Swedish legal entity with a Swedish organisation registration number. There is an exception if the councils are to pay out grants to a foreign organisation in accordance with governing documents or agreements.

2. Conduct research. Conducting research means having a documented research activity and being assessed as capable of taking on commitments in accordance with the general conditions for research grants that are common to all the councils. These conditions prescribe, among other things, that a project manager must be appointed by the administrating organisation and that the administrating organisation, as an employer, is responsible for ensuring that the resources necessary for the research project can be obtained. The criterion of conducting research relates to those organisations that are recipients of research grants. The research councils are also able, in accordance with a spending authorisation, to issue grants for activities other than research, e.g. for information initiatives relating to research, and the councils accordingly are able to issue such grants to organisations that do not conduct research. However, support for activities other than research must satisfy other criteria.

3. Guarantee academic freedom within the framework of its task, by means of freedom in choosing research problems, developing research methods, and publishing research results

4. Ensure that the results of the research conducted with the support of the research councils are made freely available to other researchers as well as to public and corporate stakeholders. The requirements with respect to availability are described in greater detail in the research councils’ respective general grant conditions.

5. An administrating organisation cannot use grants for economic activity. As a general rule, all companies are assumed to conduct economic activity. Associations and other organisations may also be included here, depending on what sort of activity they conduct.

For organisations that conduct both economic and non-economic activity, it is possible to be an administrating organisation if grants are used for the non-economic activity. Grants cannot be used for the economic activity. The accounts for the different activities must be kept separate.

Routine for approving new administrating organisations

Any additional administrating organisation, other than those already approved, shall be subject to approval in accordance with the above criteria. A decision is then made by Forte’s Head of Research.

An organisation can only be approved as an administrating organisation for grants from the research council(s) whose criteria the organisation satisfies. In practice, this means that researchers associated with the administrating organisation in question can only apply for grants from research councils whose criteria are satisfied and that have also approved the organisation as an administrating organisation.

Applications for an approved organisation account are made in the research councils’ common application and case management system Prisma . Applications must be made by an authorised representative of the organisation’s administration, who will also act as the organisation’s account manager in further contacts with the research councils.