The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency

Last changed: 10 March 2022

The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency is a governmental agency responsible for issues related to climate and air, soil, biodiversity, polluted areas, cycles and waste, environmental monitoring, hunting and wildlife and environmental research. The authority works on behalf of the Swedish government with environmental issues within Sweden, the EU and internationally, with the vision of creating "a good living environment for man and everything else alive, now and for future generations".

The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for coordinating environmental work in Sweden and therefore cooperates with several other authorities and organizations, as well as coordinates Swedish initiatives within EU's LIFE program.

The agency funds environmental and wildlife research, but also supports activities such as environmental monitoring, dissemination of information, and international environmental and climate cooperation.

Types of funding

The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency funds multi-year projects focusing on environmental and wildlife research, financed through either the Environmental Research Grant (Miljöforskninganslaget) or the Wildlife Conservation Fund (Viltvårdsfonden). Normally, the calls for grants open in May and June, with deadline in September.

The Environmental research grant has an annual budget of about SEK 80 million, which is distributed through three different types of funding;

  • Programs - Larger cohesive investments lasting from three to six years.
  • Projects - Three-year-projects within thematic areas, with the aim of gathering new knowledge for environmental work in Sweden.
  • Synthesis - Short individual efforts that can provide a relatively quick overview of a given area.

The Wildlife Conservation Fund supports research that contributes to the development of tools for wildlife management, models for the transition from one to multi-species management and the future of wildlife management. In addition to research projects of 1-3 years, the fund also finances knowledge composition projects, workshops and EU projects.

In addition to national calls, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency also supports environmental work and research through international collaborations, for example through the LIFE program.

Project calculator, co-funding & financial reporting

Project calculator
Contact department economist for support with budgeting in SLU´s project calculator. The project calculator has a report (sheet 13) adapted to the budget form in Prisma.

Co-funding
For universities The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) allows that charges for indirect costs, caused by the SEPA-grant according to university rules, are covered by the SEPA-grant. A co-funding need to indirect costs, in grants from SEPA, will therefore not occur for SLU.

On the other hand some SEPA calls can have a demand on co-funding of direct costs (including charges). In such cases co-funding can be possible according to SLU´s guidelines for co-funding.

Financial reporting
Questions about using SLU´s financial system for financial reporting to SEPA can be put to projektekonomi@slu.se

How to apply

Applications to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency should be submitted via the agency’s own application portal (Ansökningsportalen). Instructions for how to apply and design the time and communication plan, as well as a budget template, can be downloaded from the agency’s website.

All applications are assessed both scientifically and with regard to their relevance to environmental work. Decisions about funding is made based on the recommendations from one of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency's two advisory bodies, the Environmental Research Council and the Scientific Committee for Wildlife Research. The decisions cannot be appealed.

For those seeking funding from the environmental research grant, there are guidelines on how to communicate. All research funded by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency must be published with open access.

Support with your application

For general support to coordinating researchers contact grantsoffice@slu.se

For support with proposals to the Life program, please contact Christer Borglin, christer.borglin@slu.se.

Data management plan

The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency requires that all funded projects within the Environmental research programme have a data management plan (DMP) from the start of the project. You are not however required to send this plan to them with your proposal. The agency recommends that you follow the guidelines for data management plans developed by Science Europe. You can read more about the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency’s terms and recommendations here (Swedish only).

To assist both researchers and other staff at SLU to manage data, we have designed a DMP template that meets the requirements of VR (the Swedish Research Council), FORMAS and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. See more on this at SLU’s Data Management Support.

If you have questions concerning data management plans or need help to create one, please contact SLU’s Data Management Support at dms@slu.se.