Backgroud and objectives
The aim of the competitive funding to strengthen university research profiles (PROFI) is to support and speed up the strategic profiling of Finnish universities in order to improve the quality of research.
The funding is fixed-term and may be granted to support profiling areas chosen by Finnish universities based on their strategy. The funding aims to speed up the development of these areas. In their applications, universities are asked to provide an overall picture of their plans for profiling and distribution of work, both from the university’s perspective and in relation to other universities, if applicable.
Another aim is to contribute to intensifying strategic cooperation between Finnish universities and with universities of applied sciences, research institutes, hospital districts and other relevant actors, and to clarifying the responsibilities between these actors. The regional and thematic competitive clusters formed via such collaboration and distribution of work may also include actors from the private and nonprofit sectors.
Based on their own strategies, the universities will set out concrete plans for how they intend to improve the quality and impact of their research. In the plans, the universities describe how they intend to promote strengths, thematic research programmes or emerging research fields, and provide a clear schedule for these measures.
The applications should also include a description of how the universities intend to distribute work between and collaborate with other Finnish universities, universities of applied sciences, research institutes, hospital districts and other relevant actors. The applications must also include cost estimates.
In preparing and making the funding decisions, the Research Council of Finland will consider the relationship between the funding applied for, the planned profiling measures and the university’s research funding as a whole. It will also take into account the university’s interim and final reports on previously funded profiling measures.
Funding can be applied for in one or several profiling areas. The university can choose the desired profiling area freely. The area can continue the previously planned development of a profiling area, be completely new or combine old profiling areas.
Key concepts
Profiling area refers to a research area or a thematic research module that a university intends to develop according to its strategy. It is a carefully chosen part of the research conducted at the university.
Profiling areas can be:
- existing high-quality research areas or thematic research modules
- emerging fields or thematic research modules with potential to reach a high level of research
- new fields or thematic research modules with a great deal of potential.
Profiling measure refers to an action that a university aims to carry out to develop a chosen profiling area. Universities may start several measures to advance the same area within a PROFI call.
