Competitive funding to strengthen university research profiles

The purpose of this funding opportunity is to support and speed up the strategic profiling of Finnish universities to improve the quality of research. The funding is intended for actions that strengthen the research areas selected by the universities based on their strategies. In the 2018 call (known as PROFI 5), particular attention will be paid to the strategic distribution of work and the collaboration between universities as well as to the deselections made in connection with increased profiling. The funding is open to all scientific, scholarly and artistic disciplines.

Another aim is to contribute to intensifying strategic cooperation between Finnish universities and with universities of applied sciences, research institutes, hospital districts and other relevant actors, and to clarifying the responsibilities between these actors. The regional and thematic competitive clusters formed via such collaboration and distribution of work may also include actors from the private and nonprofit sectors.

Funding will be granted for a fixed term. The funding is applied for by universities, each university with its own application. Consortium applications will not be accepted.

To promote strategic cooperation and distribution of work between universities, the Academy's online services now allow universities to authorise each other to view their draft applications. Each university may decide on the authorisation at its own discretion. The authorisation feature can also be used to support universities internally; a university may, for example, authorise specific staff members to access the application’s budget section. In other words, there are two types of authorisation: read-only and edit. Read-only authorisation may be issued to any number of people at the same time. The authorisation is valid for a fixed period.

If the chosen profiling area includes strategic distribution of work and/or collaboration between universities, each university must describe its own contribution in the action plan to be appended to the application, even if the university will not be applying for PROFI 5 funding for the area concerned.

The PROFI 5 call has a total budget of 50 million euros, which will be granted for measures supporting the research-related profiling of Finnish universities.

The call is implemented following the full cost model. The Academy of Finland’s funding contribution comes to 100 per cent, covering the costs in full. The universities will not be required to contribute to the Academy’s funding.

Discretionary government transfers cannot overlap. The funding of an initiated profiling measure may, however, be continued with another PROFI funding decision. For example, a person may be paid salary under different PROFI funding decisions or from the university’s core funding to carry out teaching. However, the salary cannot be paid at the same time (overlapping salary).

Costs related to research infrastructures will be funded only if the infrastructure concerned is a ‘local infrastructure’ primarily operated by the university itself. The key instrument with which the Academy of Finland funds national and international research infrastructures is the funding provided by the Finnish Research Infrastructure Committee. The Academy will not grant overlapping funding for research infrastructures.

The funding is granted to support the profiling measures specified in the action plan included in the application. The Academy will not make advance payments on the funding.

Please see General conditions and guidelines for funding on our website for all up-to-date conditions and guidelines regarding the funding.

• Call text (PDF)
• Application table, table 1 (PDF)
• Application table, table 2 (PDF)
• Review form (PDF)
• Press release: call for proposals to support university profiling

• Riitta Maijala, Vice President for Research, tel. +358 295 335 002
• Anne Heinänen, Counsellor of Science, tel. +358 295 335 021
• Helena Vänskä, Science Adviser, tel. +358 295 335 036
• Outi Ala-Honkola, Science Adviser, tel. +358 295 335 029
• Sirpa Nummila, Finance Manager, tel. +358 295 335 081 (financial issues)

Email addresses: firstname.lastname@aka.fi