Time to apply for SSF´s Utilisation Award 2018
The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) is announcing an award for scientists who have grants from SSF and who have completed good utilisation efforts in the past two years. The award will be in the form of personal stipends, intended to be exempt from tax.
The objective of SSF is to support research within the natural sciences, engineering and medicine that strengthen the development of Sweden’s future competitiveness. This means that SSF funded research must be relevant for industry/society and would therefore benefit from being carried out in some form of collaboration with the above players. Grant holders of funding from SSF need to have a plan for how their research would benefit potential end-users. In order to further strengthen such relationships, SSF is also earmarking 3 percent of research grants larger than SEK 5 million, to be used for utilisation efforts.
SSF funded researchers should actively strive for increased collaboration with industry/society. SSF recognises that sometimes project leaders have a passionate commitment to accomplish such links and are spending more time and effort than are being made available by their employers, i.e. by offering their own time and resources. Sweden has been criticised, for instance in reports from the OECD, for not being sufficiently supportive of innovation, and in light of this SSF is making a point of highlighting and stimulating individuals with a commitment to utilisation.
The SSF Utilisation Award is open for applications from individuals who are or have been in receipt of SSF grants, either as Principal Investigator (PI) or as co-PI, for projects with end dates that are no more than two years old. In addition, applicants need to have been granted utilisation funds in the past two years through SSF’s current routines for such funding (in applicable cases, refer to SSF contract, appendix 2: ”Terms and conditions for using SSF funding for utilisation”). Applications should include a description defining the type of utilisation effort undertaken. Successful applicants will receive personal stipends (intended to be exempt from tax) of between SEK 50,000 and 100,000, depending on effort. A maximum of three stipends will be awarded. SSF will strive to achieve an equal distribution between its focus areas when approving applications.
Applications will be assessed by a group made up of external experts and the CEO of SSF makes the final decision. The selection process will be guided by the following criteria:
- The applicant’s level of commitment over and above what is included in their employment as a university scientist
- The effort’s level of innovation
- Strategic relevance for Sweden
- How well the application corresponds to the text advertising the award
- The degree of collaboration with industry (business/companies/clinics) and society
- Commercial potential
- Overall assessment of the project, and other relevant facts presented in the application.
Anyone who has already received a utilisation award (from the award round advertised in 2017) will not be allowed to apply again.
The applicant is the scientist responsible for the utilisation effort, and applications referring to utilisation efforts in the past two years should be sent to SSF by 20 December 2018. The entire application should be sent electronically via the Foundation’s application portal, http://apply.strategiska.se. The application should include:
• The SSF registration number of the project referred to in the application
• Date and amount of approved utilisation effort grant referred to in the application
• Description of previous utilisation effort and its effects/results
Please note that the Foundation applies the principle of public access to official records. Therefore, please avoid including material that currently should not be made public, for instance, any material that might compromise a future patent application.
For further information, please contact:
Henryk Wos, 08-50581671, henryk.wos@strategiska.se
Joakim Amorim, 08-50581665, joakim.amorim@strategiska.se