Aim and scope This call is part of the PALS initiative, supported by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.
With this call, PALS wants to support and promote scientific interactions between fellows from the different PALS programs and/or from different centers. The supported collaborations can involve research or other related activities in all areas of the different programs such as molecular medicine or different areas of life science and can be technology-driven or data-driven projects from fundamental, preclinical, translational, and clinical scientists.
The supported collaborations, either a research project or an event in Sweden, organized and coordinated jointly by the fellows, should:

• add novelty
• be innovative and cross-disciplinary
• aim for either or several of the following: technology development, knowledge transfer, data transfer This annual call will support collaborations with funding in a span between 100.000 and 500.000 SEK (including indirect costs), the total annual sum awarded is 2.7 MSEK. KAW only reimburses operating costs (“drift”) and overhead (if any, and max 20%).

Who can apply? The call is open for fellows, associated fellows and fellow alumni in the PALS community (WCMM, DDLS, SciLifeLab, MIMS, WIFORCE) and can also involve a collaborator as co-applicant from SciLifeLab's infrastructure. The proposed project needs to involve two or three applicants, representing either at least two different PALS programs (DDLS, SciLifeLab, WCMM, MIMS or WIFORCE) or SciLifeLab infrastructure, or at least two different universities or organisations connected to the programs (KTH, LU, GU, UMU, LIU, KI, UU, SU, Chalmers, NRM and SLU). Priority will be given to new collaborations (as compared to already existing). Each applicant needs to be actively involved in the project, the main applicant is the administrative person who is responsible for submitting the application and communication with co-applicants. The funding will be paid out to each project partner (applicant and co-applicant/s) separately, the funding can only be paid to an organisation connected to the program via requisition. An applicant can be part of max. 2 applications (main or co-applicant).

Project period The project period is January 1st-December 31st, 2027, the reporting and requisition is made in February 2028. Reporting templates will be provided.
Selected projects are expected to be presented at the PALS meeting during the project period (annual PALS meeting 2027), and the project results at the PALS meeting after the project period, in 2028. Information about the funded projects will be published at palsnetwork.se.

Evaluation criteria Applications will be evaluated according to the assessment of the combination of the following criteria:

• Scientific quality and potential for novelty and originality
• Multi-disciplinary or translational approach
• Potential future or long-term impact
• Potential synergies in the planned collaboration
• Merit of ideas and alignment with the goals of PALS

For events we also consider:

• Clear impact for the PALS community
• Clear aim of the event

We will also consider:

• If the project establishes a new collaboration
• If the project plan aligns with the scope of the call with regards to project time (12 months) and requested funding
• Open science and data sharing aspects
• Industrial and societal relevance
• Complementarity of the applications (for example, gender balance, career stage, geographical distribution and project topic)
• Clear and active involvement of all partners
• When submitting a joint application with a co-applicant from SciLifeLab infrastructure is submitted, the co-applicant must be actively involved in the research project. It is not sufficient for an individual fellow to apply only for access to an infrastructure service ( as a user).

Applicants should keep in mind that, due to the broad range of research areas and disciplines within the PALS program, the evaluators may not be experts in the specific field of the proposed project. Therefore, it is important to write the proposal accordingly, ensuring that a general expert can understand the research idea.