Research post as Academy Professor, second stage for invited applicants

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. They are also expected to significantly advance research in their field and to develop creative research environments.

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.

Applications for the second stage of the Academy Professor call may be submitted by invited applicants.

Special terms and restrictions

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.

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. If the applicant holds an Academy Professor post ending on 31 December 2021, the new five-year period may begin on 1 January 2022. Decisions on the salary of the Academy Professor and the funding for research costs are made separately in autumn 2020 and early 2021.

The funding towards the salary of an Academy Professor is determined according to a monthly salary of 9,100 euros. We will also allocate funding for indirect employee costs (28%) and overheads (14.29%, i.e. the funding includes an overhead 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 a post as Academy Professor can – having received the decision on their salary funding – submit a separate application for a grant to cover research costs. Funding can be granted for hiring staff, 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. Previously, the Academy has granted a maximum of 220,000 euros per year for research costs.

A preliminary funding plan for the research costs must be provided on the ‘Research costs’ tab of the second-stage Academy Professor application.

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.

How to submit and supplement the application

The deadline is non-negotiable. The deadline for applications is 16 June 2020 at 16.15 Finnish time.

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. You can make changes to a submitted application (e.g. change appendices), but you must make them before the deadline. If you notice that your application lacks important information after the deadline, immediately get in touch with the call’s contact person, so that they can reopen the application for you. 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.

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

Except for the research plan, plan of intent, abstract and progress report, which are primarily confidential, 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 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.

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/CV

• Personal details
• Degrees (most recent one first); parental leaves etc. may be filled in under ‘Additional information’
• Titles of docent and professorships
• CV following the template, 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 research results and impact
• Read the guidelines for 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
• You can retrieve publication details from 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)

Affiliations

• Research infrastructures: Indicate what kinds of equipment, resources or data reserves provided by national or international research infrastructures the project plans to 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.
• Centres of Excellence
• Finnish Flagships

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.

Salary

• The funding for a post as Academy Professor is intended for the researcher’s own salary.
• The salary comes to 9,100 euros per month, as stated in the call text.
• The funding period starts on 1 September 2021 (unless the previous period ends on 21 December 2021; see more under ‘Funding to be applied for and funding period’ above).
• 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. Read more in the guidelines on the commitment by site of research.

Research costs

• Preliminary budget for the duration of the Academy Professor post with justifications for research grants applied for later and the funding currently being applied for. The cost estimate must be realistic.
• The Academy’s contribution to funding comes to no more than 70% of the total research costs.
• The funding for research costs comes to no more than 220,000 euros per year.
• Research group salaries and other expenses

Public project description

• Maximum length 1,000 characters
• Popular and reader-friendly description of the research project in English and Finnish/Swedish
• The project description helps us to disseminate information on the research project. The project description is also stored in the National Research Information Hub, which will make available information on research conducted in Finland.
• Read the guidelines on the public project description.

Authorisation

• You can authorise another person to supplement or view your application.
• Start by entering the person’s name in the field.
• 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.

Appendices

• Appendices must be PDF files.

Obligatory appendices

• The CV is appended on the tab ‘Personal data/CV’; no more than two pages See the guidelines on the structure of the CV.
• Complete list of publications. Read the guidelines on the structure of the list of publications.
• Data management plan: write the plan by using the DMPTuuli tool or following the Academy’s DMP guidelines.

Case-specific appendices

• 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. Read the guidelines on the invitation.
• Progress report on all Academy-funded projects headed by the applicant that have not submitted final reports.
• Research plan following the template (no more than 12 pages); append only if the research plan has not been filled in on the tab ‘Research plan’ Read the guidelines on the structure of the 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 some information is missing.
• You can supplement the application until the deadline. Resaving will replace the earlier version.
• If you want to supplement the application after the deadline, please get in touch with the contact persons listed in the call text.

Academy of Finland funding is granted based on peer review. We mainly use foreign experts as reviewers. At least two individual reviews are requested for applications with a subject that does not fit into any of the panels. The international expert panels will review the second-stage applications in early September.

The second-stage review will focus on:

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

Read the review questions that will be used in the review: review form for post as Academy Professor.

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

Opportunity to reply: Once the panel review reports have been completed, the Academy will provide each applicant a chance to reply to the report. Applicants must submit the reply (no more than two pages) within one week. The purpose of this stage is to provide applicants an opportunity to correct any errors or misunderstandings in the panel review report. Both the review reports and the applicants’ replies are used in deciding on the funding.

The General Subcommittee will decide on the Academy Professors in autumn 2020. As a rule, the funding period will begin on 1 September 2021.

Decisions on the funding for Academy Professor research costs are made separately in early 2021.

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. A positive funding decision will be accompanied by the terms and conditions of funding. In the online services, you will also have access to the review report, which may include the panel ranking (panels rank the best applications).

How to receive the funding

A positive funding decision is accompanied by the terms and conditions of funding. Make sure to check the decision and accept the funding and its terms in the online services without delay. If necessary, update the popular project description before you accept the funding. 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.

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.