Writing Your SI Scholarship Motivation Statement

Understanding the Character Limits

SI asks you to write your motivation directly in the application portal. Applicant reports say recent rounds had two separate questions, not one; SI’s published call does not confirm the format — and a two-question format catches many applicants off guard. They prepare a single unified statement and then realise at the portal that they need to fill two distinct fields with different character limits. Check the 2027 portal when it opens in case the format changes.

Question 1 reportedly allowed 1,000 characters, which works out to roughly 150–170 words depending on how long your words are. Question 2 reportedly allowed 800 characters, around 120–140 words. These are character counts, not word counts. Every space, every comma, every full stop counts toward the total.

Assume the portal enforces the limits. Write in a plain text editor (Notepad, TextEdit, or any tool that shows character counts) and check your count before pasting. Do not draft directly in the portal. If you lose your session or the page times out, you lose your work. SI provides no template for this part, and you might also be randomly selected to record a short video presentation.

What SI Is Actually Asking

The motivation questions aren't an open invitation to write about yourself generally. Based on SI's guidance, they orbit around three themes. SI's call also says that you should have a clear idea of how your education will contribute to the sustainable development of your home country and region, and that it is up to you to motivate how your chosen programmes relate to relevant sustainability goals.

1. 1
   What are you currently doing?

   Your professional present. Your title, your sector, what you've actually been working on. Not your entire career history — what you're doing now and what problem you're working on.

2. 2
   What do you want to do after your studies?

   A specific, grounded goal — not "contribute to development" but what you'll actually do, for whom, and through what institution or initiative.

3. 3
   How does a Swedish master's connect your present to that goal?

   The logical bridge. Why this programme, at this institution, in Sweden specifically? What knowledge or skills are you missing now that this degree will give you?

What evaluators are explicitly looking for:

• A specific professional contribution you plan to make in your home country — not an aspiration, a plan
• Evidence this isn't generic — your goal is grounded in your actual work experience and sector knowledge
• A coherent logical chain: past work → observed gap → chosen programme → specific future role

What a Strong Response Looks Like

This is a guide for what to aim for, not a template to copy. A strong response reads like a specific person with a specific situation — not like something built from a blog post or a shared Google Doc.

A strong Question 1 response

• Opens with your professional context concisely: role, sector, what you've been working on — not your childhood or your undergraduate years
• Identifies a specific gap, challenge, or opportunity you've observed directly through your work
• Connects that observation to why this particular master's programme is the right response to it
• Ends with a clear statement of what you'll be doing differently after graduating — specific, not vague
• Uses concrete details: job titles, organisations, specific problems — not "sustainable development" language

A strong Question 2 response

• Describes your specific post-graduation plan — the role, the sector, and who you'll serve
• References a concrete organisation, sector, or initiative you'll return to — ideally one that already exists
• Shows you understand what your home country actually needs in your field — not a generic statement about poverty or climate
• Avoids claims about "transforming" or "revolutionising" — a focused, realistic contribution is more credible than a grand one

The Mistakes That Sink Good Applications

These are not theoretical mistakes. They appear in large numbers every cycle, including in applications from well-qualified candidates who spent weeks preparing everything else.

1. 1
   Describing your past and forgetting your future

   Many applicants write a detailed account of their career and run out of characters before explaining what they'll do after graduating. Evaluators care most about the forward-looking part. If you're spending 80% of your characters on autobiography, rebalance.

2. 2
   Generic sustainable development language

   "I want to contribute to sustainable development in my country" tells evaluators nothing. What specifically? In what sector? Through what mechanism? If your statement could have been written by anyone in any of the 34 eligible countries, it's not specific enough.

3. 3
   Copying from examples found online

   If you found a sample motivation statement on a blog, thousands of other applicants found it too. Formulaic language — the same phrases about "bridging the gap" and "leveraging my expertise" — is immediately recognisable. Write in your own voice, about your own situation.

4. 4
   Not connecting the Swedish degree specifically

   Why Sweden? Why this programme? Not "because it's fully funded" — that's obvious to everyone. Because of something specific to the curriculum, the research approach, the faculty, or the Swedish way of handling your field.

5. 5
   Over-relying on adjectives

   "I am a passionate, dedicated, and results-driven professional" wastes characters and tells evaluators nothing they can verify. "I managed a team of 12 across three districts" says far more. Show; don't describe.

6. 6
   Treating it as a formality

   Some applicants spend weeks assembling documents and then rush the motivation in an afternoon. For candidates who are otherwise comparable on paper — and many of them are — the motivation is often what distinguishes the selected from the rejected. It deserves the same attention as the rest of your application combined.

Planning Your Statements

Before you write a single word of the actual statement, answer these four questions for yourself — in full sentences, on paper or in a document, not just in your head.

1. What specific problem have you seen or worked on in your sector in your country? Not a general issue — a particular situation you encountered directly.
2. What is your master's programme's actual, specific connection to that problem? Look at the curriculum. What modules, methods, or research areas are directly relevant?
3. What specifically will you do differently after graduating that you can't do now? What knowledge or capability are you missing that the degree will give you?
4. Who will you do it for, and through what institution or initiative? Name it if it exists. If it doesn't yet, describe it specifically enough that it's real.

Once you have clear answers to all four, draft with those answers in front of you. You have about 150–170 words for Question 1. Use them precisely. Every sentence needs to earn its place.

The Drafting Process

Write a first draft that's too long. Then cut. This is the correct order of operations. If you try to write to the character limit from the start, you'll end up with sentences that have been compressed until they've lost their meaning.

• Every sentence earns its place. If removing a sentence changes nothing about your meaning, remove it.
• Read it aloud. If it sounds like a corporate brochure, rewrite it. You should sound like yourself, not like a press release.
• Have a non-expert read it. Someone from a completely different field. If they understand what you're trying to do and why, you've succeeded.
• Leave it and come back. Leave a draft for a full day, then reread it. Distance helps you see what you've assumed rather than stated.
• Do multiple rounds — ten or more drafts is not unusual. The first draft is for getting ideas down, the fifth for cutting, the tenth for precision. Don't submit until it reads like something you're genuinely proud of.

What the Best Applications Have in Common

In this guide's reading, strong applications share a recognisable set of qualities — not in format, but in substance.

The motivation statement doesn't need to be perfect literature. It needs to be honest, specific, and well-reasoned.

Evaluators aren't grading your prose — they're trying to determine whether your goals are real and whether this scholarship will actually help you achieve them. Write like you mean it.