Call for the Wallenberg Academy Fellows program

Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (the Foundation) has set up a long-term program for young researchers: Wallenberg Academy Fellows.

The program involves some 150 appointments during the period 2012 – 2016. A decision has now been made to announce funding for 2017 as well. In following years the Foundation will decide each year on future funding, which will then probably be announced every other year as from 2019. From that year researchers eligible for nomination must have obtained their PhD within the previous eight years, instead of the present seven years.

In close cooperation with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry, the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities and the Swedish Academy, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation has created a program that will provide resources for Sweden’s most promising researchers to develop their work. The program addresses young researchers in medicine, natural sciences, engineering and technology, humanities and social sciences.

The purpose of the Wallenberg Academy Fellows program is to give young researchers working conditions that enables them to focus on research and tackle difficult, long-term research questions.

The Swedish Academies will evaluate and select the most promising researchers and the universities will then take long-term responsibility for these individuals.

Swedish universities are invited to nominate candidates for the program.

The application period starts on the 9th of January 2017
A complete nomination/application must be received by the Foundation at the latest by the 15th of February, 2017.
Decision will be announced in December 2017.

Nominations for the program

From 2017 nomination quotas will be reinstated, whereby each institution will be permitted to nominate a maximum number of applicants as shown in the table below:

The university should strive for 40 % of the nominations to be the underrepresented sex. Only one internal candidate can be nominated for each external nomination.

Who can be nominated?

The program is open to researchers in all academic disciplines: medicine, engineering and technology, natural sciences, social sciences and humanities/religion, and also in the interfaces between them.

Candidates nominated in 2017 must have obtained their PhDs after 1 January 2009. An exception may be made for a nominees whose PhDs date back to before 2009 but who, on request, can document parental leave or extended sick leave that has taken place since the PhD exam. It is thus possible for the earliest qualifying date for a PhD to be moved back by the same length of time as the parental or sick leave lasted.

Researchers who have received a recruitment package as part of the Foundation’s molecular medicine initiative (Lund University, University of Gothenburg, Linköping University and Umeå University) or the Wallenberg Autonomous Systems Program (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Chalmers University of Technology, Lund University, Linköping University and Umeå University) cannot be nominated for a Wallenberg Academy Fellows grant.

A researcher cannot be in receipt of a WAF extension grant (years 6 –10) and a Swedish Research Council Consolidator Grant at the same time. Researchers who receive a Research Council Consolidator Grant will be offered a WAF extension grant without evaluation by the Foundation on the same financial terms as those offered by the Swedish Research Council. 

Nomination procedure

A candidate cannot be nominated by more than one university. A candidate must, when nominated by a specific university, approve the nomination.

Documents attached to the nomination, all in English except for the Brief popular scientific summary in Swedish, must include the following:

• The person’s research qualifications, i.e. CV (max two A4 pages) covering positions held, awards won and postdoctoral research stays, if any.
• A list of all publications in peer-reviewed journals, with the ten most important publications marked. If relevant, an H-index (Web of Science, Scopus or Google Scholar) together with number of publications and number of quotes the H-index is based on, is attached. Google Scholars preferably use Harzing’s Publish or Perish. For nominations in the field of humanities, a complete list of published articles should be enclosed
• A short (max two A4 pages) account of the person’s career, i.e. primarily his or her academic achievements together with information of present support from Universities or other financial support.
• A project proposal (max six A4 pages).
• Each nomination must contain a brief presentation of the reasons why the nominee´s activities are considered a key component of the research profile of the university and a description of the nomination process, i.e. the arguments, evaluations and processes on which the nomination was based (max two A4 pages).
• A brief popular scientific summary in Swedish (max one A4 page).
• External candidates attach a motivation stating the reasons why he/she wants to establish his/her research at the nominating university (max 1 A4 page).

The nominations and applications must be registered electronically on the Foundation’s website. Please look at the instruction before submitting the e-application.

The financing of the Foundation will include:

• Grants of SEK 1,000,000/year for five years for researchers within theoretical disciplines.
• Grants of SEK 1,500,000/year for five years for researchers within theoretical disciplines, who at the time of nomination are working abroad*.
• Grants of SEK 1,500,000/year for five years for researchers within experimental disciplines.
• Grants of SEK 2,000,000/year for five years for researchers within experimental disciplines who at the time of the nomination are working abroad*.
• Researchers, who at the time of nomination are working abroad, can apply for additional grants (startup grants) of SEK 1,500,000, 3,000,000 or 4,500,000. The level is decided by the nominating university and a co-financing with the same amount is required.
• Researchers, who at the time of the nomination are working abroad can also apply for moving expenses of SEK 100,000.

* Nominated within the category “Researcher working abroad at the time of the nomination”, have not been employed by the nominating university and not received salary or other financing from the nominating university during the last four years.

The appointed researcher will be employed by the nominating university and a relevant position must be guaranteed.

The universities are co-funding the initiative by guaranteeing that no more than a maximum of 50% of the researcher’s payroll expenses will be charged to the grant. A university may choose to fund the researcher’s entire salary, thereby helping to give him or her larger unencumbered research grant. The university will also be co-funding the initiative by contributing funds for indirect expenses, over and above the potential contribution from the Foundation.

After five years, the universities will be invited to nominate their appointed researchers to compete for another five years funding. A maximum of 40 % of the originally appointed fellows can be approved for extension. If the financing is prolonged, SEK 1,750,000 will be granted per year during five years.

Evaluation process

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, in cooperation with the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry, the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities and the Swedish Academy, will be responsible for the evaluation process.

The selection process will be implemented in five different evaluation panels: medicine, engineering and technology, natural sciences, social sciences and humanities/religion.

The panel members are appointed by the Academies and have broad academic expertise.

One of the five subject areas above must be specified in the nomination. Only one area can be specified for each nomination.

The five panels will evaluate and rank incoming nominations. The five ranking lists will then be submitted to the Foundation, which will decide on the number of grants in each area.

Assessment criteria

Closing date for nominations and applications

Complete nominations and applications must be received by the Foundation at the latest by the 15th of February 2017.

Full documentation for each nominee must be submitted electronically, by the universities, to the Foundation in accordance with the routines for grant applications. The complete budget form is not required with the nomination, only submit a brief description of the amount applied for.

Decision

The Wallenberg Academy Fellows will be appointed by the Board of the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation in November 2017 and the decision will be announced in December 2017.