Frequently asked questions

We hope that you will use email as the primary means of contact in questions related to your application. As a rule, any meetings are agreed upon after the application has been submitted. We will contact you if we have any questions about your project as the processing of your application progresses and we need more information.

4–6 months may sound like a long time, but decision-making at Board meeting is preceded by careful processing and evaluation of applications: first in terms of preparations and clarifications in our office, then in expert reviews and in meetings of various committees.

We encourage international cooperation in both sciences and arts. However, the objectives and results of the projects we support must promote well-being in Finland and benefit Finnish society. Please remember to clearly justify this in your application for your project.

A consortium is formed only by working groups, faculties or departments representing different organizations, so different faculties of the same university, for example, form a working group. A consortium may well include parties from outside Finland: we encourage internationality both in sciences and arts.

Our policy not to fund postdoc research applies to situations where a young researcher holds the title of postdoctoral researcher and does not yet have the required level of independence. Evidence of sufficient independence includes, for example, own research funding acquired independently and supervision of doctoral researchers. We do not award grants for the applicant’s own salary which is intended to cover the costs of the postdoc period.

However, a working group applying for a grant may include postdoc and doctoral researchers.

The Foundation does not support business activities if the grant recipient seeks to engage in profit-making activities. However, a company may act as an applicant in certain situations. For example, a grant can be awarded to a company that applies for a grant for an event that is non-profit.

You can freely choose the language of your application from our three language options: Finnish, English or Swedish. The choice of language has no effect on the chances of success of your application. The application form will instruct you if you need to submit your answer in a particular language.

Unfortunately, the lead researcher cannot include their own salary in the application if they are employed by a university.

References are important. It is a good idea to choose references from parties that can clearly describe, for example, your ability to lead the project and achieve the goals set for it, as well as describe the relevance of your research to the field in Finland or internationally.

If we have not yet had time to process your application, you can make changes to your application by cancelling it in the online service. Cancelling the submission returns the application back to draft status.

If your application has already been processed, changes can unfortunately no longer be made. If you receive overlapping funding for your project from another party after submitting your application, please notify us by email without delay.

Well done, congratulations!

In the event of overlapping funding, please contact us immediately by email. Please also let us know to what extent the funding overlaps with the grant you have applied for from us.

Yes, you can. If you wish to cancel your application completely, log in to the online service, open your application and cancel the submission. If you are unable to cancel your application, it means that we have processed your application. In this case, please contact us by email and ask us to cancel your application.

We process all applications carefully. If your application has been processed and you have received a negative grant decision, we do not recommend submitting the same application again. Please note that we do not provide rationale for decisions.

It is possible to change universities after the grant has been awarded if the host university offers the same framework for carrying out the project as stated in the application. Please provide us in advance with the exchange of information and the written, signed consent of both the transferring and receiving universities. Consents can be submitted to us by email.

Please submit payment requests concerning your grant to us through the online service. Unfortunately, grants cannot be paid against invoices.

Yes, we do. You can make a new application to apply for a new grant on the same subject. The follow-up application goes through the same evaluation process as the original application.

The objectives achieved so far in your project will be taken into account in the processing, and it is worth focusing on presenting them in your application.

When applying for a follow-up grant, you should submit your application early enough to ensure your research continues without interruption. For example, if the duration of your grant is due to expire by the end of next year and is for an application in the field of medicine, we recommend that you have the application processed by us during next year’s first round of medical meetings in March. Similarly, applications in the field of technology should be submitted for processing to the May round of meetings where applications from the fields of technology are processed.

Please also note that it is a good idea to send the application to us well in advance of the month of the meeting you have chosen (approximately 4–6 months in advance).

Unfortunately, it is not possible to apply for an extension of an ongoing grant if you have sent us an application for a follow-up grant. Please note that you should submit your application for a follow-up grant to us well in advance.

You must start the project within one year of the award decision. The previous grant must have been used in full before the payment of the follow-up grant begins.

Frontloading means that each payment request is measured against the costs of the upcoming period. Grant payments start from the grant decision.