Research Council for Biosciences, Health and the Environment

The research fields of the Research Council for Biosciences, Health and the Environment are as follows:

• biochemistry and biophysics
• biomedicine
• ecology and evolutionary biology
• pharmacy
• public health, environmental health and occupational health sciences
• clinical medicine, dental science and veterinary medicine
  agricultural, forest and food sciences
• genetics
• nutritional, sport and nursing sciences
• cell biology, molecular biology and microbiology
• environmental sciences
• systems biology and bioinformatics related to the above fields
• other research into biosciences, health and the environment, including multidisciplinary research

The Research Council for Biosciences, Health and the Environment decided the funding criteria and policies for the September 2021 call in its June meeting. These policies supplement the guidelines in the Academy of Finland’s 2021 call texts and the Academy’s criteria for research funding decisions.

Applicants are required to have a close connection to the Finnish scientific community so that the funding will benefit Finnish research and society. This means that the funding will be administered by a Finnish organisation. In addition, the Research Council for Biosciences, Health and the Environment primarily funds projects where both the PI and the research team mainly work in Finland. This must be clearly indicated in the application.

Academy Project funding

The primary funding criterion is the scientific quality of the research plan.  

In addition to scientific quality, the Research Council will consider the following criteria (in order of priority) when deciding between applications of equal merit:

1. initiatives that promote the renewal of science
2. strong potential for impact beyond academia
3. supporting project applicants with promising research careers.

The Research Council requires that the leadership and research tasks of the PI be clearly described in the application.

In keeping with the Academy’s policies, the Research Council supports the careers of early-career researchers and promotes the quality and capacity for renewal of research and innovation.

Typically, the Research Council’s funding for a single project comes to 500,000 euros. Consortium PIs are granted a maximum of 400,000 euros and consortium subprojects a maximum of 300,000 euros. The entire consortium is granted a maximum of 1 million euros.

In the case of consortia, the Research Council pays attention to the added value of the collaboration. The added value must be described in the application. Consortium subprojects are required to be of the same scientific quality as the main applicant, or to contribute significantly to the project implementation.

According to Academy policy, a researcher who has ongoing funding for a post as Academy Professor or who is the PI of an ongoing Academy Project will not be granted Academy Project funding. If an applicant is the PI for a consortium subproject in an ongoing Academy Project, they may be granted Academy Project funding only for well-justified reasons. If an applicant has ongoing funding for a post as Academy Research Fellow, they may be granted Academy Project funding for the last two years of the Academy Research Fellow post. By following these Academy policies, the Research Council wants to ensure that it is able to provide funding to as many researchers as possible and across several fields.

The Research Council may grant two-year funding to selected Academy Project applications if the project concerned is of high quality and promotes scientific renewal and is identified as containing a significant risk for the implementation that affects the funding of the project as such. These risk factors may be, for example, shortcomings in preliminary results supporting the feasibility of research, the introduction of a new research method or challenges related to data collection. The Research Council’s objective is to support innovative projects that would be left unfunded due to this risk, which jeopardises the achievement of the main objectives of the project. The Research Council may consider the quality and innovative nature of such a project to be so significant that it wants to grant two-year funding to reduce the significant risk for the project. This is not a separate funding opportunity to which applications can be submitted, but the Research Council’s discretion-based selection.

Academy Research Fellow funding

The primary funding criterion is the scientific quality of the research plan. Additionally, attention is paid to the applicant’s competence.

The Research Council supports researchers with capacity for reinventing themselves who are or are on their way to becoming independent, and who are in a buoyant career phase. The researcher shall describe in the application how the project supports their independence.

The Research Council especially supports Academy Research Fellows who have previous international mobility. Additionally, attention is paid to the motivated international mobility of the researchers who work in the project.

In terms of applications of equal merit, the Research Council will consider the following criteria in making funding decisions (in order of priority):

1. clear positive career development, as evidenced by, for instance, high-quality publications, scientific courage, international networks and project management
2. bold initiatives that promote the renewal of science
3. potential for societal impact (e.g. collaboration with end-users of research, science popularisation).

The Research Council provides its Academy Research Fellows an opportunity to carry out their research plan by providing, at its own discretion, sufficient funds to cover the research costs during the funding period. Research costs of both old and new Academy Research Fellows will be funded with no more than 100,000 per year during the whole term.

Clinical Researcher funding

The primary funding criterion is the scientific quality of the research plan. Additionally, attention is paid to the applicant’s suitability to the objectives of the clinical researcher funding instrument.

The funding for a research post as clinical researcher is a funding opportunity to support part-time research by physicians and other researchers engaged in clinical practice.

The funding decisions are based on the scientific quality of the research and the applicant’s competence and suitability. The aim is to promote clinical research careers and to encourage healthcare professionals to engage in research alongside clinical practice.

The Research Council’s funding covers a 20–50 per cent salary as well as research costs. A requirement is that clinical practice accounts for at least 50 per cent of the work. The funding period is a maximum of four years.

Those who have received Clinical Researcher funding may have a concurrent Academy Project.

Postdoctoral Researcher funding

The primary funding criterion is the scientific quality of the research plan. In addition, the Research Council will consider the applicant’s competence and opportunities to gain more independence during the project.

In the review of applications, particular attention will be paid to the international dimension of the research plan, including international research collaboration and mobility. From the Research Council’s perspective, a good objective is to have at least six months of justified, international mobility. The Research Council is also keen to emphasise the significance of international mobility for later career advancement. Applicants must justify in their research plan if the plan does not involve researcher mobility.

In terms of applications of equal merit, the Research Council will consider the following criteria in making funding decisions (in order of priority):

1. supporting scientifically promising researchers
2. supporting the increasing independence of researchers
3. international cooperation and mobility
4. the scientific courage of the project
5. societal impact.

The Research Council’s funding for a Postdoctoral Researcher comes to 270,000 euros on average, including salary costs and minor research costs.

Research Council for Biosciences, Health and the Environment 1 Jan 2022–31 Dec 2024

Chair

• Professor Jussi Kukkonen, University of Eastern Finland

Members

• Professor Per Ashorn, University of Tampere
• Director Anna-Stiina Heiskanen, National Land Survey of Finland
• Professor Sirkku Juhola, University of Helsinki
• Professor Marja Kaunonen, University if Tampere
• Professor Toni Kristian Laaksonen, University of Turku
• Reserach Professor Jarkko Niemi, Natural Resources Institute Finland
• Research Director Kirsi-Marja Oksman-Caldentey, VTT
• Professor Jorma Palvimo, University of Eastern Finland                 
• Professor Marko Salmi, University of Turku
• Professor Anne Toppinen, University of Helsinki

Both the Academy of Finland and the Research Council for Biosciences, Health and the Environment actively develop their activities. Feedback from review panels is an important part of this development work, and feedback is collected and analysed annually. The panels also provide valuable feedback to applicants on how applications could be improved from the reviewer’s viewpoint.

• Panel feedback on September 2020 call (pdf)
• List of reviewers enlisted (pdf)

The Research Council supports high-quality, researcher-initiated international cooperation through the Academy Project, Academy Research Fellow, Clinical Researcher and Postdoctoral Researcher funding schemes and through participation in strategically selected international joint calls. The Research Council targets funding at internationally competitive research with a view to promoting the opportunities of researchers in Finland to engage in successful, high-impact research at an international scale. The Research Council attaches importance to multilateral European and Nordic cooperation. All international cooperation should also primarily be based on the interests and needs of Finnish research.

In the promotion of cooperation and the planning of funding calls, the Research Council pays special attention to the continuity of research, on the one hand, and to the granting of funding for new initiatives and sectors and the added value of cooperation for Finnish research on the other.

Information on upcoming calls is posted on the Academy’s website and Twitter account.

European funding cooperation

• JPND −Neurodegenerative Diseases Research
• ERA-NET NEURON – Neuroscience research
• EJP RD − European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases
• ERA PerMed - Personalised Medicine
• JPI AMR - Antimicrobial Resistance
• TO-REACH – Health systems
• European partnership on Health and Care Systems Transformation
• LEAP-Agri − Food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture
• ForestValue − Forest-based bioeconomy
• BONUS − The joint Baltic Sea research and development programme
• Water JPI − Water challenges for a changing world
• BiodivERsA − Biodiversity research

Nordic networks

• NordForsk
• NOS-M