Research Project Grant

Guidelines

Last updated 2023-03-01

The Swedish Cancer Society, organization number 802005-3370, 101 55 Stockholm, is the body responsible for the collection and processing of personal data in connection with grant applications.

Information regarding the Fenix grant application system

The Swedish Cancer Society has a digital grant application system called Fenix. Fenix uses BankID and Swedish social security numbers for both identification and digital signing.

The application is signed digitally by both the Head of Department and the applicant directly in Fenix. Applicants sign the application last, i.e. after the Head of Department has signed.

Note that if you make changes to the application after sending it to the Head of Department for signing, you must send a new request for signing by your Head of Department, as the application has changed.

This applies regardless of what changes have been made.

The signing deadline for applicants in Fenix is 2nd May 2023 at 3pm.

Objectives and Eligibility

The Swedish Cancer Society finances research that can lead to improved understanding of cancer diseases, prevention, earlier diagnosis and effective treatment (including palliative and rehabilitative care).

The perspective is broad and applications are welcomed from researchers in different fields such as medicine, healthcare, pharmacy, natural sciences, technology, social sciences, public health sciences, behavioral and communication sciences.

The grant is intended to provide funds for project-related operational costs, such as the purchase of materials and equipment, and staff (e.g. BMA, doctoral student). The research project grant can, however, not be used for the applicant's own salary.

The Swedish Cancer Society pays research grants only to Swedish educational institutions. In order to apply for and receive funding for a Research Project, employment at a Swedish educational or healthcare institution with a salary equivalent to at least 20% of full employment is required. This employment must already have started at the time of application.

For applicants who have been in receipt of grants for at least 5 years at the time of application, exceptions to this rule may be granted under certain circumstances. This is possible for those working with other employers (foreign or Swedish) under conditions that allow the project to carry on through continued research activities connected to a Swedish university.

This must be specifically justified and assessed with each new application, or if there are changes in employment conditions during the current grant period. Applicants who have retired after working at a Swedish university are not subject to the 20% employment requirement, but connection to a Swedish higher education institution must be confirmed by the Head of Department signing the application.

Project grants are primarily intended for an independent researcher (“PI”) with scientific qualifications corresponding to docent. Applicants must have obtained their PhD before 1 January 2021.

In case of absence from research, you will be given the opportunity to provide more information about your absence to the assessors for a longer period of time, e.g. parental leave, sick leave, etc.

One principal investigator – one research project grant

You are not eligible to apply if you have an ongoing research project grant during the grant period for which you are applying for.

Grant period

The grant period for Research Projects is 1 January-31 December. Research Projects are usually awarded for three years. The period of performance is the grant period plus a further 12 months. The application for extended disposition time is submitted via Fenix, read more here.

Funding for project-related operational costs

Research Project Grants are given for funding of personnel and operating costs. The grant may be used to supplement a scholarship, doctoral post, etc, depending on local regulations at each institution. Please note that the grant may not be used for the grantee's own salary or for the remuneration of a permanently appointed lecturer or professor.

Ordinary grants can be awarded from SEK 800 000 to a maximum of SEK 2.5 million per year. The Swedish Cancer Society does not grant higher amounts than those applied for, so be careful what you include in your budget. Amounts are given according to fixed funding levels, see table below:

800 000       1 000 000      1 250 000

1 500 000     1 750 000      2 000 000

2 250 000    2 500 000

Administrative authority

The Swedish Cancer Society pays research grants only to Swedish educational institutions.

The Swedish Cancer Society allows deductions for indirect costs up to a maximum of 15.25 percent of the grant.

When signing and confirming the application, the Head of Department guarantees co-financing of the project if the above deductions prove to be insufficient.

Basis of assessment

Qualifications

Qualifications must be included in the Fenix application. You need to fill in your qualifications in every application you want to apply for.

Research program

The research program may comprise a maximum of ten pages including references (12pt, single line spacing, 2.5 cm margin).

If the research program comprises more than ten pages, these are not included in the assessment.

The research program may be written in English.

The following outline is recommended for the research program:

• Specific objectives
  A brief account of the aim of the proposed research work.
• Background
  Summary of your own and others' results in the research area.
• Work plan and preliminary results
  Detailed description of hypotheses and planned work. The work plan should also include a methodological description where it is made clear that current technology/methodology, including statistical considerations, power analysis, etc., is in place and mastered, or is otherwise available for the project in question. Preliminary results are of importance when applying for grants for new projects.
• Significance
  Brief account of the expected importance for cancer research.
• Literature references
  Author, title of work, publication name, volume, page, year of publication. Include only the absolutely essential references.

If the project applied for is closely linked to a project that is already supported by the Swedish Cancer Society, the project description must indicate how the project constitutes an extension, and what the roles will be of the applicant and the principal investigator of the research project already supported by the Swedish Cancer Society.

Cancer relevance

According to the Swedish Cancer Society's statutes, the society shall "support, organize and coordinate cancer research ...". In the application form there is a special field where the applicant must explain and justify the cancer relevance.

For more information on cancer relevance, read more here.

Collaborators and research group composition

When applying for a Research Project Grant, a description of collaborators and key personnel involved in the project is mandatory. The purpose of the description is to provide an overview of everyone involved in the project and their competence and specific areas of responsibility.

For large multicenter studies, it is not necessary to provide all participants' names, but only the number of centers and key participants.

Patient perspective

Many of the projects supported by the Swedish Cancer Society either take advantage of patients' experiences, or lead to knowledge that can affect patients. If your project belongs to this category, you need to indicate whether the patient perspective has been taken into account and, if so, in what way. There is a specially designated box for such a description in the application under the heading “patient perspective”. 

Examples could be that patients have been involved in the planning of a clinical study, that there has been a discussion with patients in the development of the research program, that the research project is based on patient contacts, or that the project has otherwise considered the family/patient perspective in its design.

There are co-opted patients sitting on some of the Swedish Cancer Society's priority committees. If you consider that the patient perspective is not relevant to your project or the development of your research program, you should justify this in this box instead.

Scientific progress

The experts in the committées must be able to assess the progress of the project during the most recent grant period.

Applicants who have an ongoing project must submit a scientific report in Fenix. A list of publications for the grant period must be attached to the application.

Make a list of the scientific articles (either printed or in manuscript form) funded by the most recently received project grants. Abstracts should not be included in the report.

References must be complete including title and all authors. The list of authors should be consistent with the one used in PubMed. Patents obtained during the grant period must be listed.

Work related to projects not funded by the Swedish Cancer Society should not be included in the report.

Popular scientific description

This text will be published on cancerfonden.se if your grant is approved and can be read by people who donate to the Cancer Foundation, who have been affected by cancer, are relatives and others interested. Therefore, write as easily understandable and concise as possible.

The text must be in Swedish and a maximum of 650 characters per question / section. Your text will not be edited but will be published as you type it.

1. Write a title that is easy to understand.
2. What is the background of the project?
3. What is the project about? Describe, for example, which cancer diseases are being studied, what treatment it is about, whether it is in diagnostics, epidemiology, prevention or care of cancer patients, or whether it is about how cancer arises.
4. What do you hope to achieve with your research?
5. Write a brief summary of the project for those who want to know quickly what it is about.

Allocation of applications to Priority Committees (Pk)

In the application, you can choose which priority committee your application will be evaluated in. You have the option of selecting a first and second choice, the Swedish Cancer Society will try to accommodate your request but cannot guarantee that your application will be evaluated in the desired priority committee. 

Applications for project grants are considered by nine Priority Committees (Pk), each with approximately 8 members. The Pks have different expertise profiles, but with significant overlap, to ensure that applications are allocated fairly evenly and also to avoid conflicts of interest.

Applicants have the possibility to propose one Pk for their application, but it is not uncommon that an application may fit in 2-4 different Pk. The allocation of applications is prepared by the Scientific Secretariat (taking into account, among other things, the wishes of the applicants) and is ultimately decided in consultation between the chairpersons of the respective Pk.

Clinical projects are usually handled in Pk D, E, F or G, but can also be handled in Pk A1, A2 and C.

Basic research projects are often handled in Pk B1 or B2, but can also be handled in Pk A1, A2 and C.

Translational projects may be handled by several committees, depending on whether they are mainly based on preclinical models (Pk A1, A2, B1, B2, C) or are studies using patient material (Pk A1, A2, C, D, E).

Epidemiological projects are mainly handled by Pk F, health sciences by Pk G and prevention by Pk F or Pk G.

Pk A1

Cell biology, genetics, translational research.

Pk A2

Pathology, molecular diagnostics, translational research.

Pk B1

Gene regulation, biochemistry, metabolism, structural biology.

Pk B2

Model organisms, developmental biology, systems biology.

Pk C

Immunology, microbiology, cell transplantation.

Pk D

Clinical and translational cancer research, pharmacology.

Pk E

Clinical and translational cancer research, radiotherapy, radiobiology, diagnostic imaging.

Pk F

Epidemiology, biostatistics, public health.

Pk G

Palliative care, prevention, behavioural sciences.

Amount applied for

All amounts in the application must be stated in SEK, i.e. not abbreviated to thousands.

The Swedish Cancer Society does not grant higher amounts than those applied for, please be careful what you include in your budget.

The research project application may include funding for personnel costs for the project: doctoral students, postdocs, visiting researchers, BMA or research nurses. For staff who are not yet employed, the average salary of the personnel category should be stated (see www.lönestatistik.se).

The Swedish Cancer Society allows deductions for indirect costs up to a maximum of 15.25 percent of the grant. In the application, indirect costs must be included as operating expenses in the amount applied for.

Other grants

The Swedish Cancer Society attaches considerable importance to ensuring that project applications contain accurate budget information.

A complete picture of all the applicants' grants relating to the project applied for, and any other funding is important both for assessing the project's chances of successful implementation and in calculating the need for funding.

Please note that applications with incomplete financial statements may be rejected because the information is insufficient to enable a decision to be made.

Practical guidelines

Funding from other financing organizations

Holders of grants or assignments from the tobacco industry may not at the same time receive funding from the Swedish Cancer Society.

Application

Applications are made in the Swedish Cancer Society's grant application system Fenix.

Applications can be saved and altered until you have pressed the button "Request signing/Be om signering". Applications cannot be signed and submitted unless all the tabs in the application form are marked in green.

Applications cannot be altered or supplemented after the end of the application period.

Appendices

• Page Merits (in Fenix): Publication list of your 10 most relevant articles for this application with full reference. The list should be arranged: author, title of the work, name of the publication, volume, page, year (Attached as Pdf).
• Page Merits (in Fenix): Not yet published manuscripts with original data max 3.(Attached as pdf)
• Page Merits (in Fenix): Full publication list. (Attached as pdf)
• Page Project Info (in Fenix): Research program, max 10 pages. (Attached as pdf)
• If renewal of grant Page Scientific Report (in Fenix): List of publications, only in case the limited space is too small. (Attached as pdf)

Signing the application

When you have completed your application, you must send it to your Head of Department by going into the "Preview/Förhandsgranska" tab. At the bottom of the page you click on "Request signing/Be om signering". This sends the application to your Head of Department, who receives it and signs it digitally with BankID.

Note that if you make changes to the application after sending it to the Head of Department for signing, you must send a new request for signing by your Head of Department, as the application has changed. This applies regardless of what changes have been made.

When the Head of Department has signed the application digitally with BankID, you as the applicant will receive an email and can then log in and in turn sign the application digitally with BankID.

Application signing period

The deadline for signing the application is 2nd May 2023 at 3pm.

Decisions

Decisions will be made at the meeting of the Research Committee in November 2023. Decisions and accompanying statements are sent out approximately 2 weeks after the decision meeting.

Pending applications will be deleted after the deadline.

The Swedish Cancer Society does not send out assessment scores on individual assessment criteria, but only a written statement on the application. However, not all applications will receive an individual statement, read more about triage below.

Triage

All applications are assessed according to the same assessment criteria and reviewed individually by all members of the selected committee. A certain percentage of the applications that receive low marks are not discussed in detail at the committee meeting and therefore do not receive specific written comments as part of the report.

The purpose of this procedure is to enable more in-depth discussion of applications that have a reasonable chance of being funded.

Miscellaneous

Change of address

The principal applicant is responsible for ensuring that up-to-date personal and institution contact information is entered into the Fenix application portal.

Change of administrative authority / department

When transferring grants to another administrative authority or to another department within the current university or high school, the application for transfer must be made in Fenix with digital signing / approval from both the current and receiving Heads of Department.

Reports (financial and scientific)

Not later than three months (see contract) after the end of the period of performance, a report must be submitted via Fenix. Unused funds must be repaid.

Queries?

Contact the Research department at telephone number 010 - 199 10 10, or by email forskning@cancerfonden.se

Use of personal data

Read more about the Swedish Cancer Society's handling of personal data in the Swedish Cancer Society's privacy policy (in Swedish).