New in the Academy's January 2010 call for Applications

(15.12.2010)

General research grants

In December, the Academy of Finland’s Board issued a guideline that from now on, funding will be allocated to research teams chiefly made up of researchers with doctorates. The emphasis of funding is thus shifted from doctoral education to teams of more experienced researchers.

Applications for general research grants/changed restrictions for applicants

As a rule, a researcher who has an ongoing project funded with the Academy’s general research grant is not eligible to apply for a new project to be funded with a general research grant unless there are very weighty reasons for this. However, a party to a consortium is eligible to apply. In contrast to previous practice, it has become possible for researchers closely involved in a Centre of Excellence to apply for a general research grant in the final three-year period of the CoE’s six-year funding period. In other words, researchers in the CoE programme for 2006–2011 are eligible to submit applications in January 2010.

Postdoctoral Researcher’s project

Unlike the January 2009 call, it is possible in the January 2010 call to grant funding towards the costs of both the Postdoctoral Researcher’s salary and personal research costs. However, funding is no longer granted towards setting up a research team.

Full cost model is applied to calculation of most project costs

In 2009, the Academy of Finland has revised the section of the application form that deals with project budgets. On the form, applicants are requested to give 1) an overall cost estimate of the project described in the research plan, and 2) a funding plan for the project.

In order to be able to fill in the form, applicants must know the calculated percentage applied by their own organisation for the following: 1) percentage for indirect employee costs, 2) overheads percentage, and 3) coefficient for effective working hours. These are given according to the guidelines issued by the applicant’s own organisation with regard to applications to the Academy at the time when the application is submitted and a commitment by the site of research is given for it. Applications are written so as to ensure that the Academy’s contribution to funding comes to no more than 80% of the total costs of a project. It is not possible to submit an application to the Academy’s online system if the applicant has entered a funding percentage of more than 80% of the total costs for the Academy.

In the call for applications, it is indicated separately for each call whether the costs are to be calculated using the full cost model or not. Detailed information on the full cost model is provided separately, see www.aka.fi/eng > For researchers > How to apply > Full cost model. There is also a link on this page to FAQ on the full cost model, which has been updated for the January 2010 call. It is also worthwhile to read the help instructions in the Academy’s online services when you start an application (Ohje/Hjälp/Help on the upper right of the screen).

The guidelines for research plans and abstracts have been updated, please make sure to follow the new instructions!

The research plan is the most important appendix of an application. The guidelines for research plans have been updated to incorporate feedback received from the Academy’s international panels of experts. Important aspects of the research plan include the following:

• It is important to describe the research environment in a way that enables an international panellist who may be unfamiliar with Finnish research environments to draw conclusions from the applications concerning the support that the site of research or a similar context group of the researcher is able to give the applicant.
• Research networks shall be described so as to demonstrate how the project will benefit from collaboration.
• The research methods to be used shall be justified, including the way in which they tangibly contribute to answering the research questions/confirming hypotheses or support the approach chosen.
• The materials management plan (formerly the information management plan) shall be incorporated with the research plan as described in the call for applications (See the call text under Application guidelines applicable to all calls, Materials management plan). The plan is now required to include information on the rights of ownership and use pertaining to project materials.
• The estimated total cost of the project itemised according to type of expenditure and salary costs itemised per person shall be justified under the section ‘Implementation’ of the research plan.
• The ethical issues of the research shall always be specified in the research plan.
• If an application is affiliated to a thematic area of a Strategic Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation, the cooperation in question shall be described in the research plan. More information in the call for applications.

The maximum length of the research plan is 12 pages, and that must not be exceeded.

The guidelines for writing an abstract have also been updated. Keep in mind that your abstract gives the first impression of your application to the person evaluating your application and the people making decisions on funding.

In order to be able to draft a successful application applicants shall follow the Academy’s guidelines. Updated guidelines: www.aka.fi/eng > For researchers > How to apply > Appendices.

Applicant responsible for the project description published on the Academy website

If funding is granted for the project, the Academy will publish a public project description on the Academy website, drafted by the applicant in connection with the application. Finnish or Swedish-speaking applicants write their descriptions in Finnish or Swedish in the text field indicated for this purpose on the online application form. In addition, all applicants are required to write a description in English.

The public project description is a means for the Academy and researchers to disseminate information on Academy-funded research. Consequently, it is important that the project description is as clear and readable to the general public as possible. The idea is to give the reader a brief summary of the key points of the research; for more details, see www.aka.fi/eng > For researchers > How to apply > Guidelines > Detailed application guidelines > Public description of project. The Academy will not edit public project descriptions, and consequently applicants are responsible for the content, clarity and style of their project descriptions.

Changed system for requesting a commitment from the site of research

The applicant is required to agree in advance with a representative of the site of research that the site of research will commit to funding the project with the percentage given in the funding plan and administering the project. Unlike previously, a request for a commitment by the site of research will not be sent until the application period and the period for supplementing applications have ended, after which the request will be sent centrally from the Academy’s e-services. The period for supplementing applications ends on Friday 6 February 2010 at 16.15.

As part of the commitment issued by the site of research, an authorised representative of the site of research confirms that the percentage for indirect employee costs, overheads, and the coefficient for effective working hours given by the applicant are correct and in line with the practice followed by the site of research.

Updating of the Academy website

We are in the process of updating the Academy website (For researchers > Funding opportunities, How to apply) and having the updated pages translated into Swedish and English. It is possible that some of the information on the website is still out of date when the January call is opened. The latest and most accurate information is found in the January call for applications.

New in the Academy's January 2009 call for applications

New in the Academy's October 2009 call for applications