Research on vulnerability and poor well-being

Description of the theme

The politically determined agreement states that ”DKK 34.6 million has been allocated to DFF to support research, including practice-oriented research, on vulnerability amongst children and youth as well as the well-being/poor well-being of children and youth. The research can, amongst other things, contribute to increased knowledge on the causes for poor well-being amongst children and youth, including a focus on, e.g., safer digital environments for children and youth as well as the positive and negative consequences and effects that digital media has on the communities of children and youth.

The funds must support capacity building in the research environments and coordination of research as well as contribute to increased knowledge on causal relationships, the interplay with pedagogical-psychological counselling (PPR), etc.”

According to the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science’s Mapping of research on vulnerability among children and youth from 2022 (only available in Danish), there is a wide need for research in the area. Therefore, DFF emphasises that ”vulnerability” and ”poor well-being” is not firmly defined and that the field of research can be described and approached differently within different areas of research.

To ensure capacity building, DFF requires that all applications must include at least one PhD student or postdoctoral candidate, as specified in the theme-specific requirements below. Furthermore, DFF encourages that projects include collaboration and/or coordination between different research institutions or research environments. Capacity building can further be supported more generally by, e.g., development/expansion of research environments and/or research infrastructure.

DFF emphasises that applications for this theme can be practice-oriented projects, i.e. research aimed at solving specific problems in real situations and that involves collaboration between researchers and practice to develop knowledge that is both theoretically founded and practically applicable. Practice-oriented research can be conducted using different methods pertaining to the local and specific practice that the research concerns. DFF does not hold a specific definition of which methods should be used to conduct practice-oriented research, and the call is open to theoretical and empirical practice-oriented projects. If relevant for your project, you must account for, in the appendix to your project description, how the project is oriented towards practice and argue for the relevance of the project for the specific practice area that it concerns. Practice-oriented projects should to the greatest extent possible include collaboration with relevant actors from practice before, during and after the project so that the results of the project can be embedded and applied – and thereby potentially change – the practice area. Examples of relevant actors could be authorities (e.g., municipalities), educational institutions or professionals and leaders that work within the specific practice area.

It is possible to apply for research projects within a budgetary framework of up to DKK 5,000,000 excluding overhead/administration expenses. Within the upper budget limit of DKK 5,000,000 excluding overhead/administration expenses, research projects of various sizes can be applied for and granted.

The following theme-specific requirements apply to your application:

• Your application must include at least one PhD student or postdoctoral candidate. This requirement is intended to support the political intention of capacity building in the research environments within the area.
• In the appendix to your project description, you must account for the ways in which your application addresses the call’s theme of research on vulnerability and poor well-being as well as how your application meets the requirement to support capacity building and coordination of the research.

Applicant and Co-PI

The project must be lead by an applicant and a named Co-PI. The applicant is main responsible towards the fund in the event of a grant.

As applicant as well as Co-PI you must have obtained a PhD degree (or similar qualifications, e.g. positive assistant professorship evaluation) at the time of the application deadline. Both the applicant’s and the Co-PI’s previous results will be assessed in relation to their career path and in relation to the scientific challenges of the project applied for. If you, as the applicant, are not an associate professor and have not been awarded a positive associate professor assessment (“lektorbedømmelse”) and the project involves the education of researchers, you must account for how the relevant supervision will be provided, and how the research student’s scientific association to the project will be ensured.

The applicant and the Co-PI must enter into a relevant and binding collaboration on a joint research project. The distribution of roles between the applicant and the Co-PI in the research project must appear clearly from the application.

Application requirements

The research project must be run by multiple researchers, including both an applicant and a Co-PI. Your application must include at least one PhD student or postdoctoral candidate (see above under ”Description of the theme”). This requirement is intended to support the political intention of capacity building in the research environments within the area.

The research project must be characterised as being a coordinated and mutually binding collaboration on a well-defined research question. The research activities must establish synergy among any sub-projects.

The research project must be of a high, international standard and involve international collaboration to a relevant extent. If the research project is embedded in a specific, local context, it is expected that the project argues for the potentially limited internationalisation. In all cases, DFF expects applications to relate to the international state of the art within their area.

You can apply for funding for embedded PhD and postdoctoral scholarships, if these are well integrated into the project and fulfil a clear, independent function within the research project. Embedded postdoctoral candidates must have obtained their PhD or achieved equivalent qualifications, e.g., a positive assistant professorship evaluation (”adjunktbedømmelse”), within the last 4 years at the time of the application deadline. Periods of leave must be deducted (see section 5.3.5 in the thematic Call for Proposals). If a named postdoctoral candidate is a PhD student at the time of application, the application must include a declaration from the student’s supervisor, stating that the student is expected to submit the PhD thesis within 6 months after the application deadline. If the application includes requests for funding for unnamed PhD students and/or unnamed postdoc candidates, the application must include an account of the proposed recruitment process.

There must be a sufficiently balanced relationship between the roles of all listed project participants (scientific/academic staff, technical/administrative staff, and whether funded or not), and the concrete role of the participants must be accounted for and justified.