Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP) is Sweden’s largest individual research program and provides a platform for academic research and education, fostering interaction with Sweden’s leading companies. The program addresses research in artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and software as enabling technologies for developing systems acting in collaboration with humans, adapting to their environment through sensors, information, and knowledge, and forming intelligent systems of systems. WASP strengthens, expands, and renews the national competence through new strategic recruitments, a challenging research program, a national graduate school, and collaboration with industry. The program is conducted in close cooperation between leading Swedish universities to promote the competence of Sweden as a nation within the area of AI, autonomous systems and software.
The SciLifeLab and Wallenberg national program for Data-Driven Life Science (DDLS) was launched in 2020 by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW). DDLS is a 12-year funding initiative to support data-driven life science in Sweden across 11 universities and institutions with SciLifeLab as the host. The program will focus on four strategic research areas of data-driven research:
- Cell and molecular biology
- Evolution and biodiversity
- Precision medicine and diagnostics
- Epidemiology and biology of infection
SciLifeLab and KAW share the ambition to foster the next generation of life scientists by creating a solid computational and data science base that helps scientists analyze and interpret data patterns and seamlessly integrate their data with the global life science data streams. Central components of DDLS include education, training, recruiting new talent, sparking collaborations, and engagement in innovation activities.
Aim and scope
DDLS and WASP have a strong ambition to form solid collaborations and bridge the gap between the scientific disciplines of DDLS and WASP. The Knut and Alice Wallenberg foundation has reserved funding for such collaborations in their donations to both programs.
To strengthen the collaboration, DDLS and WASP now announce a research visit program call. The purpose of the program is to form collaborations by bridging the gap between the WASP and DDLS programs and contribute to knowledge transfer, benefiting both the person in the exchange as well as the involved environments.
The research visit program is an opportunity that provides financial support for researchers to visit a different research environment, both nationally and internationally, to encourage continuous learning and professional development of staff.
The research visit program aims to establish new or deepen existing collaborations between WASP and DDLS areas, to provide knowledge about new techniques, new research, extend networks, etc.
The funded projects aim at contributing to the WASP/DDLS community and enlarge the critical mass by making data, resources, and code available in accordance with the FAIR principles. Project participants are expected to be active contributors and participants in community events, training activities, seminars, and symposia.
The aim is a flexible cross-program collaboration where a project participant from one of the programs is embedded within a research environment representing the other program.
After the research visit a brief report should, no later than two months after return, be handed in to the WASP Program Office/ DDLS research support.
Who can apply?
The applicant is currently working in the scientific disciplines of DDLS or WASP and will do the research visit in the scientific discipline that corresponds to the other program.
The applicant should be a postdoc or a junior/senior researcher from WASP or DDLS.
An applicant from WASP should be employed at one of the WASP partner universities CTH, LiU, LU, KTH, UmU, or be part of affiliated groups of excellence at LTU, UU or ÖrU that are members of WASP and have their research focus within AI, Autonomous Systems or Software. Please note that it is not necessary to be a formal WASP faculty (that has signed a WASP affiliation agreement) to apply for this call.
An applicant from DDLS should work within data-driven life science within one of the four DDLS research areas and be affiliated with a Swedish university or The Swedish Museum of Natural History.
National Research Visits
The application must have one applicant from WASP or DDLS as described above and one recipient host researcher that is part of WASP or DDLS according to the same conditions as for the applicant described above.
International Research Visits
The application must have one applicant from WASP or DDLS as described above and one recipient host researcher at an international university with research in the corresponding WASP or DDLS research area. More specifically, a researcher from WASP should visit a research group that works in the field of DDLS research or vice versa.
Budget
Budget 2023: 3,75 MSEK per program (5 visits per program)
The maximum available funding for a research visit is 750 000 SEK. The visit extends for a minimum of 3 months and must start within one year from the decision and be completed within two years.
Financial information
- The grants will be funded by KAW.
- The employer of the applicant is responsible for any necessary co-funding needed at each university/department.
- Overhead and premises costs will be covered according to respective program’s terms and conditions.
- The maximum coverage for LKP (payroll overhead) is 50% of personnel costs.
- All costs applied are to be specified in the budget template. Eligible costs are for example:
- Salary
- Accommodation
- Travel costs
- OH costs according to each programs conditions (only applicable for national sabbatical)
- Running costs (such as lab equipment and reagents)
Please check the budget template in the application system (Anubis) for more guidelines.
- Costs will be reimbursed by requisition to KAW. KTH and LiU will coordinate this process, and templates will be provided for this purpose at a later stage.
Proposal structure/format
Submission – how to apply
Application form and word template
- Name, affiliations of applicants
- Plan for research visit (max 2 pages) with a clearly specified subject area and, when applicable, including data science and FAIR aspects
- Explanation of the collaborative benefits for WASP and DDLS (max 1 page)
- Short CV from the applicant and the recipient host researcher (max. one page each)
- Commitment letter from the Head of the department where the applicant is employed.
- Commitment letter for the recipient department, signed by the recipient host researcher and the Head of the department
- Budget (template for overall budget).
Evaluation criteria
Projects will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
- Novelty and Originality from a data-driven perspective
- Synergies in the planned collaboration, i.e. complementarity and team science
- Multi-Disciplinarity
- Scientific quality
- Merits of the applicants
We will also consider:
- Impact on life science and of the computational challenges addressed
- Open science and data-sharing aspects
- Impact on and relevance for WASP/DDLS community
- The industrial and societal relevance
- Diversity and gender of the applicants
Timeline
Application deadline: May 24th, 2023
Decision to applicants: End of June 2023