Decided
call for proposals
Project Grants 2025
The annual call for proposals for project grants shall contribute to increasing the knowledge in Forte’s areas health, working life, and welfare. In total, around SEK 345 million is reserved for the period 2026–2028.
Granted applications
Here you find information about granted applications in this call. If you have applied in this call, you will receive a notification and can view the decision in Prisma. Please note that the list show applications that have been granted funding at the main decision point for the call. The list do not indicate whether an applicant has declined their grant or if reserve-placed applications have been awarded funding at a later date.
- Funded project grants: 74
- Total applicants: 1054
- Sucess rate: project grants: 7,4 %
Quick facts
Type of grant: Project grant.
Funding amounts: Maximum SEK 3 million for two-year projects and SEK 5 million for three-year projects.
Project duration: Two or three years.
Budget: SEK 345 million, for the years 2026–2028.
Applicant: 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.
The main applicant may invite participating researchers to join the application.
Number of applications: No more than one application per main applicant is permitted within this call for proposals. As a participating researcher you may participate in more than one application.
Decision: A decision is scheduled to be made by Forte’s board on 23 October. Applicants will receive an email via Prisma once the decision is available. Granted applications will be published on this page on 24 October.
Aim and focus of the call
The annual call for proposals for project grants allows researchers to formulate their research questions freely within Forte’s areas. The purpose of the call for proposals is to enable researchers to analyse and contribute to the understanding of a specific research area or question.
The call for proposals welcomes all applications within Forte’s areas of health, working life and welfare. The research that receives funding shall be of high scientific quality and have good potential to benefit society in the short or long term. For a more detailed description of the research areas that we support and do not support, please visit:
About the grant
Project grants facilitate the implementation of a defined research project designed to contribute to increased knowledge about an identified issue. Project grants may be applied for by individual researchers as well as research groups.
Project duration: Funding may be sought for either two or three years.
Grant amount: You may apply for a maximum of SEK 3 million for two-year projects and SEK 5 million for three-year projects. Please note that the maximum amount includes so called indirect costs/overheads (OH). Applications that exceed the specified limit will be rejected.
Staffing: For this grant type, you as main applicant may invite participating researchers to join the application.
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.
Ongoing grants from Forte
You cannot be the main applicant for an application under this call for proposals if, at the time the planned project is due to start, you are already the project leader for an ongoing project grant or starting grant from Forte. The grant is considered ongoing during its project time (referred to as “grant period” in the contract for the grant). If the grant period has ended, but the availability period has not, it is possible to apply for funding for a new project.
This restriction applies regardless of which call for proposals the project grant or starting grant was granted under (with the exception of international collaboration calls).
The restriction only applies to the grant types project grant and starting grant. If you are a project leader with, for example, ongoing programme grants, junior researcher grants, network grants or other types of grants, you can apply in this call.
Parallel application in Forte's annual call for starting grants
You may not be the main applicant on an application in this call if you are also applying for funding in Forte's annual call for starting grants. You may be a participating researcher in an application under this call and at the same time apply for funding in the call for starting grants.
Assessment
The application is required to fulfil the conditions:
- 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 main applicant does not have an ongoing project grant or starting grant from Forte, where the grant periods overlap
- The main applicant does not apply in Forte's annual call for starting grants
- The content of the application does not clearly fall outside of Forte's areas (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
If the application does not fulfil the conditions, it will be refused or rejected.
Assessment in two steps
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 be feasible.
The review panels' assessment takes place in two stages. As a first step, all applications are assessed based on the abstract. The abstracts that best meet the assessment criteria then proceed to an in-depth assessment, where the complete application is read in its entirety. The applicant does not submit a new application between step 1 and step 2.
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 step 1
- Requirements: The research must be relevant in relation to Forte’s areas and the focus of the call.
- Scientific quality: The clarity and coherence in the description and justification of the research in all relevant parts.
- Societal relevance and utilisation: The societal relevance of the research and the potential for utilisation and dissemination of the research.
- Feasibility: The reasonableness of the work plan, budgeted costs and the participants’ competence for conducting the research.
Assessment criteria step 2
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.
Review panels
When you fill in your application in Prisma, you will be asked to choose a review panel for your application. However, we reserve the right to allocate the application to another panel.
The following review panels can be selected:
- Health care and health care organisation
- Health promotion and behaviour
- Labour market
- Public health
- Social care and social work
- Social policy, social change and living conditions
- Social relations and social issues
- Work and work-related health
- Work organisation
Important to know before you apply
Before starting your application, please read the information on this page carefully and ensure that the following conditions are fulfilled:
- The main applicant and any participating researchers included in the application have created personal accounts in the Prisma application system External link.
- The main applicant and any participating researchers included in the application have stored their CV and details of their publications in their respective personal accounts
- The administrating organisation for the grant has an organisational account in Prisma and has been approved as an administrating organisation at Forte. Administrating organisation
Terms and conditions for grants
In order to receive a 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 of open access publication within the research grants we award. In cases where publication costs are included in the application, such costs will be deleted from any grant awarded.
Guidelines for publication with open access
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.
Language
Applications under this call for proposals can be written in Swedish or English.
Types of project participants
The person who creates the application in Prisma is the main applicant and is intended to be the project leader for the research project. The project leader must be employed by the administrating organisation at the start of the project. The employment must at least cover the time set aside for the project (activity level).
If the call for proposals permits this, participating researchers may also be invited to join the application. Participating researchers are other researchers who are crucial for the implementation of the project. Both the main applicant and the participating researchers must have a doctoral degree and a personal account in Prisma. It is also possible to include “other participants” in the project. These persons do not need to be researchers. This means they do not need to have a doctoral degree or their own accounts in Prisma. Read more about requirements for different participants on the link below.
Are you eligible to apply for funding?
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.
Application
Forte’s general guides
Please read the above texts carefully before starting your application. You are also encouraged to visit our pages containing general information about the application and review process.
Application (Please note: this call is closed)
All applications are to be submitted via the Prisma application and review system. Please refer to the document “Instructions for the application form” (see below) when completing your application.
Important news for applicants in the call for proposals
In the annual call for project grants, Forte received approximately 23 percent more applications 2024 compared to the previous year. It is encouraging that Forte’s areas attract many researchers and ideas for research projects, but the increasing number of applications also means a declining success rate. In the call Project grants 2024, 7 % of the applications were granted funding.
In order to maintain a fair and just assessment of all applications and to make the response to applicants clearer, Forte is introducing certain changes in the call Project grants 2025:
- Shortened applications: the maximum number of characters in the application form is adjusted, which shortens the applications by approximately three pages.
- The abstract is used in the first stage of the assessment: the first round of assessment will be based solely on the abstract of the application. The abstract is extended to 4,000 characters.
- Choose either Project grants 2025 or Starting grants 2025: If you are eligible to apply in both Project grants 2025 and Starting grants 2025 you must choose in which call you want to submit an application. You can only be the main applicant in one of these calls.
Frequently asked questions and answers
Can I use AI tools to write my application, and should I indicate if AI is used in the research?
Forte does not prohibit the use of AI tools in research or for writing applications. As an applicant, you are responsible for ensuring that the content of your application is accurate and that the research can be carried out as described. Applications must not include plagiarism, false, manipulated, or otherwise inaccurate information.
If artificial intelligence is used substantially in your research (e.g., for data interpretation or conducting a literature review), it should be described in the application as you would describe any other research method. When signing (submitting) the application, you confirm that the information provided is accurate and adheres to Forte’s guidelines.
Last published: 28 October 2025