Structure and activity of SRC consortia

The consortia funded by the Strategic Research Council – SRC consortia – are structurally different from consortia funded by the Academy of Finland, for example, under the Academy Project and Academy Programme funding schemes. In SRC calls, consortia applying for funding must include at least

• three subprojects
• three organisations
• three research fields.

‘Subproject’ refers to the staff working at a certain site of research and contributing to implementing the consortium’s research and interaction plan.

An organisation (e.g. university or research institute) may include several sites of research (subprojects). For example, a university may have several campuses or other units that apply different coefficients for overheads.

‘Research field’ refers to fields that are listed in the Academy of Finland’s research field classification. Applicants must select their research fields based on the main categories.

Each consortium must have a PI, an interaction coordinator and work package leaders. In the full application, each subproject must have a named subproject PI, who is responsible for the subproject's funding at the site of research.

Figure 1 shows an example of a possible structure for an SRC consortium.

The consortium’s research and interaction activities are distributed equally and appropriately between work packages (WPs) so that the consortium brings definite added value for the individual work packages. Particular attention must be paid to interlinkages between WPs. In addition, applicants must thoroughly describe the consortium’s expected joint results and impact.

The SRC recommends that interaction activities are presented as a separate WP, whose leader coordinates the consortium’s interaction activities. The interaction must be planned so that it covers the entire scope of the consortium’s activities. The consortium’s management and coordination may also be divided into WPs. There is no limit to the maximum number of WPs, subprojects, sites of research or scientific disciplines.

The WPs may be carried out by people from more than one site of research. Correspondingly, one site of research may participate in several WPs. A subproject is made up of researchers from a single site of research. Subproject PIs may also be WP leaders. Not all subprojects are obliged to lead a WP.

Figure 1. Example of SRC consortium structure.

SRC consortia must be based on multi disciplinary collaboration. The research work must not rely too heavily on a single site of research, research team or scientific discipline. This will require sufficient resources for managing and coordinating the consortium operations and for carrying out the consortium's interaction activities. The consortia should work towards a balanced gender composition.