Mental ill-health and suicide prevention 2025

Background and purpose

This call for proposals is being conducted within the framework of Forte’s ten-year
national research programme on mental health and is based on the programme's four priority areas:

1. The causes, mechanisms and development of mental ill-health.
2. Promotion, prevention and early intervention for mental health.
3. The organisation and structure of the welfare system related to mental health.
4. Praktiknära forskning om effektiva insatser, metoder och behandlingar vid psykisk ohälsa och psykiatriska tillstånd.

Inom dessa områden är kunskapsbehov om psykisk ohälsa, psykiatriska tillstånd och suicidprevention i fokus för denna utlysning.

Mental health is an umbrella term that encompasses all aspects and levels of severity of mental well-being and mental ill-health. Psychiatric conditions are a more serious form of mental ill-health and encompass a variety of mental illnesses and syndromes that each fulfil the requirements for a psychiatric diagnosis. Examples include psychotic disorders, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, self-harm, depression, anxiety disorders, personality disorders and suicidal disorders.

This call aims to increase knowledge in the research field, close knowledge gaps and strengthen research on issues concerning people who suffers the most.

Focus of the call

Applications under this call should address one or more of the following areas:

Causes and mechanisms of development of psychiatric conditions and suicide
This includes research on the causes and mechanisms of the development of psychiatric conditions, as well as knowledge of the factors influencing the risk of suicide and how suicide can be prevented. Research may also address the grey area between mental disorders and psychiatric conditions.

Methods and interventions for people with mental ill-health and illness
This area includes practice-orientated research focusing on interventions, treatments and development of methods for mental ill-health and illness. How evidence-based methods can be put into practice and how interventions can be coordinated for people with severe psychiatric problems, for example in the form of comorbidity, is of particular interest. A holistic perspective and knowledge of how inequalities in health and care can be reduced, how individuals' participation in the entire care chain can be enhanced, and how implementation and utilisation can be promoted are also relevant.

Organisation and conditions of the health and social care system
This includes research on what is needed to improve the organisation and conditions for services such as child and adolescent psychiatry. How the care chain and its organisation can be made more appropriate in terms of, for example, tiered care and first-line collaboration with specialised care, and what conditions are needed for an appropriate supply of qualified staff in mental health services are also of interest.

The research can cover all age groups, and the research project applicant can focus on one or more of the areas and should include a sex and gender perspective when applicable. A user, patient, family member, and child/youth perspective is also important. We would like to see an interdisciplinary and/or multidisciplinary approach in the applications, and we see both a great need and good opportunities for collaboration in the research to increase relevance and opportunities for utilisation. Collaboration in the research process can take different forms, but we encourage close collaboration with stakeholders who are affected by the research and who can contribute important experiences and perspectives. Forte favours cross-sectoral collaboration and links with local or regional operators, where relevant. Forte also encourages international links, but the research needs to be relevant in a Swedish context.

Eligibility requirements

Doctoral degree
To apply for a grant under this call for proposals, you must have obtained a doctoral degree no later than the closing date of the call for proposals.

Reporting for previous grants
The main applicant must have submitted the final report for any previously approved grants from Forte within the reporting deadline. This only applies to grants where the deadline for final reporting has passed. Any previously granted extensions of project duration, and consequently of reporting deadlines, will be taken into account.

Assessment

Verification of your application
Forte checks if your application fulfils the conditions laid down in the call for proposals. If the application does not fulfil the conditions, it will be refused or rejected. The following conditions will be checked in this call for applications:

• The main applicant has been awarded a doctoral degree
• The main applicant has submitted the final report for any previously approved grants from Forte within the reporting deadline
• The content of the application does not obviously fall outside the focus of the call (verified in consultation with the chair of the review panel)
• The budget in the application is within the maximum grant amount specified in the call for proposals
  
• The application has been signed by the administrating organisation within 7 calendar days of the closing date of the call for proposals

Review

All applications that fulfil the conditions in the call for proposals are forwarded to Forte’s review panels for assessment. Based on their assessment, Forte’s Board makes the final decisions on which applications will be granted funding.

To be eligible for funding from Forte, applications must meet the requirements, be of high scientific quality, be relevant to society, and feasible.

Applications are assessed against the assessment criteria described below. The assessment is an overall assessment that weighs all the criteria and relates them to the call for proposals and its objectives. Key to the assessment is how the applicant has explained and justified the various choices made in the application.

Assessment criteria

Requirements

• Relevance to Forte: The research must be relevant in relation to Forte’s areas and the focus of the call.
• Sex and gender perspective: A sex and gender perspective must be taken into account, if applicable.
• Ethical considerations: The research must be conducted in an ethical manner, and any ethical issues must be addressed in an appropriate way.

Scientific quality

• Purpose, research questions, theoretical framework and background: The clarity and coherence in the description and justification of the purpose of the research, research questions, theoretical framework and background, including how well grounded it is in previous research.
• Study design, material and methods: The clarity and coherence in the description and justification of the research’s design, empirical material and methods for data collection and analysis, as well as the appropriateness of these in relation to the purpose of the research and research questions.
• Originality: The potential of the research to contribute to the research front, for example by developing new knowledge, new methods, theories and/or data.
• Multidisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary approach: The relevance of a multidisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary approach to the scientific quality, if applicable.

Societal relevance and utilisation

• Relevance to the wider community: The importance of the research to current societal challenges and how the research will help address these.
• Benefit to the wider community: The short and/or long-term benefit of the research to the wider community, and how this is intended to be promoted.
• Collaboration with the wider community: The clarity and coherence in the description and justification of the plan for collaboration with the actors affected by the research, if applicable.
• Communication of research results: The reasonableness and appropriateness of planned communications for all relevant audiences.

Feasibility

• Work plan: The clarity and reasonableness of the work plan for conducting the research.
• Competence: The competence and skills of the participants in relation to the needs for conducting the research.
• Budgets and staffing: The reasonableness of budgeted costs and participants’ planned activities for conducting the research.

Decision and statement

When a decision has been made in respect of your application, it will be published in your Prisma account. You will receive an email when the decision is published. Applicants will also have access to the statement written by the review panel about their application. This can be found in Prisma on the “Applications” page under the “Details” button. You will also find the statement on the “Grants” page.

Assessment and final decision

Review panel

A review panel consisting of researchers and community representatives within the area assess the applications. Forte’s board decides which applications to grant funding and which to reject.

• Sven Alfonsson, Karolinska institutet
• Anne H Berman, Uppsala universitet
• Mary Cannon, Royal college of surgeons in Ireland, & Beaumont hospital, Ireland
• Moa Dahlin, Uppsala universitet
• Serhiy Dekhtyarm, Karolinska institutet
• Ida Flink, Karlstads universitet
• Arne Holte, University of Oslo, Norge
• Anneli Ivarsson, Umeå universitet
• Eirini Karyotaki, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Kim Mathiasen, Århus universitet, Danmark
• Elizabeth McDermott, University of Birmingham, UK
• Richard Morris, University of Nottingham, UK
• Merete Nordentoft, Köpenhamns universitet, Danmark
• Annika Norell, Örebro universitet
• Timo Partonen, Institutet för hälsa och välfärd (THL), Finland
• Oliver Robinson, University college London, UK
• Alessandro Serretti, University of Bologna, Italy
• Therese Skoog, Göteborgs universitet
• Hanna Tuvesso, Linnéuniversitetet
• Jim van Os, UMC Utrecht, The Netherlands
• Kristian Wahlbeck, Institutet för hälsa och välfärd (THL), Finland
• Allan H Young, King’s college London, UK

Community representatives

• Conny Allaskog, Nationell samverkan för psykisk hälsa, NSPH
• Marit Eskel Grönberg, RISE/Haninge kommun
• Pontus Strålin, Socialstyrelsen
• Nicole Wolpher, Nationell samverkan för psykisk hälsa, NSPH, & Stockholm stad

Good to know before you apply

Terms and conditions for grants
In order to receive the grant from Forte, both the main applicant and the administrating organisation must sign the terms and conditions laid down in the call for proposals. The signing takes place in Prisma after a decision on the grant has been made. Forte’s general terms and conditions apply to this call for proposals.

General terms and conditions for grants

Open access
By accepting grants from Forte, the main applicant also accepts Forte’s guidelines for publication with open access. Forte does not cover the costs for open access publication within the research grants we award. In cases where publication costs are included in the application, these costs will be deleted from any grant rewarded.

Guidelines for publication with open access

Language
Applications under this call for proposals may be written in Swedish or English.

International research
Applications with an international element must follow Forte’s guidelines for international research. Forte views international research collaborations positively. Forte’s areas of research cover complex societal challenges where international research collaboration and researcher mobility can provide important contributions. Defence and security policy aspects must always be taken into account in international research collaboration.

Forte’s grants may be used to finance research where certain parts are carried out in other countries. However, the research must be initiated, led from and mainly carried out in Sweden or be a part of international collaborative research. The research must also be relevant to Sweden and Swedish conditions, and this must be explained and justified in the application.

Guidelines for international research

Principle of public access to official records
According to Swedish law, your application is considered a public document once it has been submitted to Forte. This means that anyone can request and read your application. Information may only be kept secret if it is covered by the secrecy provisions in the Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act (2009:400).
If your application is granted, abstracts in Swedish and English will be published in open project databases without a confidentiality assessment.

Translations of information in the call for proposals
Call texts, application forms and instruction texts are available in English translation, but in case of ambiguity in the translation, the Swedish versions take precedence.

Participating administrators
The main applicant may invite a participating administrator to help them complete the application form. The administrator is not part of the project but has access to the draft application. A participating administrator cannot register the final version of an application and does not have access to the application once the final version has been registered in Prisma.