Academy of Finland offers new funding opportunities for Finnish-US research collaboration

The Academy of Finland has opened two joint calls with its US funding partners, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The calls are aimed at supporting joint research projects between Finnish and American researchers. Research collaboration will be promoted in areas included in the Academy’s Finnish Flagship Programme and through the research, development and innovation programme ICT 2023.

The cooperation agreements between the Academy and the NSF and the NIH were signed in 2020. The NSF call opened on 13 January 2021, and the NIH call was opened in December 2020. Within this collaboration, the Academy has reserved a total of approximately 5 million euros for Finnish project partners in 2021. The cooperation will continue until 2023.

The Academy has been promoting research cooperation with the United States for years. NSF has been the Academy’s main US partner. The collaboration with the NIH adds another dimension to the picture. Versatile cooperation is considered important in promoting the quality, impact and renewal of Finnish research.

Heikki Mannila, President of the Academy of Finland, said: “International cooperation among high-quality actors is central to scientific advancement, and the United States is one of the world’s leading scientific countries in many areas. Finnish researchers have long-term and versatile relations with the US, and the conditions for further developing this research cooperation are good. The high level of Finnish research played a major role in launching these new forms of cooperation with US funders.”

Diversified and new research collaboration

The joint calls with the NSF and the NIH will test a model where the actual application will be submitted to the US funder’s call. Proposers from Finland will submit a version of the proposal to the Academy as well. The applications will be reviewed based on the usual criteria of the US funder. The criteria include the quality and impact of research and the quality of the research environment. The instructions for Finnish applicants have been posted on the Academy’s website.

The joint research projects are expected to aim at new, high-quality research, the results of which can be utilised, for example, in disease prevention and the development of novel wireless data transfer technology. The interest of US funding agencies in this cooperation stems from the high level of Finnish research.

All Academy funding schemes are designed with a view to supporting the internationalisation of Finnish science and Finnish researchers. Boosting the internationalisation of research also requires close collaboration with researchers, research organisations and funding agencies as well as national and international actors. The Academy actively seeks and tests new modes of cooperation with international partners.