Finding funding for your research
Finding the right funding opportunities for your research projects can be challenging, especially in the early stages of your career. Here we provide an overview of the different types of funding available, and of the tools provided by Grants Office to assist you in financing your research.
Karolinska Institutet Internal Funding
KI Foundation & Funds offers internal financing through approximately 30 calls for proposals a year in various research areas. Such internal financing includes travel grants, research grants, post-doctoral stipends, etc.
While some of the calls mentioned above are open to doctoral students, KI also has internal funding schemes specifically for doctoral education: KI funding for Doctoral education (KID), Clinical Scientist Training Programme (CSTP), Forskar allmäntjänstgöring (Forskar-AT) and Doctoral School in Healthcare Sciences.
External Funding
KI researchers receive funding from a wide range of external funders, not only in Sweden and Europe, but also in the US and other parts of the world. Grants Office provides a range of tools to help you identify funding sources that are appropriate to your research area and career stage.
Grants Office Web
The ‘Research Funding’ page is the entry point to Grants Office’s funding-related pages, which provide information on many of the major funding programmes that apply to KI researchers. Through these pages you can also find information on the KI internal prioritisation processes that are required by certain funding agencies.
The Swedish/Nordic and European funding pages contain links to lists of funding sources, each sorted either alphabetically or by type of funding. In addition to the large funding agencies, these lists include smaller organisations and societies that might be more specific to individual research fields or to different career stages. For US funding possibilities, please contact us directly at grantsoffice@ki.se.
Grants Office Publications and Alerts
Current Calls lists: Grants Office publishes weekly lists of selected current calls for proposals. Links to the recently published ‘Current Calls’ lists can be found on the main ‘Research Funding’ page of the website.
Newsletter: Monthly Grants Office newsletters, containing selected current calls in addition to news and information from Grants Office, are mailed out to KI researchers subscribing to the newsletter. To subscribe, please contact us at grantsoffice@ki.se.
Facebook Page:The Grants Office Facebook page is updated regularly with new funding opportunities, as well as events, tips and other news related to research funding.
Research Professional
Research Professional is an extensive database of worldwide funding opportunities to which all KI employees and students have access through the KI subscription. Setting up a personal account in Research Professional allows you to:
- Perform customised searches of thousands of funding opportunities.
- Save the search criteria so that you can re-run your search at a later date.
- Store selected funding opportunities, add notes, and share information with your colleagues.
- Create e-mail alerts to receive customised lists of funding opportunities to your mailbox each week.
- Read the latest news about research policies and politics.
For more information, as well as help in getting started with Research Professional.
Other types of funding
Although the support Grants Office provides relates primarily to research grants, there are additional ways to fund your research.
Industrial Alliances
Industry funding in the form of sponsored or collaborative research programmes is not only a means of financing your research, but also a way to access to industry-unique expertise, competences and capabilities. Guidelines, rules and regulations for industry funding, as well as the different agreement formats and contractual obligations involved, can be found on our ‘Collaborate with companies’ (link below).
Hands-on support and guidance for collaborating with industry is provided by Grants Office’s Corporate Partnering function, which supports collaborations ranging from complex and long-term strategic partnerships through to collaborations on individual projects. For more information, please see our Corporation Partnering leaflet, available as a PDF on our web page ‘Partner with medical and life science researchers’, for more information.
Innovation Financing
In addition to securing grants from public organisations such as the European Commission or Vinnova (Sweden’s innovation agency), you can finance your innovation projects in many other ways; e.g., through customer or supplier funding, crowdfunding, bank loans, venture capital or business-angel capital. For more information, please visit the Innovation Financing page (link below).
Philanthropy
Donations from individuals can also fund your research. Always remember the golden rule: ‘friendraising before fundraising’ - it is crucial that you get to know your prospective donor. Also be aware of the rules governing donations. Through KI’s ‘Donation and gift policy’ web page, you can find information about different types of donations and about KI and national rules for accepting donations.