Call for research grants 2026

The project should be within one of CVS's three focus areas and should include university-wide collaboration or collaboration with external actors.

Open call for research grants

CVS is a research centre that contributes to the development of society by analysing and problematising the challenges of welfare. 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?

• The research support can be applied for by employees (who hold a doctorate) at the University of Borås.
• The funds must be used to carry out a limited analysis or research task.
• The research support comprises SEK 750,000 including overhead costs and can be used for salary costs as well as project costs (e.g. ethical review, field studies, conference fees, language editing).
• The funds can only go to employees at the University of Borås. Participants from other higher education institutions and external welfare actors pay for salary costs and overhead costs themselves.
• CVS does not finance premises costs and the support must not normally reduce the applicant's time for professional development.
• The application must be approved by the immediate manager.

Focus of the project

The project is to analyse governance, organisation, and management in welfare and relate to one of CVS's focus areas:

1. Cross-sectoral collaboration
2. Skills supply in welfare
3. The challenges and opportunities of digitalisation

Read more about CVS focus areas

Additional conditions:

• The project must include collaboration outside the own research environment, e.g. between Faculties at the University of Borås, with other higher education institutions, or with external welfare actors.
• The project is to begin as soon as possible after the decision is made and the funds must be used no later than 30 June 2027.
• During the project period, the project researchers will actively participate in CVS research workshops by presenting analyses and contributing to discussions.
• The project is to result in at least two peer-reviewed journal publications, as well as popular science dissemination.
• Results must be presented to the CVS steering group and/or within the framework of the seminar series The socially sustainable welfare society.
• After completion of the project, a special form must be used for reporting implementation and results.
• Employees with ongoing research support or who have not reported previous projects cannot apply.
• Members of the CVS steering committee cannot apply.

Assessment

Applications will be assessed by the CVS Steering Group. The assessment will be based on:

• relevance in relation to CVS's area of activity and focus areas
• scientific quality
• clarity of the problem statement
• how external partners are involved in the research
• social relevance.

Read more about CVS assessment criteria

Decisions on who has been awarded a grant will be made at the CVS steering group meeting 24 April.

Form of the application

The application must include a project description (max. 8500 characters incl. spaces) that describes:

• the purpose of the project and research questions
• implementation
• budget overview
• planned dissemination of results (e.g. publication, conference, public speeches)
• brief area overview
• societal relevance
• collaboration partners
• relevance to CVS's area of activity and focus areas.

Attachments

The application is to be accompanied by the following:

• summary of the project (max. 1000 characters incl. spaces)
• project manager's CV without Swedish personal identification number (max. 2000 characters incl. spaces)
• list of the project leader's five most relevant publications for the project.

All documents must be merged into a PDF and sent to cvs@hb.se no later than April 12.

Mark your application with the reference number FO2026/53.

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