Call for proposals

The Centre for Welfare Studies is a research centre that seeks to contribute to societal development by analysing and problematising the challenges of the welfare society. The research conducted sheds light on issues of the welfare society's change with regard to governance, management, and organisation. The analyses are interdisciplinary and are conducted in collaboration with external actors. In order to promote this work, CVS annually announces a call for proposals. The purpose of the grants given as part of this call is to enable researchers to perform a limited research task within the framework of any of CVS's three focus areas (see below).

Terms and conditions and who can apply?

Grants can be applied for by researchers at the University of Borås. A condition for obtaining a grant is that the project accommodates collaboration outside the original research environment, i.e. between different Faculties/centres/platforms at the University of Borås, or collaboration with another higher education institution or welfare organisation.

The research grant is intended to perform a limited analysis or research task and comprises SEK 500,000, including overhead costs. The sum is used for salary costs (incl. overhead costs) and overheads associated with the study (e.g. field studies, editing, etc.). CVS's grants do not pay for premises costs and the grant must not normally lead to a reduction in the applicant's time for professional development.

The funds must be used as soon as possible after a decision has been received, but no later than June 30, 2024. During the time that the project is ongoing, it will be presented and discussed at CVS research workshops that are intended to build up a strong research environment and thus support the projects that are ongoing within the centre.

Each project that receives a grant must result in at least one peer-reviewed journal publication, in addition to popular science dissemination.

The results of the project will be presented to the CVS steering group and/or within the framework of the open seminar series The socially sustainable welfare society.

Projects receiving funds are to, after implementation, use a special form, provided by CVS, for a brief accounting of project implementation and results.

Assessment

Applications will be assessed by the CVS Steering Group. In order to be granted funds, the application is to be relevant in relation to CVS’s areas of activity and current focus areas. In addition, the application is assessed based on the scientific quality and societal relevance of the project, the clarity of the problem formulation and how external partners will be used and benefit the research.

Decisions on who has been awarded a grant will be made at the CVS steering group meeting on 27 April.

Form of the application

The application is to describe the project’s purpose and research questions, implementation, and general budget, how results will be presented (e.g. journal publication, conference, public speeches), short area overview, societal relevance, partners.

The application includes a maximum number of characters: 8,500 incl. spaces.

The application must accompanied by a summary of the project, maximum number of characters: 1,000 incl. spaces and one page with the project manager's CV, maximum number of characters: 2,000 incl. spaces where the project leader's qualifications and five most important publications are stated (do not include a Swedish personal identification number).

Summary, application, and project leader's CV (including publications) are to be merged into a PDF file and submitted to CVS@hb.se, no later than 13 April.

Applications that do not follow the specified instructions will not be assessed.

CVS focus areas

Cross-sectorial and collaborative organisation for a sustainable welfare society.

CVS focuses on the opportunities and challenges that the modern welfare society faces in terms of governance, organisation, and management. One way to gain knowledge about development is to investigate how public, private and civil society actors work together to organise sustainable welfare.

Within this area, CVS is looking for projects that analyse issues of cross-sectoral collaboration for a sustainable living environment in urban and sparsely populated areas, as well as collaboration to counteract polarisation between social groups and places. Both site development for a sustainable sparsely populated area, as well as urban development for a sustainable living environment and economic development, are interesting study objects. How the challenges of welfare are defined in collaboration between different organisations and what this collaboration entails in the form of power and interpretive precedence is a central theme in this focus area. Questions of democracy and different definitions of good welfare are thus an important aspect here.

Governance, management, and organisation for competence provision in welfare.

This focus area concerns the issue of future recruitment and competence provision in the welfare sector and how welfare can meet these challenges in the long term. The challenge is linked to a broader and crucial question of how to maintain living standards in the welfare society in the long term. This requires an increase in both younger and older people's labour force participation, and a reduction in unemployment among foreign-born people.

In health care, strategies for recruiting workers educated abroad are currently in place, leading to developed organisational work with integration. CVS welcomes applications for projects with the aim of studying similar organisational work. Other projects may involve analysing how welfare organizers work with "age management" to retain the older workforce, generational transfer or develop strategies for recruiting young employees. Projects may aim to examine the efforts made to enlist a younger generation into welfare professions with an understanding of what constitutes pull factors (what attracts) for young people into these professions, as well as identify possible push factors (with risk of lack of participation in education and professional activities).

The challenges and opportunities of digitalisation for the organisation of welfare and its professions and users.

Within this focus area, the meaning of digitalisation for collaboration and organisation of welfare services, users and professions is studied. Important questions are what digitalisation and AI can mean for different aspects of the welfare professional practice (e.g. in healthcare, police and social services), as well as what governance models are developed in this context. Studies can aim to investigate the impact of digital decision support on professional autonomy and competence and meaning in professional practice. In other words, a central question is how digitalisation can be perceived as both an opportunity and a risk for different professionals, users and clients.