Strengthened research in specialized social services

Description of the theme

The politically determined agreement states that ”DKK 39.6 million has been allocated to DFF with the purpose of strengthening practice-oriented research in specialized social services and the capacity building within the research field, e.g. through PhD scholarships.

The research must, among other things, contribute to research based knowledge building on specialized social services for adults, in particular concerning effects, consequences, and prevention. The research can contribute to increased knowledge on cost efficient efforts or prevention.

It is essential that the research is oriented towards practice, for instance through collaboration with practice before, during and after the conduction of the research, including making research results easily accessible to relevant types of educations, workplaces and associations, etc. In addition, it is essential that the research supports knowledge development on social services to the extent possible, including knowledge on the effect of social efforts, for example by using national register data.

Furthermore, the research must include relevant parties, including collaboration between different research institutions, educational institutions, the practice field and/or the managing and supervisory authorities.” 

The area of specialized social services is not unequivocally defined but it encompasses children, youth, and adults with physical or psychological disabilities or special social challenges. Thus, it encompasses individuals with different needs that must be met by different social efforts within the areas of disability, social psychiatry, and vulnerability. These areas are, furthermore, characterised by different professional approaches and methods to establish the needs of the individual and to improve the individual’s possibilities for developing, taking care of themselves or making everyday life easier, and improve the quality of life.

In addition, DFF refers to the report Recommendations for a sustainable professional and economic development of the social services area by the Expert committee on the social services area from 2024 (only available in Danish).

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

DFF requires that applications for this theme are 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 for theoretical and empirical practice-oriented projects. In the appendix to your project description, you must account for how the project is oriented towards practice and argue for the relevance of the project for the specific practice area that it concerns. The project 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 research 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 in the specific practice area.

Furthermore, DFF emphasises that all applications to this theme must include collaboration between different research environments and/or research institutions and must include other relevant parties. To support this, it is required that the applicant and the Co-PI are from different research environments and/or different research institutions. It is possible to apply with a research project that includes collaboration between two different research environments, departments, etc., at the same research institution as specified in the in the theme-specific requirements below.

It is possible to apply for research projects within a budgetary framework of up to DKK 8,000,000 excluding overhead/administration expenses. Within the upper budget limit of DKK 8,000,000 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 building research capacity within this area.
• Your application must include collaboration between different research environments and/or research institutions and include other relevant parties. In order to support this, it is required that applicant and the Co-PI are from different research environments and/or research institutions. It is possible to apply with a research project that include collaboration between two different research environments, departments, etc., at the same research institution. This requirement is intended to support the need for including relevant parties, in particular from different research environments and/or institutions.
• Your application must be practice-oriented research and include collaboration with a relevant practice area as described above. Please be aware of the additional assessment criterion in section 4 of the thematic Call for Proposals.
• In the appendix to your project description, you must account for the ways in which your application addresses the call’s theme of strengthened research in specialized social services, and how your application meets the requirements on being practice-oriented research as well as the requirements on capacity building and collaboration between different research environments and/or research institutions.

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.

Please note that DFF furthermore requires that the applicant and the Co-PI are from different research environments and/or research institutions, cf. the theme-specific requirements above in the section “Description of the theme”. 

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 building research capacity within this 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.