Call for research positions within the area of childhood cancer diseases 2018

Aim
Barncancerfonden (The Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation) calls for proposals for research positions within the area of childhood cancer diseases. The purpose is to recruit more researchers to the field and to enable research for clinically active individuals employed in Swedish health care or equivalent.

Terms and conditions for the call
Grants to be applied for: 6-year research position, 4-year research assistant, 2-year postdoctoral position/fellowship, 4-year postdoctoral position including an additional return grant, and clinical research months during 1-3 months per year for up to 3 years. A main supervisor can apply for PhD grants for up to 4 years for a clinically active individual. The allocated grant may be used for salary costs and indirect costs. Research positions can be applied for within the areas biomedical science and nursing science including psychosocial research.

The results from the research related to the position are expected to be beneficial for Swedish children with cancer and/or children oncology research in Sweden. The children oncology relevance should therefore be clearly stated in the application.

The research projects may be experimental (fundamental or translational research) or clinical.

Eligibility to apply
Funding for research positions and research assistants is applied for by an individual scientist (main applicant) that has, or intend to locate, the main activity in Sweden. For all positions applied for except PhD grants, the main applicant should be the person the applied position/fellowship is intended to finance. Research positions may be combined with a side activity of 20%, for example clinical work or teaching.

6-year research position is applied for by a researcher that holds a Swedish doctoral degree or an equivalent foreign degree. The applicant should also have an own research program within the area of children oncology. Half- or full-time positions can be applied for. Half-time positions are earmarked for clinically active researchers in children oncology and ought to be combined with up to 50% clinical work. Continuation grant may be allocated after individual consideration, especially for clinically active researchers in children oncology.

4-year research assistant is applied for by a researcher that holds a Swedish doctoral degree or an equivalent foreign degree no later than 7 years after dissertation. The applicant should intend to establish an own research program within the area of children oncology. The time from dissertation may be prolonged under special circumstances, for example clinical work or parental leave. Half- or full-time positions can be applied for. Half-time positions are earmarked for clinically active researchers in children oncology and ought to be combined with up to 50% clinical work. Continuation grant may be allocated after individual consideration, especially for clinically active researchers in children oncology.

Postdoctoral position/fellowship is applied for by an individual that holds a Swedish doctoral degree or an equivalent foreign degree no later than 5 years after dissertation. The time from dissertation may be prolonged under special circumstances, for example clinical work or parental leave. Half- or full-time positions can be applied for. Half-time positions are earmarked for clinically active researchers in children oncology and ought to be combined with up to 50% clinical work.

Grants to be applied for:

• Researcher with a doctoral degree from a Swedish university that intends to pursue a postdoctoral education in a foreign research group. This grant may be applied for as a 2-year fellowship abroad, or as an extended 4-year grant with an additional return grant where the last one or two years is a postdoctoral position/fellowship in Sweden. If the applicant has dependants, this is specified under "Övrig information om ansökan som inte kan redovisas på annan plats" on the tab "Övrigt".
• Researcher with a doctoral degree from a foreign university that intends to pursue a postdoctoral education in a Swedish research group. 2-year grant.
• Researcher with a doctoral degree from a Swedish university that intends to pursue a postdoctoral education in a Swedish research group. A prerequisite for this grant is that the applicant should pursue the education in another research group than the one where the applicant received the doctoral degree. 2-year grant.

All applications should be postdoctoral education within the area of childhood cancer diseases. 2-year grants may be prolonged with 2 additional years after a continuation application.

Clinical research months are applied for by a clinically active individual employed in Swedish health care or equivalent. 1-3 months per year for up to 3 years may be applied for. The applicant should hold a doctoral degree or at the start of the project be accepted for doctoral studies. The grant may be prolonged after a continuation application.

PhD grant is applied for by the main supervisor in order to finance a titled PhD student. The PhD student should be a clinically active individual employed in Swedish health care or equivalent. The grant is intended to cover 50-80% of the salary costs of the PhD student. The equivalent time should be devoted to clinical of translational research. The remaining time should be clinical work financed by the hospital employer. The PhD student should no later than at the time of project start be accepted for doctoral studies. The grant may be prolonged after a continuation application.

About the grant
The grant is personal and may not be transferred to another individual. Exceptions may be made under special circumstances after an inquiry to Barncancerfonden.

The grant is disbursed as a position except in the case when the applicant is eligible for a scholarship (should appear on the application).

Refer to Policydokument godkända kostnader for approved costs for the grant form.

Grant sum
The sum of the grant is calculated according to the salary flat rate sums from Barncancerfonden. The grant includes holiday compensation and indirect costs. The actual salary of the application including expected salary raise should be stated in the budget. The return grant included in the 4-year postdoctoral position is also a flat rate sum and is not needed to be included in the budget.

Evaluation criteria
All submitted applications are subjected to peer review evaluation by active researchers. The scientific evaluation of the application is conducted in competition with other applications on the basis of the evaluation criteria of Barncancerfonden: research problem, methodology, feasibility/merits of the applicant(s), relevance for children with cancer, and, when applicable, the scientific report. If needed, applications with clinical connection will be prioritized.

Administration
The grant is to be administered by a Swedish university, hospital or institute, alternatively another Swedish organization with research as its main purpose in collaboration with a university, hospital or institute. Reduction of 15,25% for indirect costs is allowed. The allocated grant may not be used for premises costs. Remaining funding at the end of the project period is reimbursed to Barncancerfonden.

Application period
Refer to the web page of Barncancerfonden. Incomplete or late applications will not be evaluated.

Application documents
The application system opens two months prior to the last day for application. A complete application includes a filled-in web form and mandatory appendices. The appendices should be uploaded in PDF format and may not exceed 2 MB.

Mandatory appendices
6-year research position

• Project description

4-year research assistant

• Project description

Postdoctoral position/fellowship

• Project description

• Invitation from the host university
• 2 page CV from the main supervisor

Clinical research months

• Project description

• Certificate from the main employer that verifies that research leave will be approved
• Certificate from the supervisor including a 2 page CV from the supervisor (for applicants that do not hold a doctoral degree)

PhD grant

• Project description
• 2 page CV from the PhD candidate

Content in appendices
The project description should have an overall aim and a number of specific goals. The aim may be visionary but the goals should be written as specific as possible. The project goals should be directly comparable to the final report where the progress and results from the project will be described.

The project description should be maximum 6 A4 pages including references (12 ppt Times New Roman, single space, automatic line break) and contain the following headings:

• Aim and goals; present the overall aim and the specific goals of the research project.
• Background; a summary of your own and others’ research, as well as previous findings in the research field.
• Preliminary results; describe your own experiments and pre-studies in the research area
• Work plan; summarize the project and present a timetable. Describe theories, methods and implementation.
• International and national collaboration: short description of collaboration with foreign and Swedish researchers and research groups or clinical partners. 
• Ethical considerations
• Five own publications that are most relevant to the project
• Literature references of importance
• If the main or co-applicant has allocated grants or other applications under review at Barncancerfonden that are similar to the present application, the differences between these and the present application should be described under a certain heading. 

2 page CV's should include the following headings:
• Education and academic degrees
• Employments
• Teaching and supervision
• Administrative assignments
• Others

Note that the application may not be submitted electronically if mandatory information is missing. After submission, the first page of the application must be printed, signed, and sent to Barncancerfonden no later than one week after the last day of the application period (date of the postage stamp is valid). Revisions to submitted applications are not allowed.

The signed first page is to be sent to:
Barncancerfonden
Att. Anders Höglund
Box 5408
114 84 Stockholm

Organization of the application
Instructions on how to fill in the application form is found in the top right corner on each tab.

The application may be written either in English or in Swedish with the following exceptions: 

• The popular science title must be written in Swedish.
• The project title must be written in English.
• The popular science description must be written in Swedish.
• The abstract must be written in English.

Special terms
Barncancerfonden has some restrictions regarding parallell grants. Refer to the separate document Policydokument flera anslag (in Swedish) on the web page of Barncancerfonden.

General terms
Refer to the separate document ”Generella villkor” (in Swedish) in the application system.

Retrieval of grants
Refer to the separate document ”Så här får du dina beviljade medel” (in Swedish) in the application system.

Contact
Anders Höglund, Research coordinator
anders.hoglund@barncancerfonden.se
Tel: 08-584 209 31 (00)

or

Emeli Lundström, Research coordinator
emeli.lundstrom@barncancerfonden.se
08-584 209 03 (00)

or

Abraham Mellkvist Roos, Research coordinator
abraham.mellkvist.roos@barncancerfonden.se
08-584 209 22 (00)