Funding for research post as clinical researcher

The Academy of Finland funds part-time research by physicians and other researchers engaged in clinical practice.The aim is to promote clinical research careers in cooperation with, for example, university hospitals, and to encourage medical doctors working in clinical practice to engage in research so that they can continue pursuing their research career while in specialist training, alongside clinical practice.

Those eligible to apply are medical doctors with a doctoral degree (DMedSc, DDS or DVM) working in clinical practice or other healthcare professionals with a doctoral degree engaged in clinical practice. Funding will not be granted to full-time university researchers. Those who have received clinical researcher funding may have a concurrent Academy Project.

Special conditions and restrictions

In the September call, we will consider only one application per researcher if the application concerns Academy Project funding (incl. a consortium subproject), Academy Research Fellow funding, Postdoctoral Researcher funding or clinical researcher funding. If you do submit more than one application for any of these funding opportunities or apply for funding from more than one of them, we will only review the first application to arrive. Applications that are not reviewed will not be eligible for funding.

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

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.

The research councils which started in the beginning of 2019 will update their science policies in May‒June. Funding decisions are based on the policies of each research council. The policies are updated on the research council’s website before the call opens. Read the policies of the research council before submitting your application.

The funding period for a clinical researcher begins 1 September 2020 and covers a maximum of four years at a time.

The funding is granted towards salary costs to support part-time research (20–50% of working hours) by clinical researchers. The applicant and the site of research must agree the salary based on the pay system at the site of research. They must also agree on the working-time arrangements in advance, particularly if the research and the clinical work will be conducted at different sites. In addition to salary costs, the Academy may also provide funding for research costs.

The average funding amount has been approximately 240,000 euros per clinical researcher when the project spans four years.

The funding is paid via a site of research (usually a university or research institute) based in Finland. Academy-funded researchers may, however, spend time working abroad during their funding period. In their application, the applicant presents a funding plan drafted in line with full cost model (see guidelines in the general conditions and guidelines), including the funding to be applied for from the Academy (no more than 70% of the total project costs).

You can apply for Academy funding to cover, for example, the following direct research costs:

• salary costs of principal investigator, no more than six months per year
• essential implementation costs
• travels
• collaboration and mobility in Finland
• international collaboration and mobility
• mobility allowance for periods abroad
• preparation of international projects
• publishing (e.g. costs of open-access publishing).

Research team salaries

Funding is not granted for salary costs of other persons. Short-term research, study, or other assignments may also be carried out in the form of outsourced services, if it is deemed necessary for the project.

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.

The overhead for the site of research, indirect employee costs and coefficient for effective working hours are also included in the application.

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. Also include a funding plan, that is, all funding granted for the project as well as funding that will be provided by the site of research if the project is launched. The Academy funding must not exceed 70% of the total project costs. The cost estimate must be realistic.

All the research costs must be justified in the free text field in the online services under Project funding.

Mobility allowance in research projects

The mobility allowance in research projects depends neither on the target country nor on the duration of the stay. It is a taxable benefit and indirect employee costs will be deducted from it:

• for a researcher with no dependants:1,050 euros/month
• for a researcher with dependants:1,500 euros/month

The mobility allowance is applied for as research costs for implementing the research plan and as part of the original application of the research project. The recommended amount should be enough to cover the costs of higher living expenses from living abroad.

Mobility allowance is applied for on the tab Funding for the project under Other expences. Ticket costs for travel abroad are entered separately under Travel costs. If researchers and their families stay abroad for at least six months, funding can also be applied for to cover family travel costs. You must justify the need for mobility allowance.

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

Research plan

• Maximum length 12 pages
• See our guidelines on the structure of the research plan
• See the how-to guides for the online services

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

Clinical work

• Clinical work during the project and its site of research

Collaborators

• Specify the collaborators of the project (name, organisation, country, brief description of the collaboration)
• Describe the collaborators’ merits relevant to the project and the justifications for choosing them in section 3.2 of the research plan

Mobility

• Enter information on planned national and international mobility within the project, itemised by person
• Guidelines on the mobility allowance are available in the call text under Funding to be applied for and funding period.

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.
• The research ethics description is entered under section 4.1 of the research plan.

Funding for the project – Following the Full cost model

• Funding period, effective working hours, indirect employee costs, overheads percentage and VAT
• Salaries and other costs
• Other funding sources and their funding contributions. 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.
• Justifications for the funding to be applied for. The cost estimate must be realistic.
• Consult the administration at your site of research when filling in budget details. Read more about the funding in the call text under Funding to be applied for and funding period.
• 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.

Public project description

• Maximum length 1,000 characters
• reader-friendly and popular description of the research project in English and Finnish/Swedish
• 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.

• The public description helps the Academy to disseminate information on the research project.

• Read more about the Public description

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

• 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
• Data management plan: write the plan with help from DMPTuuli or according to the guidelines found on the Academy’s website
• Please do not append any transcripts of a Finnish degree certificate or English-language degree certificate of a doctoral degree obtained abroad

       Case-specific appendices

• Statement by ethics committee or animal care committee.
• Invitation by foreign university or research institute, if the research or part of it will be conducted abroad; do not append any letters of recommendation.
• Progress report on all Academy-funded projects headed by the applicant that have not submitted final reports.
• Research plan following the template structure, no more than 12 pages (no more than 15 pages for consortia); only if the research plan has not been written on the tab Research plan

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 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.

Review criteria

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

Read the review questions that will be used in the review of applications: review form for clinical researcher

Each panel will rank the applications that have received a rating of 5 or 6.

The research councils which started in the beginning of 2019 will update their science policies in May‒June. Funding decisions are based on the policies of each research council. The policies are updated on the research council’s website before the call opens. Read the policies of the research council before submitting your application.

The research council will make the funding decisions in two stages in spring 2020. In the first stage, applications that have received rating 1–4 in the review will receive a negative decision at the discretion of the research council concerned. Rest of the applications will be processed in the second stage (mainly applications that received a rating of  5–6). The second-stage funding decisions may be either positive or negative.

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 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.