Call for funding for Research in Health Care Sciences 2026

The SFO-V will award up to 20 projects of SEK 600k each for 2026, of which 50% will be awarded to junior researchers (PhD obtained no more than seven years ago). An extension of further funding for 2027 will be possible, under the assumption of available funding and based on the progress report and therefore project and budget should involve 2 years. Researchers can only be the main applicant for one project and earlier grants received from SFO-V need to be ended. We also welcome applications for pilot projects and feasibility studies. Please be advised that all grantees are expected to enhance the SFO-V research community by delivering a series of open seminars that align with our core research areas.

Background

The Strategic Research Area Health Care Science (SFO-V) is a collaboration between Karolinska Institutet (KI) and Umeå University (UmU). The aim is to strengthen and develop collaborations between health care science and the health and welfare sector through high quality research and activities promoting collaboration, knowledge exchange and social innovation. 

Research within SFO-V is focused on four core areas:

• Co-creation - of services, processes and products refers to collaborative activities and approaches that strive to facilitate users, i.e. any stakeholder in issues related to health, disease and illness working together on equal terms to create value, based on their different types of knowledge and experience.
• Self-management - refers to a person’s ability to manage the symptoms, treatment, physical and psychological consequences, and life-style changes inherent in living with a health condition.
• eHealth - refers to the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) for health and health-related fields, including health care services, health surveillance, health communication, health education and research.
• Bio-behavioral health care science - refers to the intercept of health care sciences with biological and behavioral sciences, to study the complex interactions among biological, social, behavioral and environmental factors and their effects on outcome to address issues of relevance for health care sciences.

Disposition time

• Funds awarded must be expended within the same calendar year of allocation. For instance, any funding allocated in 2026 should be fully utilized no later than March 15, 2027

Eligibility requirements 

• The main applicant should be employed at KI for at least 50% and conduct research in one of the four core areas that has a well-developed national and international network in health care science.
• Only one application per applicant will be accepted. (In addition, researcher can be co-applicants for 1 project).
• Applicants or co-applicants who currently hold SFO-V funding from previous calls, and whose funding has not yet expired at the time of application, are not eligible to apply.
• The criterion for junior scholars is that the applicant has obtained their PhD no more than seven years prior to the application deadline.

 Scientific review 

A group of senior scientists from Swedish and international universities will review and grade the applications by relevance for caring science and in accordance with the Swedish Research Council criteria (1-7 p) and relevance to health care science (yes/no).

• Within at least one of SFO-Vs four core areas (yes/no)
• Relevance for health care practice (1-7)
• The scientific quality of the project (1-7)
• Innovation and originality (1-7)
• Applicant's overall competence (1-7)
• Feasibility (1-7)
• Organization and management (1-7)

Instructions 

The application will be registered in Prisma where the following information should be included. All supplements (font Times New Roman > 11)  should be written in English.

Project plan (write in Prisma)

The project plan should be written on 20,000 characters and include necessary

information for the assessment of the scientific quality, feasibility and organization and management of the project as well as the relevance for SFO-V considering its focus and core areas. It should thus include: 

• background
• clear aim
• specified research questions
• methods
• relevance for health care practice
• relevance for at least one of the four SFO-V core areas
• time plan with deliverables
• references

The project plan should cover two years, with the first year funded through this call and the second year being a possible extension, subject to decision in 2026.*

Curriculum vitae (from Prisma)

Include CV for the main applicant and up to one co applicant, written according to instructions for KI qualifications portfolio, maximum 2 pages each.

Publication list (upload PDF in Prisma)

Highlight your 10 most relevant publications for this application. You can only upload one file, with a maximum size of 4 MB.

Swedish and English abstract (write in Prisma)

Include a Swedish and English abstract, maximum max 250 words, the following subheadings must be included in the abstract:

• Research problem and specific questions
• Data and method
• Societal relevance and utilization
• Plan for project realization.

Incomplete and/or too late received applications will not be handled. 

Abstracts of all granted projects will be published at the SFO-V webpage after decision on funding. 

Further information

For further information please contact Staffan Josephsson, professor and director for the Strategic Research Program in Health Care Sciences, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society (NVS), Karolinska Institutet.