Confidentiality

In Finland, the Act on the Openness of Government Activities applies, among other things, to application documents and expert evaluation statements. According to the Act, research plans, abstracts, progress reports and evaluation statements are confidential documents. Application documents should therefore be handled and stored with due care and confidentiality. 

Reviewers are therefore not allowed to disclose any information concerning application documents or evaluations to outsiders, nor are they allowed to use this confidential information to their own benefit or anyone else’s benefit or disadvantage. In addition, they may not reveal to outsiders that they are assessing the research plan of a particular researcher. Anyone who has questions about the application documents or evaluation statements shall be advised to contact the Academy.

Once the review has been completed, reviewers are required to destroy all application documents and any copies made of them, or return them to the Academy. Confidentiality must also be maintained after the review process has been completed.

Review statements are otherwise confidential documents, but applicants will receive the final statement on her/his proposal after the funding decisions have been made. Applicants are entitled to know the names of the panel members, but the reviewers giving the pre-evaluation statement will not be identified.