Call for inviting researchers from Ukraine to Finland

The purpose of the present call is to support researchers who are prevented from working in Ukraine because of the consequences of the Russian attack and who need physical protection to carry out their research.

The funding covers the researcher’s mobility costs (necessary travel and living expenses) for research to be carried out in Finland. Funding for the actual research work must be obtained from other sources.

The applicant is a researcher who is based in Finland and has close connections to Finland. The applicant must have a doctoral degree. The applicant acts as the contact person of the invitee and undertakes to assist in practical matters ,such as in finding accommodation and a workspace for the duration of the visit.

Special terms and restrictions

Only one researcher can be invited with one application. One applicant may submit no more than three applications.

The funding is granted in the form of an appropriation. The funding may be allocated to the invitee for a maximum period of 24 months. More information on the appropriation is available under ‘Funding to be applied for and funding period’ in the call text.

The invitee must have a clear affiliation with a Ukrainian university, research institute or similar research facility where their research work has been prevented due to the consequences of the Russian attack on Ukraine. The researcher has been or is at risk of being forced to flee Ukraine as a result of the war in 2022.

The Academy of Finland requires that the site of research make sure that funding is not channelled to a researcher who has supported the Russian war in Ukraine.

If the applicant has ongoing Academy funding or completed projects for which a final report has not yet been submitted, they must prepare a progress report. This does not apply to applicants acting as the responsible person in funding schemes where the funding recipient is an organisation or to applicants who are subproject PIs in consortia. Read more about drafting the report. If you have not submitted a final report on a completed, Academy-funded project by the set deadline, we may decide not to process your application.

Members of the Academy Board, research councils and the Strategic Research Council will not be granted Academy funding during their terms.

Funding cannot be granted to a person who has participated in the planning of the call to an extent likely to give them a comparative advantage over other applicants.

We will not process an application if the applicant has been found guilty of research misconduct in the three years preceding the year of the call.

An application will not be processed if the applicant or the application does not meet the competence requirements or other key requirements, or if the application otherwise does not qualify for processing. A research council or another decision-making body may decide not to process and not to fund an application based on science policy objectives or if it is apparent for some other reason that the applicant cannot receive funding with the submitted application. Read more about the circumstances that may cause the Academy not to process or review an application.

The earliest start date for the funding period is 2 June 2022. For budgetary reasons, the funding period (i.e. the period during which the funding may be used) will extend beyond the actual planned visit; that is, it will be set as at least two years.

The funding to be distributed through this call depends on the Finnish Parliament’s decision to allocate the necessary funds to the Academy in the second supplementary budget for 2022.

The name of the call (in the online services) is “Mobility invitation from Ukraine to Finland”.

Mobility funding is granted as an appropriation, which is paid via and managed by a Finnish site of research (usually a university or research institute). The funding may be allocated to the invitee for a maximum period of 24 months.

The funding is intended to cover the mobility costs of the invitee, that is, the necessary travel and living expenses, including accommodation. It is recommended that the funding amount be determined in line with standard practice at the site of research. If the researcher comes to Finland with their family, the amount applied for may be sized accordingly.

The researcher should take into account the guidelines of the Farmers’ Social Insurance Institution Mela, in particular with regard to visits of more than four (4) months.

The funding does not cover overheads or insurance, so the researcher must take out appropriate insurance.

Funding for the actual research work must be obtained from other sources.

The funding to applied for must be itemised on the tab ‘Funding for the project’ in the online services as well as in the research plan. The funding to be applied for must be itemised in section 2.2 of the research plan.

What is required from the site of research?

The Academy of Finland requires that the site of research, in other words the applicant’s host organisation (e.g. university, research institute or other research organisation), make sure that mobility funding is not channelled to a researcher who has supported the Russian war in Ukraine.

The site of research must provide the research project with all necessary basic facilities. These are determined based on the nature of the research and are the same as those available to other research staff at the site: office and laboratory premises, equipment (incl. computer equipment), and telecommunications, telephone, mailing, copying and library services. When accepting the funding, the site of research is responsible for ensuring that necessary preliminary ethical reviews and permits from ethics committees have been obtained before the start of the project.

When the site of research is a university or a research institute, as a rule, the funding must be applied for VAT included. Consult the financial administration at the site of research for more information. The Academy’s funding may also cover VAT costs, but only on certain conditions (see Value added tax and read more in the funding terms and conditions).

Funding plan

In the application, provide a cost estimate including an estimate of the annual amount of funding needed, itemised by type of expenditure (travel expenses, other costs).

All funding applied for must be specified in section 2.2 of the research plan: travel expenses, living expenses, accommodation, insurance, etc. Any preparation for Mela payments and tax consequences must also be specified.

Indicative size of the total amount applied for:

• 43,500 euros per year for individual researcher
• 57,000 euros per year for researcher with family.

The total budget of the call is 500,000 euros.

How to submit and supplement the application

The call has an open-ended deadline. The call closes when the funding (€500,000) has been fully allocated, but no later than December 2022.

The system will only accept applications that contain all obligatory information.

We may ask you to supplement the application. If you do not supplement the application by the given deadline, we may decide not to process it. You must make sure that your contact details (email address) are up to date.

How the application becomes pending

According to section 17 of the Finnish Administrative Procedure Act and section 8 of the Act on Electronic Services and Communication in the Public Sector, the sender is responsible for the application arriving by the set deadline. An application becomes pending when the online application and the obligatory appendices have been submitted in the online services. The system will confirm a successful submission by sending an email to the address you have provided.

If you have not submitted a final report on a completed or ongoing Academy-funded project according to our instructions, we may decide not to process your application.

An application will not be processed if the applicant or the application does not meet the competence requirements or other key requirements, or if the application otherwise does not qualify for processing. A research council or another decision-making body may decide not to process and not to fund an application based on science policy objectives or if it is apparent for some other reason that the applicant cannot receive funding with the submitted application. Read more about the circumstances that may cause the Academy not to process or review an application.

Publicity and data protection

Except for the research plan, abstract and progress report, which are primarily subject to professional secrecy, the application and its appendices are public documents. For example, the CV is a public document and as such must not include any confidential information. This publicity is based on the Finnish Act on the Openness of Government Activities. The Academy of Finland is committed to following regulations on data protection. The GDPR-compliant privacy statement concerning the research funding process is available on the Academy website under Data protection.

The application consists of a form completed in the online services and its PDF appendices. Applicants may submit the application in English, Finnish or Swedish.

Most of the links below take you to the A–Z index of application guidelines on our website.

The online application contains the following parts

Personal data

• Personal details
• Degrees (most recent one first); parental leaves etc. may be filled in under ‘Additional information’
• Titles of docent and professorships

CV

• Maximum length three pages
• CV following the template

General information

• Details on the Finnish site of research
• Title of research project in English and Finnish/Swedish
• Research fields (at least one, no more than five). See the research field classification.
• Keywords in English and Finnish/Swedish

Abstract

• Maximum length 2,500 characters including spaces
• Brief overview of scientific and societal objectives, research methods and data as well as expected research results and impact
• See guidelines on the abstract.

Most relevant publications and other key outputs

• Up to ten of your most important project-relevant publications and up to ten of your most important other outputs, with justifications
• You can retrieve publication details from the VIRTA publication information service. Also see our how-to guide for the online services.
• There are separate fields for selected publications and other research outputs. If the desired output type is not listed, select ‘Other, what?’ and enter the name of the output.
• Details on publications may also be entered manually. Obligatory information: author(s), title, year of publication, name of series/journal, type of publication (the type will not show in the PDF version of the application).
• The information is used to assess the competence of the applicant or consortium to carry out the project.

Mobility

• International mobility for which funding is applied
• Read more about the Academy’s aims concerning mobility.

Collaborators

• The invitee acts as the project’s foreign collaborator. Enter the invitee’s name, organisation and country.
• The invitee’s key merits and justifications for choosing the invitee as collaborator are described in the research plan (item 4).

Affiliations

• Use of research infrastructure: Indicate what kinds of equipment, resources or data reserves provided by national or international research infrastructures the project will use. The menu includes infrastructures included in Finland’s national roadmap and/or ESFRI’s roadmap. Other possible infrastructures are entered in a free-text field. Read more about research infrastructures.
• Part of a Finnish Centre of Excellence. Read more about Centres of Excellence.
• Finnish Flagships: Read more about the Finnish Flagship Programme.

Research ethics

• Preliminary ethical review for project and/or animal testing permit (yes/no)
• Found guilty of research misconduct (yes/no); we will not process a funding application if the applicant has been found guilty of research misconduct in the three years preceding the year of the call.
• Guilty of illegal employment within the meaning referred to in section 7(2) of the Act on Discretionary Government Transfers (yes/no)
• If necessary, the research ethics description is entered under section 1.1 of the research plan.
• See the ethical guidelines.

Funding for the project

• Enter the funding period. The funding period is a period of at least two (2) years when the funding is available. Please note that the planned dates of the visit (e.g. 12 months starting in summer 2022) must be indicated in section 2 of the research plan.
• Enter the travel expenses.
• Enter other costs.
• You must immediately notify us if you receive funding from other sources for the same purpose after your application to the Academy has been submitted.
• Commitment by site of research. Make sure that the Finnish site of research (usually a university or research institute) is committed to supporting the project. Read more in the guidelines on the commitment by the site of research.

Public project description

• Maximum length 1,000 characters including spaces
• Popular and reader-friendly description of the research project in English and Finnish/Swedish
• We will use the project description in our communications on the funded research project. It is important that the public description is written for a general audience. The project description is also stored at fi, a service that makes available information on research conducted in Finland.
• Read the guidelines on the public project description.

Progress report

• If you have ongoing Academy funding or completed projects for which no final report has yet been submitted, the projects to be reported are available on a separate tab in the online services. This does not apply to applicants acting as the responsible person in funding schemes where the funding recipient is an organisation or to applicants who are subproject PIs in consortia.
• Maximum length per project is 1,500 characters including spaces.
• Describe the progress or key achievements of the project and how the project is related to the funding being applied for.
• Read more about drafting the report.
• Also see the How-to guides for the online services.

Appendices

• Appendices must be PDF files.

Obligatory appendices:

• Research plan, maximum length five pages. See the guidelines on the structure of the research plan.
• Complete list of publications by the applicant. Read the guidelines on the structure of the list of publications.
• CV for the invitee, clearly indicating highest academic degree, date of birth and previous visits to Finland on grants or other funding during the last five (5) years.

Authorisation

• You can authorise another person to supplement or view your application.
• Start by entering the person’s name in the field. If the person has an account in the online services (SARA), they can be selected from the list.
• The person must have an account in the Academy’s online services (SARA). You cannot authorise more than one person at a time to edit a field in your application, and you cannot edit that same field while the authorisation is active.
• Do not authorise yourself.
• See technical instructions on the authorisation process in the how-to guides for the online services.

Submit application

• You can submit the application when you have filled in or attached all the necessary information.
• A red warning triangle on the tab tells you that some information is missing.

Criteria for the researcher to be invited:

• doctoral degree
• prevented from carrying out research in Ukraine because of the Russian attack
• need for physical protection to carry out research
• travel to Finland to carry out research.

Other criteria:

• compatibility of the Finnish inviter (or research team) and the invitee from the viewpoint of the research theme or other scientific competence.

The Academy of Finland’s Subcommittee on Ukraine will make the funding decisions as soon as possible. The decisions may be made in several instalments: The aim is to decide on applications submitted in early June by the end of July. Decisions on subsequent applications will be taken by the end of September. The timetable will be based on Parliament’s decision on the supplementary budget.

You will receive an email notification after the funding decision has been made. After receiving the email, you can log in to the online services with your user ID to view the decision and its justifications.

How to receive the funding

A positive funding decision is accompanied by the funding terms and conditions. Make sure to check the decision and accept the funding and its terms in the online services without delay. This must be done within eight weeks of the decision date, unless otherwise stated in the special conditions of the decision notification.

If necessary, update the popular project description before you accept the funding. It is important that the public description is written for a general audience.

Once you have accepted the funding, the system will send a notification to the commitment issuer at the site of research. That person must also accept the granted funding. See the how-to guide: Decision notification, review reports and accepting funding.

The funds can be paid only after the applicant and the representative of the site of research have accepted them. The system will then notify the funding to the finance administration of the site of research, whereupon the funds will be ready to use.

• Ulla Ellmén, Science Adviser, tel. +358 295 335 011
• Siru Oksa, Senior Science Adviser, tel. +358 295 335 125

Our email addresses are in the format firstname.lastname(at)aka.fi.

Questions and feedback