Special funding for RDI partnership networks

According to the National Roadmap for Research, Development and Innovation, the building blocks of Finland’s competitiveness and wellbeing are strong competence, research and innovation. Finland’s rise from the emergency caused by the pandemic and success in global competition require the generation of new knowledge, innovations that bring social benefits and added value, and a high level of competence.

In order to strengthen, broaden and increase the effectiveness of the competence spearhead, research and the networks that utilise it must be grouped into larger competence centres and ecosystems. Supported by the Finnish Government’s fourth supplementary budget for 2020, the Academy of Finland will advance this goal with its Finnish Flagship Programme, research infrastructure funding and funding for RDI partnership networks.

The aim of this special funding for RDI partnership networks is to support and promote the networking of higher education institutions and government research institutes with the business sector in order to boost the societal impact of high-quality research.

Applicant organisations shall form their partnership network, as referred to in this call, with actors from the business sector. The network may also include other users and beneficiaries of research knowledge. To achieve the objectives of the call, applicant organisations will draw up concrete action plans for the partnership networks based on their own strategies. In the plans, the applicant organisations shall describe the planned actions and set a clear schedule for them. The actions may strengthen and deepen existing networks, or build and experiment with new collaborations.

The funding may be applied for by higher education institutions and government research institutes, or consortia composed of these.

A consortium application is an application built around a joint action plan, where each party to the consortium applies for funding. The Academy treats the consortium application as a single application, although the funding is granted to each consortium party separately. Consortium compositions cannot be changed after the call deadline. Read the guidelines for consortium applications.

The application is started by a responsible person approved by the research organisation. The completed application is submitted by the person via the Academy’s online services. Management representatives of the research organisation issue the commitment of the site of research in the Academy’s online services.

The responsible person can authorise one or several persons to read or edit an incomplete application in the online services. This is done on the tab ‘Authorisation’ in the online services. Please note that the authorisation is valid only when the call is open.

The Academy’s funding budget for this call comes to a total of 10 million euros. The funding to be distributed through this call depends on the Finnish Parliament’s decision to allocate the necessary funds to the Academy.

The recommended minimum amount for the Academy’s contribution to an individual application is 200,000 euros. For consortium applications, the recommended minimum amount to a consortium subproject is 100,000 euros and 600,000 euros for the whole consortium.

The funding period will start retroactively on 1 July 2020 and end on 31 December 2022.

Academy research funding is granted to a Finnish site of research (university, higher education institution or government research institute), unless there are special reasons for not doing so.

The funding is granted to support the actions specified in the application’s action plan. Funding may be granted for actions that are based on internationally high-quality research and support the competitiveness of a high-level competence centre of local, regional or national significance. The aim of the actions should be to pool research and networks that utilise research in order to strengthen, broaden and increase the impact of Finland’s competence spearhead.

Funding plan

The application must contain a funding plan drafted in line with the full cost model, including the funding to be applied for from the Academy (up to 70% of the total project costs). Read more about the full cost model.

In the application, the applicant presents a cost estimate drafted according to the full cost model (on the tab ‘Funding for the project’). The cost estimate must include an estimate of the annual need for funding, itemised by type of expenditure. Only costs that pass through the books of the site of the research must be included in the total costs. The cost estimate must be realistic.

Draft the cost estimate for 2020–2022 so that at least two-thirds of the funding will be used by the end of 2021.

All costs must be justified in the free-text field on the tab ‘Funding for the project’.

For justified reasons, research-related costs can be accepted retroactively as of 1 July 2020. A prerequisite for granting a discretionary government grant is that there is a need for the grant. In this funding opportunity, exceptionally, the costs incurred (i.e. retroactively) prior to the funding decision may be accepted if the recipient is able to show that the later part of the project would not be realised in full or would be realised clearly more slowly or narrowly without the government grant.

The first funding instalment has been brought forward, and the related payment request must be submitted to the Academy no later than 14 December 2020. The last payment request must be delivered by 13 December 2022.

For justified reasons and to start the project, the site of research may apply for an advance, which comes to up to 40% of the project’s funding. The advance must be applied for by 14 December 2020. The need for an advance shall be justified from the perspective of the financial and other situation of the funding recipient. Payment of the advance may be justified where the start-up or implementation of the project within the timeframe and scope referred to in the government grant decision requires the beneficiary to have access to the funding within a faster timeframe than through the normal payment procedure.

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 funds national and international research infrastructures is the funding provided by the Finnish Research Infrastructure Committee (FIRI). The Academy will not grant overlapping funding for research infrastructures.

Discretionary government grants cannot overlap. Academy funding based on different funding decisions may not be used for the same purpose at the same time.

Competent representatives of the research organisations will submit the funding applications using the Academy of Finland’s online services. In the online services, the representatives will also issue a commitment on behalf of the site of research. The deadline is non-negotiable. Applications can be submitted as of 11 August 2020. The call closes on 2 September 2020 at 16.15 Finnish time.

How to submit and supplement the application

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 also make changes to a submitted application, 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 supplemented information 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 you have provided.

Publicity and data protection

The application is a public document (cf. Finnish Act on the Openness of Government Activities)

However, if the appendices to the application contain sections describing the plan or basic materials of the scientific research or business secrets, these sections are, in principle, confidential under the Act.

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

• Personal data on the organisation’s responsible person

Consortium parties (if applicable)

• Name and abbreviation of consortium
• Details on each party (name, email address, organisation and country)

General information

• Details on the site of research
• Title of 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 description of the objectives, research premise, actions, expected results and impact of the partnership network
• Read more about the abstract

Collaborators

• The partnership network’s business actors and other potential beneficiaries of the research (responsible person’s name, organisation, country, and brief description of collaboration)
• Provide justifications for choosing the members of the partnership network in section 1 of the action plan.
• If necessary, append a letter of commitment. See the guidelines on the letter of commitment.

Action plan

• Maximum length 10 pages (11 pages for consortia)
• See the guidelines on the structure of the action plan. Please note that the action plan cannot be submitted as a separate appendix.
• See the how-to guides for the online services.

Affiliations

• Research infrastructures: Partnership network’s links to national or international research infrastructures. 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.
• Centres of Excellence in Research: Partnership network’s links to Centres of Excellence. Read more about Centres of Excellence.
• Finnish Flagships: Partnership network’s links to Finnish Flagships. Read more about the Finnish Flagship Programme.

Funding for the project

• The project’s funding follows the full cost model. The Academy’s funding contribution comes to no more than 70%.
• Before you can fill in the cost estimate, you must first select the site of research on the tab ‘General information’.
• Draft the cost estimate for 2020–2022 so that at least two-thirds of the funding will be used by the end of 2021.
• The site of research maintains the following percentages: effective working hours, indirect employee costs, overheads percentage and VAT.
• Enter the funding period. The funding period starts on 1 July 2020 and ends on 31 December 2022 at the latest.
• Enter salaries and other costs. Use only one line per each cost; for example, the salaries of all professors will be combined.
• Enter 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.
• Justify the funding to be applied for.
• 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 to supporting the project. Read more in the guidelines on the commitment by site of research.

Public project description

• Maximum length 1,000 characters including spaces

• Popular and reader-friendly description of the project in English and Finnish/Swedish
• We will use the project description in our communications on the research project. The project description is also stored at research.fi, a service that makes available information on research conducted in Finland.

• Read the guidelines on the public project description.

Authorisation

• Applicants can authorise another person to supplement or view the 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, 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.

Case-specific appendices:

• Letter of commitment: The letter of commitment shall indicate at least the collaborator and the collaborator’s position; organisation and country, the purpose and objectives of the cooperation for the project; the added value of the cooperation and a description of the practical implementation of the cooperation. See the guidelines on the letter of commitment.

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 call’s contact person.

Academy of Finland funding is granted based on peer review. We mainly use foreign experts as reviewers. The reviewers prepare a written review report on each application.

Review criteria:

• research basis and quality of partnership network
• concrete and realistic nature of proposed plan
• network’s importance for the operation of the competence centre, and the impact of the partnerships.

Read the review questions that will be used in the review: review form.

A subcommittee appointed the Board of the Academy of Finland will make the funding decisions by the end of 2020. The subcommittee will decide on the applications to be funded based on the review reports and the call’s objectives. The funding decisions will take into account how the funding applied for and the planned partnership network actions are related to the university’s entire research funding portfolio.

How to receive the funding

After being granted funding, the responsible person must check and accept it in the online services without delay. 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 person responsible for the application 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.