Södertörn University is now offering funding to initiate and facilitate collaboration with external, non-academic partners. To initiate and develop long-term and mutually value-creating collaboration has been a prioritized development area for the university’s strategic collaboration efforts since 2017.

The mission of the Strategic Collaboration Council has recently been specified to more clearly include both collaboration and innovation. This aligns with the general mission of higher education institutions to promote the application of academic knowledge in society, in order to address today’s complex societal challenges. There is now an opportunity to apply for funding for projects with external partners aimed at generating new ideas or developing existing ones.

The university is interested in supporting researchers and teachers in initiating robust collaboration and innovation processes, ideally involving relevant external partners from the start. The funding is intended to enable new, initially uncertain initiatives that may lead to projects that are mutually beneficial for both academic and non-academic partners.

Researchers/teachers can now apply for seed funding/planning grants to finance new or develop existing initiatives in the form of activities and projects with external, non-academic partners. These may involve strategic partner municipalities as well as other actors in the private, public, or non-profit sectors.

How much can you apply for and for what purpose?

Up to SEK 150,000 can be applied for larger activities. The funds can be used, for example, to develop a joint application or project idea related to research or educational collaboration, or collaboration that contributes to the dissemination of knowledge or innovation, or to plan for future cooperation. It can also be used to test new models, services, processes, prototypes, to develop new assignments in collaboration with external partners, or to create meeting spaces.

Examples of activities that can be funded:

• Exploratory activities to find a suitable partner for further development of a new idea.
• Meetings for idea generation and project planning with actors ahead of a joint application for external funding.
• Conferences for knowledge transfer between different actors.
• Creating meeting spaces/platforms/arenas for researchers/teachers and operational managers in other organizations where practice-based challenges are formulated into scientifically interesting questions for research assignments, joint research projects, and student work.

Who can apply?

Funding can be applied for by researchers/teachers at Södertörn University. The partner organisation is expected to contribute by covering their own costs (including salary costs), roughly equivalent to the amount applied for. Researchers/teachers with temporary employment that ends during the project period cannot apply. Members of the Strategic Collaboration Council are not eligible to apply.

How to apply?

To avoid spending time on an application that does not match the call, a consultation meeting (online or in person) with an innovation or collaboration advisor is recommended to review the project idea. Contact: samverkan@sh.se.

Deadline is December 2nd, 2025. Applications must be submitted after consultation with the department head, who should be cc’d. As reference number, please use Dnr 3691-3.2.1-2025.

The project must be completed during 2026. A short report must be submitted 3 months after the end of the project/activity. Approved projects are expected to present results and lessons learned at, for example, inspiration events or conferences at the university.

The application (max 2 pages) should be submitted together with a full cost calculation to samverkan@sh.se and must include the following headings:

• Description of the idea and collaboration partner
• Purpose/goals
• Implementation and timeline
• Expected results, potential challenges, and possible effects
• Plan for dissemination of results
• Description of continuation after the activity/duration
• Contact person for the external organization with contact details
• Preliminary budget describing the expected costs covered by Södertörn and the collaboration partner respectively
• Salary must include all indirect costs and overhead. Attach a completed full cost calculation signed by the applicant, head of department, and financial officer. Note that the overhead rate depends on whether the project’s main purpose is research or educational collaboration.

Assessment criteria

The project’s collaboration potential is assessed by the Strategic Collaboration Council, or a group appointed by the council, based on: /innovative/ purpose, mutuality, feasibility, continuation/duration, and potential impact

Apply for a planning grant to prepare an EU-application!

This internal funding scheme aims to provide seed funding for applicants to larger international calls, most importantly within the EU framework program Horizon Europe. Funds are primarily meant to be used for consultancy services to develop or review funding applications, but salary costs as well as other well-motivated costs can also be considered. A requirement for this planning grant is that Södertörn University is the main applicant for the particular call of interest. Generally, only calls that require an international consortium will be considered for funding, but exceptions can be made in special cases for some competitive single-beneficiary calls such as MSCA Post Doctoral Fellowships with Södertörn as a beneficiary (note however that planning grants for ERC calls are subject to a separate application process, see the plusbox below on this page).

Applications are administrated by the Internationalisation Council. The Council accepts applications at any time and and makes funding decisions on their regular meetings in April, September, and December. The upcoming cut-off dates for getting your application evaluated:

• At the December meeting: November 23, 2025

Please note that smaller application planning cheques can be applied for on shorter notice with a more expeditive application process. These mainly aim to fund late-stage consultancy input on developed applications which are too close to the submission deadline to benefit from the regular grant application window.

Click here External link. to access the application portal.

If you have any questions about the application process, please contact grantsoffice@sh.se

Apply for a planning grant to prepare an ERC application!

In 2024, Södertörn University started a unique initiative to increase the number and quality of grant applications to the European Research Council (ERC). Two internal calls were held in 2024, and a new planning grant call will open in 2025.

What is ERC?

The European Research Council is the largest funder of frontier research at the EU level. ERC grants External link. are open to scholars in all areas of research and at all career stages (starting two years after completion of a doctorate) and provide up to five years of generous funding for project leaders and their teams. They diverge from most other research funding in that they require an innovative and ground-breaking project idea that is expected to provide high scientific returns despite involving some risk. ERC proposal writing can therefore be very different from what many researchers are used to and it can require a great deal of work to be successful. While the excellence of the project itself is the main evaluation criterion, the researcher is also expected to have a track record that suggests scientific creativity.

Södertörn's ERC initiative

Aspiring ERC applicants at Södertörn University can receive substantial support in preparing their application. Applicants with promising project outlines can be awarded funding for consultancy services and writing time to prepare their proposals. An internal ERC grant writing workshop was organised for all ERC applicants at Södertörn in December 2024. and a similar event may be organised in 2025.

The call is now closed

Applications were accepted until August 17, 2025. You can sign up for Grants Office's newsletter External link. to stay informed about a similar call in 2026. You are also welcome to contact Grants Office directly if you have any questions or wish to discuss a project idea.

Apply for Internationalisation funding

Once a year, the Internationalisation Council opens a call for projects that aims to promote the internationalisation of research and education at Södertörn.

Funding can be applied for in three categories:

1. International cooperation and blended mobility in teaching
2. International cooperation and mobility in research
3. Teacher mobility
   

Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis. Read more about the call and how to apply on the page Responsible internationalisation and exchanges (in Swedish).

Application for a Grant for Participation in Academic Events Relevant to Baltic Sea and Eastern European Studies

From spring 2023 the grant is administered by CBEES in cooperation with the Schools.

The funding is provided by the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies (Östersjöstiftelsen). The funding evaluation, handling and reporting are conducted in cooperation between the Schools and CBEES. The funding and its detailed handling are conducted at the School of the respective awarded applicant.

The basic criteria for evaluation are the relevance of the event and links of the intended event to the Baltic- and East European studies.
For more information and conditions please download the Application form below "Bidrag ÖSS Konferensresor". The file should be opened with Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you cant find answers to your questions in the document, please contact Vit Kysilka.

Announcement: CBEES funding for organising conferences and workshops – Application round autumn 2025

The Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES) grants funding for organising conferences and workshops associated with the university’s Baltic Sea region and Eastern Europe profile.

Researchers, doctoral students and teachers who are active at Södertörn University are eligible to apply for funding for conferences and workshops.

Before applying for funding, applicants must contact one of the CBEES professors, -research coordinators or -postdocs to discuss target groups, implementation, relevance and how the conference contributes to strengthening the university’s Baltic Sea region and Eastern Europe profile External link. – please see the webpage for more details.

It is very important to note that applications can only be uploaded to the online form here External link, opens in new window.. In addition, applications must follow the Guidelines for applications for CBEES for funding for conferences, workshops.

The guidelines, a budget template and a link to the online report template are available on this webpage.

The final date for applications is 9 October 2025. Applicants will be contacted about the outcome on 23 October 2025 at the latest.

CBEES Professors:
Per Bolin
Joakim Ekman
Jenny Gunnarsson Payne
Adrienne Sörbom
CBEES research coordinators:
Johanna Mannergren Selimovic
Julia Malitska
Ramona Rat
Postdoctoral Research Fellows:
Anna Balazs
Olena Podolian

Please see documents with information, guidelines and budget template for applicants: