Funding for research post as Academy Professor, call for letters of intent, all research fields

Academy Professors are internationally leading-edge researchers and recognised experts in their field who are expected to have great scientific impact on the scientific community and on society at large.

Their duties include (without separate compensation) supervision of thesis and dissertation writers and teaching associated with their own research.

The funding for a research post as Academy Professor covers a maximum of five years at a time.  In order to be granted funding for a second term as Academy Professor, applicants must demonstrate their successful activities during their previous term and their research plans must show scientific ambition and renewal.

The applicant is a researcher. Applicants who have previously held a research post as Academy Professor must in their application demonstrate their successful activities during their previous term, and their research plans must show scientific ambition and renewal. The funding recipients may later apply for funding for research costs with a separate application.

Special conditions and restrictions

An applicant in the Academy Professor call for letters of intent may be granted funding for an Academy Project, but not funding for a post as an Academy Research Fellow or a Postdoctoral Researcher.

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.

Academy Professor salary

The funding for a research post as Academy Professor covers a maximum of five years at a time. The funding period is 1 September 2021–31 August 2026.  Decisions on the salary of the Academy Professor and the funding for research costs are made separately during autumn 2020 or early 2021.

The funding towards the salary of an Academy Professor is determined according to a monthly salary of 9,000 euros. We will also allocate funding for indirect employee costs (28%) and overheads (14.29%, i.e. the funding includes an overheads share of 12.5%).

The funding is paid via a site of research (usually a university or research institute) based in Finland. The Academy Professor may, however, work abroad for periods of different length during the funding period.

The salary of the Academy Professor may also be co-funded. Academy Professor applicants can indicate in their application how large a proportion of their salary will be applied for from the Academy. This should be taken into account especially if the applicant has ongoing European Research Council (ERC) funding. The Academy’s salary funding that is freed as a result of salary co-funding can be used for other research costs, which are justified separately.

Academy Professor funding for research costs

Recipients of funding for research posts as Academy Research Fellow can – having received the decision on their salary funding – submit a separate application for a grant to cover research costs.  The funding is granted to cover costs of research costs, costs of international collaboration and mobility, and other research costs. As the full cost model is applied to the applications for research cost funding, the Academy’s contribution to funding covers no more than 70% of the estimated total research costs.

However, a preliminary funding plan must be provided in the Academy Professor application on the Research costs tab.

What is required from the site of research?

We require that the site of research (e.g. university) provides 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, etc.

How to submit and supplement the application

The deadline is non-negotiable.

Make sure to submit the application in good time before the deadline. The system will only accept applications that contain all obligatory information.

You can edit and supplement the application until the deadline expires. You can make changes (e.g. change appendices) in an application you have submitted to the Academy, but you must make them before the deadline expires. If you notice that your application lacks important information after the deadline has expired, immediately get in touch with the call’s contact person, so that the application can be reopened for your supplementary additions. Make sure to re-submit the application after you have supplemented it. We will consider the additions insofar as it is possible in view of the review and decision-making process. An important addition is, for instance, an invitation by a foreign university.

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 at the Academy 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 provided by the applicant.

Publicity and data protection

Under the Finnish Act on the Openness of Government Activities, an application and its appendices are public information; confidential documents such as research plans, plans of intent, abstracts and progress reports, however, are not. For example, the CV is a public document and as such must not include any confidential information. The Academy is committed to following regulations on data protection. The GDPR-compliant privacy statement concerning the research funding process is available on our website under Data protection. 

The application consists of forms completed in the online services and PDF appendices. As an applicant, you have the right to submit your application in Finnish or Swedish, but we ask that you to submit it in English to facilitate the international review.

The online application consists of the following parts:

Personal data/CV

• Personal details
• Degrees (most recent one first); parental leaves etc. may be filled in under Additional information
• Titles of docent and professorships
• CV appendix following the template structure, no more than two pages

General information

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

Abstract

• Maximum length 2,500 characters
• Brief overview of scientific and societal objectives, research methods and data as well as expected results and impact of the research
• Read more about the Abstract

Most relevant publications

• No more than ten of your most important publications for the project
• Search for publications in the VIRTA publication information service See the how-to guides for the online services
• Details on publications may also be entered manually. Obligatory information: author(s), title, year of publication, name of series/journal, type of publication (will not show in the PDF version of the application)
• Append a complete list of publications to the application under Appendices

Affiliations

• ESFRI roadmap research infrastructures

Other research infrastructures

• Centres of Excellence
• Projects funded under the Flagship Programme

Ethical aspects

• Ethical permission for project (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.

Salary

• The funding period as of 1 September 2021.
• Monthly salary according to the call text, 9,000 euros.
• Funding for a post as Academy Professor is intended for the researcher’s own salary.
• Commitment by site of research. Make sure you have a commitment from your site of research (usually a university or research institute) to supporting the project.

Research costs

• A preliminary budget for the funding period, including justifications for research cost funding applied for later on. Typically, the research costs have been determined by the Academy according to 220,000 euros per year.
• Research group salaries and other expences

Public project description

• Maximum length 1,000 characters
  • Reader-friendly and popular description of the research project in English and Finnish/Swedish
  • The public description helps the Academy to disseminate information on the research project.
  • Read more about the Public description.

• the topic of the research and the rationale
• the data and research methods to be used (interviews, statistical data, archive materials, etc.)
• the site of research
• the significance and objectives of the research from the perspective of society and science
• any other interesting aspects
• if relevant, a link to the researcher’s website, if it contains more information on the topic
• If relevant, references to previous publications that are readily available at public libraries or on the internet.

Authorisation

• You can authorise another person to to supplement or view your application.
• Start by entering the person’s name in the field.
• The person must have set up 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.
• Technical instructions on the authorisation process are available in the how-to guides for the online services.

Appendices

• Appendices must be pdf files.

   Obligatory appendices

• Plan of intent following the template structure, no more than six pages
• CV is appended under Personal data/CV, no more than two pages
• Complete list of publications. The most relevant publications are entered under Most relevant publications

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.
• You can supplement the application until the deadline expires. Resaving will replace the earlier version.

If you want to supplement the application after the deadline has expired, please get in touch with the Academy’s contact persons listed in the call text.

Academy of Finland funding is granted based on peer review. We mainly use foreign experts as reviewers.

The applications are mainly reviewed in international panels. The panel drafts one review report on each application. At least two individual reviews are requested for applications with a subject that does not fit into any of the panels.

Letters of intent are reviewed for

• scientific quality, innovativeness and novelty value of the research      as well as its impact within the scientific community
• competence of applicant/research team in terms of project      implementation
• feasibility of research plan (incl. research ethics).

In addition to the above, full applications are reviewed for

• quality of research environment and collaborative networks
• researcher mobility and researcher training 

Read the review questions that form the basis of the review: review form for Academy Professors.

Each review panel will rank the letters of intent they have processed.

The Academy’s General Subcommittee decides on which applicants are included in the second call stage based on the research councils’ proposals in spring 2020. Full applications are submitted in the Academy of Finland in June 2020. The international expert panels will then review them at the beginning of September. The applicants may comment on the review panel’s report in writing before the General Subcommittee’s decision meeting. The General Subcommittee decides on the recipients of the Academy professorship in autumn 2020. The funding period begins 1 September 2021.

Decisions on the Academy Professor funding for research costs are made separately during autumn 2020 or early 2021.

You will receive an email 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 funding decision and its justifications. You can also read the funding conditions, if the decision has been favourable. In addition, you will have access to read the expert reviews on your application.

How to receive the funding

After being granted funding, you must check and accept it in the online services without delay. Make sure to check and, if necessary, update the public project description before you accept the funding. The system will then send a notification to the commitment issuer at the site of research. That person must also accept the granted funding.

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