The Academy of Finland September call for applications will be reformed - participate in the info event in Otaniemi, Töölö or City Center

In the Ask & Apply –roadshow, the Academy of Finland will present the contents and current issues of the September call 2018. In Otaniemi’s event, the emphasis is in the Research Council for Natural Sciences and Engineering aspects, while in the similar events at Töölö and the University of Helsinki (in City Center) the focus is on the Research Council for Culture and Society.

Right after the Otaniemi´s event, the research liaison officers and grant writers of Research and Innovation Services are ready to answer your questions on applying AoF funding. You can also get advice and comments from grant writers on your data management plan. Take the plan with you!

The September call 2018 opens on Monday 10 September and closes on Monday 1 October.

Funding to open for application in September:

• Academy Project funding, all research fields
• Targeted call within ICT 2023 programme: Programmable World and Advanced Software Techniques
• Funding for research post as Academy Research Fellow (note the mobility requirement. This funding is not granted to persons, who hold a tenured professorship)
• Funding for research post as Postdoctoral Researcher (note the mobility requirement)
• Funding for international researcher mobility based on bilateral agreements

The Academy will consider only one application per researcher, if the application concerns Academy Project funding, Academy Research Fellow funding or Postdoctoral Researcher funding.

The Research Council for Natural Sciences and Engineering invites Postdoctoral Researcher applications from all fields it represent, but especially from chemical engineering, process technology, biomass processing technology, and electrical engineering and electronics.

Additionally the Research Council will earmark part of its budget for six Postdoctoral Researchers who during their terms will work short-term in companies, university hospitals, ministries, associations, educational institutes or other research-related organisations.  

What´s new in September Call 2018?

The structure of the application

The structure of the research plan has been reorganized to better correspond to the review of applications. From now on, both the research plan and the list of publications are filled in on a separate tab in the online application form. The CV is still an appendix to the application. The CV should be no more than two pages long.

New research council structure

The Academy of Finland is reforming its research council structure. In the September 2018 call, applications may be submitted to one of three research councils: the Research Council for Biosciences, Health and the Environment, the Research Council for Culture and Society, and the Research Council for Natural Sciences and Engineering.

Decisions in two stages

The decisions on applications for Academy Project, Academy Research Fellow and Postdoctoral Researcher funding submitted in the September 2018 call will be made in two stages. First, applications that have received rating 1–4 in the review will receive a negative decision at the discretion of the research council concerned. This means that these applicants will be notified of the decision earlier than before. The rest of the applications will be processed at the second stage.

The technical instructions will be supplemented in August so that they are ready when the call opens on 10 September.

Specific rules of research councils

Research Council for Natural Sciences

• Ongoing Academy Research Fellow or Postdoctoral Researcher funding is not an obstacle to being awarded Academy Project funding.
• Ongoing (individual) Academy Project funding does prevent an applicant from being granted new (individual) Academy Project funding. An ongoing individual project will not prevent the granting of funding for a consortium project, and ongoing funding for a consortium project does not prevent the granting of new project funding (individual or consortium project).
• The goal is to grant four-year projects 450,000 euros on average. The maximum amount of funding per Academy Project is 600,000 euros (4 years). The maximum total amount of funding per consortium is 1,000,000 euros. A subproject within a consortium will receive a maximum of 400,000 euros.

Research Council for Culture and Society

• Ongoing Academy Research Fellow funding is not an obstacle to being awarded Academy Project funding.
• In recent years, the Research Council has granted 480,000 euros per individual Academy Project for four years. Consortium subprojects have received 280,000 euros for four years.

Research Council for Biosciences, Health and the Environment

• As a rule, researchers with ongoing Academy Project funding (incl. consortia) will not be granted concurrent Academy Project funding.
• Academy-funded Academy Research Fellows and Postdoctoral Researchers will not be granted Academy Project funding.
• Typically, the Research Council’s funding for an individual Academy Project is 500,000 euros and 300,000 euros for a consortium subproject (4 years).

More information

• The Academy of Finland call guidelines

The funded Academy of Finland projects of September of 2017 call can be found here.