About the program
Forte funds research on health, working life and welfare — public health, work environment, social insurance, care, integration and adjacent social-science and medical fields. The annual open call for project grants is the backbone, complemented by targeted calls on government-priority themes.
Forte’s reviews sit close to policy: panels include user-perspective competence, and societal relevance is scored alongside scientific quality. Recent cycles have used a two-step process (short sketch, then invited full application) — check the current call’s mechanics before planning your writing time.
Who can apply
- PhD required for the project leader; administration through a Swedish university or other approved organisation via Prisma.
- The topic must sit within Forte’s remit — health, working life, welfare — as defined in the call.
- Parallel instruments (junior researcher grants, programme grants, networks) have their own rules and windows.
Writing a competitive application
- Position the project against Swedish policy questions explicitly — Forte’s mandate is national relevance, and panels read for it.
- In two-step cycles, the sketch is a genre of its own: the question, the design and the relevance in very few pages — draft it as a standalone product.
- Involve practice partners (regions, agencies, employers) where authentic; user relevance scores are real.