Salary costs of principal investigator

RCF funding for research projects (Academy Projects, Targeted Academy Projects and Academy Programme Projects) is primarily intended for the salaries of full-time researchers working on the projects and for other research costs. Always carefully read the guidelines in the call text for the call from which you are applying for funding.

PI’s salary costs in Academy Project call 2026

The guidelines for the salary costs of the principal investigator (PI) of an Academy Project have been revised for the 2026 winter call.

As a rule, funding is not granted for the salary of the project PI. The PI’s salary costs may only under certain limitations and on justifiable grounds be incorporated into the total project costs. In order for the salary costs to be eligible, the PI’s tasks must be clearly specified. The PI’s salary is entered under ‘Salary of principal investigator’ in the online services.

A four-year research project must not include more than six months (equivalent to 1.5 months/year) of the PI’s working hours for project management, doctoral thesis supervision and research work.

The maximum amount of working time to be included is proportional to the duration of the project or subproject. If the project includes salary costs for the PI, use only the ‘Principal investigator’ category in the ‘Salaries’ section of the ‘Funding for the project’ tab in the RCF online services.

Account of salary when PI does not have an employment relationship

If the PI does not have an employment relationship with, for example, a university or research institute for the duration of the funding period, they must explain how their salary will be covered during the funding period on the tab ‘Salary of principal investigator’ in the online services.

Retired researchers can be granted funding on the same grounds as other researchers.