CFAs: Sustainable Health and Social Care Systems for Elderly

The research should contribute with knowledge that can be used to prepare and equip the health and social care systems of the Nordic and Baltic countries to meet the challenges of a growing elderly population.

The call focuses on solutions to secure seamless pathways of health and social care based on active involvement of service users, next of kin and social networks with the purpose of ensuring health equity. Solutions should contribute to the maintenance of good lives for elderly and their relatives within the context of sustainable health and social care systems.

There is a need for both new research-based knowledge and new knowledge on how to implement evidence-based models of care, support to self-management of health, mobility and community participation and innovative tools as support. New knowledge in this field will be pivotal to meet the challenges in the health and social care systems.

Scope

• The overall aim of the call is to fund research which generates knowledge and evidence-based solutions in the area of ​​sustainable health and social care systems for the elderly. The research should contribute with knowledge that can be used to prepare and equip the health and social care systems of the Nordic and Baltic countries to meet the challenges of a growing elderly population.
• The call focuses on solutions to secure seamless pathways of health and social care based on active involvement of service users, next of kin and social networks with the purpose of ensuring health equity. Solutions should contribute to the maintenance of good lives for the elderly and their relatives within the context of sustainable health and social care systems.
• Funding close-to-user research.
• The call supports the Nordic Council of Ministers’ vision of a sustainable and integrated Nordic region and the objective of contributing to equitable and secure health and welfare for all.

Funding Information

• Available Budget for Nordic partners: up to 75 million NOK
• Available Budget for Estonian partners: up to 300,000 EUR
• Available Budget for Latvian partners: up to 600,000 EUR
• Available Budget for Lithuanian partners: up to 300,000 EUR
• Maximum amount of funding that may be sought:
  • Amount of funding that may be sought to Nordic partners in a project: up to 15 MNOK
  • Amount that may be sought by Estonian partners in a project: 150-300,000 EUR
  • Amount that may be sought by Latvian partners in a project: up to 300,000 EUR
  • Amount that may be sought by Lithuanian partners in a project: 150-200,000 EUR
• Duration: up to 4 years

Eligible Costs

• Funding may be used for costs that are necessary for the implementation of the project, such as:
  • Salaries corresponding to the person’s activity level in the project
  • PhD and post-doctoral positions corresponding to the person’s activity level in the project, and not covering salary during teaching or other duties
  • Running costs (data collection and analysis, consumables, minor equipment, premises)
  • Mobility and research stays, travels
  • Dissemination, outreach, and knowledge exchange activities (including open access charges)
  • Stakeholder involvement and activities
  • Indirect costs and overhead

Eligibility Criteria

• For proposals to be eligible for evaluation, the following criteria must be met:
  • Proposals must be written in English and submitted electronically through the NordForsk Call and Application Portal by the call deadline.
  • The research consortium must include research performing organisations in at least three Nordic countries.
  • The proposal must include a signed Letter of Commitment from each partner institution. Letters of Commitment must be signed by a person authorized to take on financial commitments on behalf of the institution for the entire duration of the project.
  • The host institution (Project Owner) for the project must be an established research performing organization based in one of the countries co-funding the call. Project owners, project leaders and project participants from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania must be eligible to receive funding from ETAG, LCS, or RCL.
  • If the project owner is based in Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania, the project must appoint a co-host institution in Norway, Sweden, Denmark or Iceland which NordForsk enters into a contract with concerning the Nordic part of the project. A contact person must be appointed from the co-host institution and will serve as NordForsk’s administrative contact point.
  • The project leader (and Nordic contact point) must be a qualified researcher (PhD) employed by their host institutions (Project Owners).
  • Research performing organizations from other Nordic countries than Sweden, Norway, Denmark or Iceland cannot be Project Owners. Such research organizations can participate in funded projects, but not as Project leader and they cannot be Nordic co-hosts for projects.
  • Researchers may participate in one proposal in this call.
  • Research institutions may be partners in more than one proposal.
  • Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian applicants and project participants must comply with the respective national rules.
  • Institutions based in the Russian Federation may not participate in projects funded by this call.
  • In addition to the above requested participation from research partners, non-research organizations may participate as partners in the project and receive funding. The NordForsk funding may however not be used to support economic activity, which is defined as all activity where goods or services are offered on an open market. Organizations with both economic and non-economic activities must have in place a formal separation between economic and non-economic activities. This may be achieved by either organizing the economic activities as a separate legal entity or by keeping separate accounts for economic and non-economic activities.

Research Outcomes

• Research projects are expected to:
  • operate across Nordic and Baltic countries, across subjects and disciplines
  • build on insights and findings from previous research and developing solutions with the aim of implementation in real world settings
  • contribute to fostering a new generation of scientists in the field with Nordic-Baltic perspectives
  • work with dissemination of results, communication activities, spreading knowledge outside the project
  • to comply with the NordForsk policies on Open Access and Gender Equality.
  • Any use of AI tools must be ethical and responsible, and respecting legal and research standards and requirements. Applicants are advised to read the European Commission’s Living guidelines on the responsible use of generative AI in research.

Application Requirements

• The following documents are mandatory:
  • NordForsk proposal form.
  • Project plan (max ten pages, including references).
  • CV, including a list of up to ten publications and up to ten other key outputs (max three pages for Project Leader and max one page for each key researcher).
  • Budget specifications (standard templates).
  • Letters of Commitment.

For more information, visit NordForsk.