Instructions for Foundation's grant applicants
Thesis grants awarded from donations
The Foundation awards grants based on donations. Thus a company must first make a donation to a specific field of technology. If you cannot think of a suitable company, you might ask your professor. The company fills in a deed of gift and delivers it to the Foundation no later than one week before a Foundation meeting. The gift sum must also be paid by that date. The meeting times of the Foundation are listed here.
The student fills in a grant application form and asks for the supervising professor to sign it. The application form must be delivered to the Foundation office no later than one week before the Foundation meeting.
A typical amount of a MSc thesis grant is 12000 eur for which a company has donated 15000 eur (10% of the gift is used to support the professor's research area and 10% is used for the Foundation's administration).
Grant recipients and State financial aid for students
Our tax-free grant is intended as a subsistence aid for students and graduate students while writing the thesis. It affects the amount of the Kela study grant in the calendar year which it was paid. Students are responsible for ensuring that their total annual income does not exceed the income limits set for the Kela study grant.
For additional information, please see the Kela (the Social Insurance Institute of Finland) website.
Employment relationships of grant recipients
It should be noted, particularly in the case of thesis grants, that tax-free grants may only be awarded if the recipient is not in a contractual employment relationship with the giving company.
Pension insurance
The obligation to take pension insurance does not apply to grants for Master's thesis work.
Instructions: Pension insurance for recipients of grants or scholarships
Payment of grant
The grants are paid in installments. Six-month grants are paid in three installments. The first installment is usually paid on the last day of the month in which the award decision was made, the second installment two months later and the third installment five months after the first. Eight-month grants are usually paid in four installments: the first installment on the last day of the month in which the award decision was made, the next installment exactly two months after the first, and the following ones after exactly 4 and 7 months (the last installment 7 months after the first).
You may check the payment dates from the Office of the Foundation. Usually, about 80% of the gift sum is allocated as grants for thesis writers, while the remainder is disbursed by the Foundation for its operational expenses and support for the research area.
Deposit
In the case of grants for master’s thesis writers, a €335 deposit will be deducted from the first installment and paid to the recipient after the thesis is complete.
For the deposit to be returned, the grant recipient must submit the abstract of the completed master's thesis to the Office of the Foundation. The abstracts must be certified by either the professor or the office of the School.
You may also prove the completion of your thesis by providing a copy of the School Council decision on the approval of your thesis or a copy of the degree certificate.
Grants for other research
The chapters below explain the grant award criteria and application procedure pertinent to grants for other research than that associated with theses.
Grants for other research are primarily awarded to holders of Master’s degrees who are in a contractual employment relationship with the University. They are not intended for funding student projects. The grant must always be associated with a study - usually one leading to a scientific publication - carried out independently or in a research group, a product development project or a publication produced for teaching purposes. Hence, the grants for other research are not to be awarded for research assistants or staff members in recognition of their achievements or as a bonus for fulfilling their official duties.
The grant application must include a brief description of the scientific work to be carried out (research proposal) and of the outcomes of the study (a report, course handout, piece of laboratory equipment), and explain its relevance for the research activities of the professorship recommending the grant.
The grants for other research are intended primarily for carrying out small-scale studies, hence they cannot be used for hiring key researchers for long-term projects.