Closed call 2022-08-31: Research Pairs Projects

This is the third call for Research Pairs projects with collaboration between two junior researchers within Digital Futures in the area of technologies for digital transformation. We will support projects that can show novelty and an interdisciplinary approach. Researchers from KTH and Stockholm University (SU) are encouraged to apply.

Important dates

Call opens: 13 May 2022
Project registration: 24 August 2022
Call closes: 31 August 2022

The funding decision is expected by December 2022. The starting date of the projects is January 1, 2023.

The figure below shows the Digital Futures process for evaluation and decision:

Background

Digital Futures is a cross-disciplinary research centre that explores and develops digital technologies. We bring solutions to great societal challenges, in Sweden and globally. We generate knowledge, innovations, and future leaders of high industrial relevance and strategic importance. Digital Futures is jointly established by KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm University, and RISE Research Institutes of Sweden. Digital Futures awards funding to strategic research projects to support a specific action or project that furthers the vision of Digital Futures. Find out more about Digital Futures’ background here.

Purpose and Eligibility

This is a funding instrument intended to foster collaboration between two young researchers and is aimed at identifying new research collaborations that have the potential to develop into a leading scientific activity over the next 3-5 years. It is therefore a vehicle for supporting and promoting young scholars with the potential to become future digital leaders that substantially participate and contribute to various activities in Digital Futures.

The researchers in the pair should belong to either i) two different KTH schools, ii) a KTH school and Stockholm University. In order to be eligible for this call, the researchers need to have obtained their doctoral degrees not more than 10 years ago at the time of the opening of this call [1] and have one of the following positions:

Assistant Professor
Associate Professor
Full Professor
Permanent full-time Researcher (”tillsvidareanställning”)

Researchers that have previously been PI or co-PI in a Research Pairs project are not eligible to apply for this call. Also, one can only be PI or co-PI for at most one project proposal in this call.

[1] The eligibility period set out above can be extended beyond 10 years for certain circumstances such as parental leave, clinical training, long-term illness, or national service. Please indicate those in your CV.

Project duration and maximum funding

In this call, up to five projects are intended to be selected. The duration of the projects is two years, and the projects will be funded with a maximum of 2 MSEK in total and are to be split equally between the two PIs (500 KSEK per calendar year per PI). Please note that the amount applied must not exceed the maximum funding for a project in this call.

Please note the Digital Futures funding policy

Researchers can be involved in several projects under different instruments, but within Digital Futures, the funding per PI is limited to 1 MSEK/year. Hence, funding that you may have received under the current Digital Futures instruments Collaborative Research Projects, Research Pairs, Demonstrator Projects, Collaborative projects targeting Diversity and Inclusion, and Seed Projects will be taken into consideration. Funding from Digital Futures to Societal Innovation Projects, Partner Innovation Projects, Industrial Innovation Projects, and ISPP Demo Projects is included, but not the part from partners. Digital Futures Postdoctoral Fellows projects or C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute projects are not taken into account.

Research focus

The projects should address cutting-edge research within Technologies for a digital transformation and should involve researchers that complement each other and conduct interdisciplinary research. The proposals shall address subject areas at an intersection of the Digital Futures Research matrix illustrated below. More information about the research matrix can be found here.

The three research themes Trust, Cooperate and Learn cut across the four contexts Smart society, Digitalized industry, Rich and healthy life, and Educational Transformation.

Digital Futures Strategic Research Programme. The three research themes Trust, Cooperate and Learn cut across the three societal contexts Smart society, Digitized industry and Rich and healthy life.

How to apply

Fill in the application according to the project description template: R esearch Pairs 2022 Project description
Create an account on the application submission system and register the application stating the title, PIs and a short abstract by the registration date (see at top) at this link: https://crp.dsv.su.se/research-pairs-2022/
Complete the application, including uploading the project description to the submission system before the call deadline (see at top) using the same link as in step 2.

Evaluation

The project proposals will be evaluated by an international external expert panel. The evaluation will be based on the following criteria:

Scientific potential, originality, and degree of interdisciplinarity of the research proposed
Creation of new collaboration
Potential, feasibility, and composition of the research pair
Conformity to the scope of Digital Futures and eligibility as outlined above

Q&A event

Digital Futures will host an event for Q&A (and matchmaking for standard Research Pairs project), open to all potential project applicants, to help with the creation of proposals. The event will take place 10-12, May 30, in the Digital Futures hub at Osquars Backe 5.

Please respond via this link to get a place at the matchmaking event: Q&A registration form

Matchmaking

We have set up an excel file where you can list your research idea or area of interest in order to find possible collaborators with matching interests. The list is available on Teams/OneDrive with this link. Since it is on Teams, only Digital Futures Faculty have access to this list. To become a Digital Futures Faculty, please apply here.

If you are not a Digital Futures Faculty or cannot access Teams, but want to add your research idea to the list, send a mail to call@digitalfutures.kth.se. Please write “Research Pairs Matchmaking” in the title and include the following information:

Name, Contact info, Year of PhD, Affiliation (KTH School, SU)
Keywords, Summary of research interest/idea/area for this project call
Other info (if applicable).

Contact

Contact call@digitalfutures.kth.se for further questions Please include “Research Pairs 2022” in the subject of your email.