As a joint effort from interested parties in Norway and Sweden, the Swedish-Norwegian foundation for Equine research (SHF) in collaboration with Norwegian and Swedish trotting sport and Stiftelsen Järvsöfaks presents a special call for applications relating to the coldblooded trotter health, reproduction, welfare, longevity and performance. The call opens for applications the 3rd of April and closes the 29th of May, 14.00.
The current special call welcomes research applications related to improved health, reproduction, welfare, and longevity and performance in the sport of coldblooded trotting horses. This special call predominately focuses on research with direct relevance for the coldblooded trotting horse, where research collaboration between Norway and Sweden is preset.
The overall goal is that funded project should contribute to increased knowledge for improved horse health, reproduction, welfare, and longevity and performance in the sport. The project should for example contribute to improved knowledge of optimal horse management, training and competition of coldblooded trotting horses, effects of inbreeding, methods to identify different types of injuries or unhealth, as well as positive health indicators at an early stage, or development of improved diagnostics, treatment, and rehabilitation of commonly occurring disorders.
The call includes 2 260 000 SEK and 1 240 000 NOK over a period of 3 years, for research- and development project, during the period 2024-2026. Maximum allowed funding per separate year is 1 million in each currency. The call is limited to application including research collaboration between Sweden and Norway.
A reference group including representatives from the coldblooded trotter sport in Norway and Sweden and from the Swedish-Norwegian Foundation for Equine Research will be connected to the approved project, for a practical connection between the project and the practical sector already during the project time, both for feedback from the practical sector and for improved communication of project progress and results during the project.
The project is expected to start 2024. Funding can be applied for a maximum of 3 years.
Application process and requirements
Observe that from 2023 all application must use and follow the template for research application for stage 1 and stage 2, this template is from 2023 also used for Norwegian parts of approved SHF-projects during registration at Research Council of Norway.
Applications to this call is submitted in 2 stages in English according to instructions in the foundation handbook and should have highest scientific quality. Each main applicant may submit one application per call. The main applicant should have a doctoral degree or equivalent and be connected to a research environment. In addition to the requirements given in this call text, the instruction of the Foundation handbook should be followed unless other is given in the call text, to be able to obtain funding. Note that applications that do not follow the handbook/call text will be automatically rejected. No upper limit of applied OH is practiced but applied OH cost cannot exceed actual costs. If a project needs to include experimental horses in the trials, this must be clearly described and justified in relation to the 3 Rs (Reduce, Refine, Replace). Each application must have a clear methods description of how many horses are planned to be studied. The application must clearly describe plan for dissemination of results to the practical horse sector/to horse owners, and how the project plans to work for projects results to be practically implemented in the same sector.
The online platform for applications has been updated with start in 2022 with a modified budget scheme to declare budget posts more clearly between countries (SEK and NOK), and to clarify Foundation requirements of declaring all applicants active part in the proposed project (stage 2). The update also includes a new section related to ethical approvals needed. We apologise in beforehand of any bug would be preset. The updated platform uses the same web address as the former, so any possible favorites saved on personal computers automatically leads you to the updated platform.
