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Closed call 2024-09-04: Research Pairs Projects

This is the fifth call for Research Pairs projects within Digital Futures. Researchers from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and Stockholm University (SU) can apply for funding under this call.

Important dates

Call announced: 2024-05-20
Project proposal registration: 2024-08-28
Proposal submission deadline: 2024-09-04
Phase 2 evaluation hearing: Early November 2024
Expected funding decision: December 2024
Expected start of projects: January 2025

Background

Digital Futures is a cross-disciplinary research centre that explores and advances digital technologies to tackle societal challenges in Sweden and globally. Established jointly by KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm University, and RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, we fund strategic research projects aligning with our vision. Find out more about Digital Futures’ background here.

Purpose

The Research Pairs Projects call is a funding instrument designed to encourage collaboration between two early-career researchers and to identify new research collaborations that have the potential to evolve into significant scientific endeavours within the next 3-5 years. This initiative aims to support scholars in their early careers who show promise as future digital leaders. These individuals are expected to actively engage and contribute to various initiatives within Digital Futures. We will support projects showing high scientific quality, originality, and an interdisciplinary approach.

Eligibility

The researchers in the pair should belong to either i) two different KTH schools or ii) KTH and SU. Researchers can only be PIs or co-PIs for one proposal.

Important:

  1. Researchers who have previously been PI or co-PI in a Research Pairs project are not eligible to apply for this call.
  2. Only early-career researchers are eligible to apply. Each applicant needs to have obtained a doctoral degree not more than 12 years ago at the time of opening this call [1], have 80% employment or more at KTH or SU with one of the following positions: Assistant professor, associate professor, full professor, or permanent full-time Researcher (“tillsvidareanställning”). Researchers do not need to be Digital Futures faculty when applying but will become Digital Futures faculty.
  3. The proposals shall address subject areas at an intersection of the Digital Futures Research matrix. More information about the research matrix can be found here.

[1] The eligibility period set out above can be extended beyond 12 years for certain circumstances such as parental leave, clinical training, long-term illness, or national service. Please indicate those in your CV.

Project duration and maximum funding

Up to five projects will be selected. The duration of the projects is two years with a maximum funding of 2 MSEK per project (1 MSEK per project year). The budget must be split equally between the two PIs (500 KSEK per calendar year per PI). The amount applied must not exceed the maximum funding for a project in this call.

Applicable Funding Policy for Digital Futures Faculty

Researchers can be involved in several projects under different instruments, but within Digital Futures, the funding per PI is limited to 1 MSEK/year. Hence, funding you may have received under the current Digital Futures instruments Collaborative Impact projects, Flagship projects, Research pairs, Research pairs Consolidator, Demonstrator projects, Collaborative projects targeting Diversity and Inclusion, and Seed Projects will be considered. Funding from Digital Futures to Societal Innovation Projects, Partner Innovation Projects, Industrial Innovation Projects, and ISPP Demo Projects is included, but not the part from partners. Digital Futures Postdoctoral Fellows projects or C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute projects are not considered.

How to apply

  1. Fill in the application according to the project description template: Template Research Pairs project 2024
  2. Create an account on the application submission system and register the application stating the title, PIs and a short abstract by the registration date (see at top) at this link: https://crp.dsv.su.se/research-pairs-call-24/
  3. Complete the application, including uploading the project description to the submission system before the call deadline (see at top) using the same link as in step 2.

Evaluation

The project proposals will be evaluated by an external international expert panel. The evaluation will be based on the following criteria:

  1. Scientific quality and originality of the proposed research
  2. Merits of the applicants
  3. Degree of interdisciplinarity and composition of the research pair
  4. Feasibility of the project
  5. Conformity to the scope of Digital Futures and eligibility as outlined above.

The evaluation will be carried out in two phases. In the first phase, the evaluators independently grade the project proposals according to the criteria. Based on the outcome, the top proposals will be invited to the phase 2 hearing, where the applicants present their projects and answer questions from the evaluation panel. After the hearing, the panel finalises their ranking and recommends a set of projects for funding.

Based on the evaluation and available funding, the Digital Futures Executive Committee compiles a funding proposal on how many of the top project proposals to fund. The funding proposal is then sent to the Digital Futures Governing Board and the KTH President for decisions in that order.

Information meeting

Digital Futures offers an optional information meeting to get first-hand information on all call conditions.

This meeting will be held on May 29 at 11 am digitally on Zoom: https://kth-se.zoom.us/j/63698028858
No registration is required before the meeting.

Contact

Contact call@digitalfutures.kth.se for further questions. Please include “Research Pairs 2024” in the subject of your email.