Forte is introducing a new type of grant, a collaboration grant, to support the development of practise-oriented research and knowledge-based collaboration between research and practice.

How can practice-based research in the social service sector be promoted? This is an important question within Forte´s national programme on applied welfare research. The programme is a part of the Swedish Government’s initiative to meet major societal challenges through research and innovation and the main goal of the programme is to strengthen practice- and client-related research in the social service sector and thus contribute to the development and improvement of the social services.

Isabelle Carnlöf, programme manager

– We are now introducing a new grant, a collaboration grant, to promote practice-based research that contributes with relevant and useful knowledge that is easier for social service actors and decision-makers to translate into operational development, says Isabelle Carnlöf, programme manager for the national programme on applied welfare research at Forte.

The grant will be available for activities aimed at improving the conditions for high quality practice-based research. This may for example involve developing sustainable models for research-practise collaboration or increasing the contact areas and meeting places for researchers and practitioners. The grant can also support research-practice collaboration in development of practice and different forms of knowledge production in practice. The grant is applied for jointly by researchers and employees in practice, such as local and regional authorities and other organizations.

– With this grant, we want to enable collaboration with a broader approach than is possible in specific research projects. We believe that it can contribute to lowering the thresholds for collaboration in research, to the development of activities and to ideas for new research. We look forward to seeing what applications we receive.

The plan is to test the grant type in a call for applications in applied welfare research in autumn 2023. An evaluation shall then be carried out. If the call is successful, the grant may also be used in other research programs and initiatives at Forte in the future.