Research
The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, SSF, funds research in science, technology and medicine with approximately SEK 700 million per year.
The foundation finances Swedish research via framework grants, multidisciplinary research centers (MRC) and strategic research centers (SRC), individual grants, research schools and grants for increased mobility.
Research group grants are grants in the order of SEK 25-30 million distributed over five years. The calls for proposal are formulated slightly differently each time, and we aim for a good mix among our prioritized areas of natural sciences, technology and medicine. The total allocation for a research group grant varies between SEK 100-300 million and is then sufficient to fund 4-10 major research projects.
SSF has three mobility programmes, Industrial Doctoral Student, Research Institute Doctoral Student and Strategic Mobility. All three are announced every year, and we invest a total of just over SEK 60 million annually in these programmes. We also have programmes, such as the SSF Sabbatical, that come more .
One programmes aimed at young successful researchers is Individual Grants for the Advancement of Research Leaders (FFL). Each recipient of an FFL grant gets SEK 15 million in order to establish an independent and innovative research group. FFL grants are announced every third year.
From 2021, SSF has offered targeted support with the aim of significantly increasing Swedish participation in the EU’s research program Horizon Europe (HEU). The goal is to act as a lever for increased HEU funds for Swedish research by supporting researchers in the application process. Funds are therefore offered to be able to set aside time, travel and purchase consulting services to apply for HEU grants within Pillars 1 and 2. The target group is highly qualified Swedish researchers who are seeking HEU projects that are strategically relevant to Sweden.
New technologies and ever more advanced instruments are required to advance the research frontier. Despite this, the incentives in academia for such development work are often low. SSF therefore sees it as urgent and strategic to support the careers of enterprising individuals in this area in the Instrument, Technology and Method Development program. The program includes those working at a university or institute who construct a scientific instrument, create a technology or develop a new method. The target group is research engineers who wish to conduct focused development or verification work. Alternatively, faculty employees may also be considered, then within the career age up to ten years after the dissertation, but then it is required that these have instrument, technology and method development as their main activity with their own practical work rather than supervising others with
Currently, SSF also finances a graduate school; Graduate School Neutron Scattering. Over five, six years, we are investing 120 million SEK. The graduate school is expected to educate and examine approximately 20 doctoral students in neutron scattering. An additional 100 million is allocated for an extension. The investment should be seen in the light of the fact that ESS, The European Spallation Source, is being built in Sweden.
Strategy 2021-2026:
The Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) is an independent and autonomous financier of research in technology, medicine and natural sciences with the aim of strengthening Sweden’s future competitiveness. The main change compared to previous periods of SSF’s operations is that multidisciplinary research centers (MRC) and Strategic research centers (SRC) are being introduced and that interdisciplinary framework grants are being paused. This means a preserved number of research areas but with fewer and larger projects within them.