Scientific Council for Natural Sciences and Engineering

The research fields of the Scientific Council for Natural Sciences and Engineering are as follows:

• energy technology
• physics
• geosciences and physical geography
• chemistry
• mechanical engineering and manufacturing technology
• medical engineering
• mathematics and statistics
• materials science and engineering
• process and chemical engineering
• construction and municipal engineering, architecture
• electrical engineering and electronics (incl. communications and automation engineering)
• computer sciences, information technology
• astronomy
• biotechnology, bioinformatics and environmental technology related to the above fields
• other research into the natural sciences and engineering, including multidisciplinary research

The funding available to the Scientific Council is not enough to fund all top-rated applications (overall ratings 6 and 5). Therefore, the Scientific Council has outlined a set of policies and criteria that it will systematically apply in making its selection between applications of outstanding scientific quality.

The policies and criteria applied in the winter 2024 call are presented below. Please contact us if you want to access the criteria and policies used in other calls.

Policies and criteria for winter 2024 call

General policies

1. The Scientific Council supports in Finland a wide range of responsible natural sciences and engineering research of a high international standard. The specific characteristics of different disciplines, such as research and publishing traditions, are taken into account in decision-making. The Scientific Council requires that ethical and dual-use issues and how they are taken into account in the research are described in sufficient detail in the application.
2. As a rule, the Scientific Council’s funding decisions are based on review reports.
3. The Scientific Council supports scientific renewal by funding new initiatives, such as high-risk, high-gain research, and the development of new methods and tools. It supports researchers who are on a rising career trajectory, grants Academy Project Funding to PIs at different career stages and considers equality and nondiscrimination issues in the case of applications of equal merit. It primarily funds projects where both the PI and the research team mainly work in Finland.
4. The Scientific Council supports the utilisation of research results. When making funding decisions, it considers the relevance of the research for business and industry or other societal sectors in Finland. It also considers applicants’ previous merits in the scientific, economic and other utilisation of research as well as their networks with end-users and beneficiaries of research.
5. The Scientific Council supports high-quality national and international research cooperation and the researcher mobility therein. The supported collaboration may occur between universities, between universities and research institutes or with business and industry or other societal actors. The support for collaboration is researcher-driven and implemented through the funding of Academy Projects and Academy Research Fellows and through participation in strategically selected international funding calls. Consortium-based Academy Projects that include parties from different research organisations are an important tool for promoting national collaboration.
6. The Scientific Council supports research that makes good use of both Finnish and international research infrastructures.

Criteria and policies for Academy Projects

The Scientific Council will use the criteria below (in order of priority) to make its selection between applications of outstanding scientific quality.

Decision criteria (in order of priority):

1. Quality of research, new initiatives, breakthrough potential, relevance and feasibility
2. Competence of researcher/research team, particularly recent achievements, and research cooperation
3. Societal impact of research

The Scientific Council also makes use of general policies when selecting the projects to be funded.

The following policies are applied to funding decisions:

Funding granted:

• The maximum funding per four-year project is €600,000 (equivalent to €150,000 per year).
• The maximum total amount of funding per four-year consortium-based Academy Project is €1,000,000 (equivalent to €250,000 per year), and the maximum funding per four-year consortium subproject is €600,000 (equivalent to €150,000 per year).
• The Scientific Council aims to increase the proportion of doctoral training in Academy Projects.

Criteria and policies for Academy Research Fellows

The Scientific Council supports promising researchers with capacity for renewal and independent research. They are on a rising career trajectory and can make significant career progress during the funding period in carrying out scientifically high-quality, high-impact and regenerative research. The Scientific Council pays particular attention to the applicant’s competence and to their merits and collaborative networks in relation to the career stage. The Scientific Council expects Academy Research Fellows to increase their supervision experience and increase their qualifications for academic leadership during the funding period.

As a rule, the decision-making is based on the review reports, with emphasis on the review items in the following order:

1. Applicant’s personal competence in relation to the career stage
2. Quality of research, novelty value and relevance
3. Feasibility and collaborative networks.

The Scientific Council also makes use of general policies when selecting the researchers to be funded.

The Scientific Council accepts reasonable research costs at its discretion. As the purpose of the funding is to promote the academic leadership of the Academy Research Fellows, the Scientific Council will not grant funding to team members at the same or a higher career stage without good cause.

Policies and criteria for September 2022 call

General policies

1. The Scientific Council supports responsible natural sciences and engineering research of a high international standard and a wide scope. The specific characteristics of different disciplines, such as research and publishing traditions, are taken into account in decision-making.
2. As a rule, the Scientific Council’s funding decisions are based on review reports.
3. The Scientific Council supports the renewal of science by funding new initiatives, such as high-risk, high-gain research, and the development of new methods and tools. The Scientific Council supports researchers who are on a rising career trajectory, grants Academy Project Funding to PIs at different career stages and considers equality and nondiscrimination issues in the case of applicants of equal merit.
4. The Scientific Council supports the utilisation of research results. When making funding decisions, the Scientific Council considers the relevance of the research for business and industry or other societal sectors in Finland. It also considers applicants’ previous merits in the scientific, economic and other utilisation of research as well as their networks with end-users and beneficiaries of research.
5. The Scientific Council supports high-quality national and international research cooperation and the researcher mobility therein. The supported collaboration may occur between universities, between universities and research institutes or with business and industry or other societal actors. The Scientific Council’s support for collaboration is researcher-driven and implemented through the funding of Academy Projects and Academy Research Fellows and through participation in strategically selected international funding calls. Consortium-based Academy Projects that include parties from different research organisations are an important tool for promoting national collaboration.
6. The Research Council supports research that makes good use of both Finnish and international research infrastructures.

Criteria and policies for Academy Projects

Decision criteria (in order of priority):

1. Quality of research, new initiatives, breakthrough potential, impact and feasibility
2. Competence of researcher/research team, particularly recent achievements, and research cooperation
3. Societal relevance of the research

Policies

• The goal is to grant an average of €450,000 per four-year project.
• The maximum funding per project is €600,000 (equivalent to €150,000 per year).
• The maximum total amount of funding per consortium-based Academy Project is €1,000,000 (equivalent to €250,000 per year), and the maximum funding per consortium subproject is €600,000 (equivalent to €150,000 per year).

Criteria and policies for Academy Research Fellows

The Scientific Council supports promising researchers with capacity for renewal and independent research. They are on a rising career trajectory and can make significant career progress during the funding period in carrying out scientifically high-quality, high-impact and regenerative research.  The Scientific Council pays particular attention to the applicant’s competence and to their merits and collaborative networks in relation to the career stage. An Academy Research Fellow’s research team contributes to improving the researcher’s supervision skills and to increasing academic leadership competencies. The Scientific Council accepts reasonable research costs at its discretion.

Decision criteria (in order of priority):

1. Applicant’s personal competence in relation to the career stage
2. Quality, novelty and impact of the research
3. Feasibility of the research as well as cooperation networks and their added value for the proposed research plan and research career
4. Societal relevance of the research

The Scientific Council for Natural Sciences and Engineering 1 Jan 2022–31 Dec 2024

Chair

• Professor Leena Ukkonen, University of Tampere

Members

• Professor Ari Friberg, University if Eastern Finland
• Professor Mirja Illikainen, University of Oulu
• Professor Ari Jokinen, University of Jyväskylä
• Senior Advisor Susanna Näreaho, Metropolia
• Associate Professor Satu Ojala, University of Oulu
• Porfessor Pekka Pankka, Helsingfors universitet
• Professor Timo Repo, University of Helsinki
• Professor Esa Vakkilainen, LUT University
• Professor Marjo Yliperttula, University of Helsinki
• Professor Patric Östergård, Aalto University

Both the Research Council and the Scientific Council for Natural Sciences and Engineering 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 2022 call (pdf)
• List of reviewers enlisted (pdf)

The Scientific Council supports high-quality, researcher-initiated international cooperation and researcher mobility through the Academy Project and Academy Research Fellow funding schemes and through participation in strategically selected international joint calls. International cooperation forms a natural part of research in the fields of natural sciences and engineering. The Scientific Council’s international policy follows the Academy of Finland international policy for 2017–2021 (pdf) (particularly sections 1 and 3).

In promoting cooperation, the Scientific Council pays particular attention to the quality and added value of the cooperation. The Scientific Council also promotes international cooperation in the European Research Area, between the Nordic countries and with other international actors.

The Scientific Council monitors the effects and impact of its international activity annually by means of information obtained from research reports, separate studies and meetings with researchers. Read more about the meeting held on 15 November 2022 between the Scientific Council and the principal investigators funded under international joint calls, and see the presentations given at the meeting.

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

Calls in which the Scientific Council participated in 2013−2022:

• Academy of Finland-NSF joint call: artificial intelligence and/or wireless communication technologies 2022
• M-ERA-NET 3 2022
• ERA-NET CoFund CHIST-ERA 2022
• ERA-NET CoFund CHIST-ERA 2021
• Tandem Forest Values 3 2021
• Solar-driven chemistry 2021/2022 (SDC2)
• ERA PerMed – Personalised Medicine 2021
• List of funded projects
• ERA-NET CoFund QuantERA 2021
  List of funded projects
• Academy of Finland – NSF joint call pilot: artificial intelligence and wireless communication techno
  List of funded projects
• Targeted Academy Project 2020: International Co-Investigator Scheme for Finnish-Norwegian research cooperation in engineering  
  List of funded projects
• ERA-NET CoFund CHIST-ERA 2020
  List of funded projects
• ERA PerMed – Personalised Medicine 2020
  List of funded projects
• TandemForestValues II 2019
  List of funded projects
• Solar-driven chemistry 2019
  List of funded projects
• ERA-NET CoFund CHIST-ERA 2019
  List of funded projects
• ERA-NET CoFund CHIST-ERA 2018
  List of funded projects
• ERA-NET CoFund QuantERA 2017
  List of funded projects
• ICT2023/WiFiUS, Wireless Communications 2016
  List of funded projects
• ICT2023/WiFiUS, Wireless Communications 2014 
  List of funded projects
• Joint Project Call: Materials Research 2014 (Academy of Finland and FAPESP)
  List of funded projects
• WoodWisdom-Net+ 2014
  List of funded projects

The research, development and innovation programme ICT 2023 is jointly coordinated and funded by the Research Council of Finland and Business Finland with a view to further improving Finland’s scientific expertise in computer science and promoting the extensive application of ICT. The programme is based on the report 21 Paths to a Frictionless Finland (pdf) by the ICT 2015 Working Group At least 10 million euros of the Research Council’s budget authority for 2020 will be used to implement the ICT 2023 programme. Business Finland will not open a parallel call for business-related projects, but funding is available under this topic through BF’s normal application process (see BF’s website). Read more about the ICT 2023 programme.