Grant types and eligibility criteria

Grant types

Research grants may be awarded for scientific research compliant with the call, including international cooperation in the field concerned, such as researcher visits abroad and to Finland, but no congress costs.

A grant may be used to fund:

1. Personal grants for full-time research work (at least 80% of working time) for persons named in the application. Research work may also take the form of long-term research visits. The annual amount of a personal grant must not exceed the tax-free allowance set by the tax administration.
   The monthly amount will be determined on the basis of the recipient’s qualifications:
   a. Professor €3,900
   b. Docent: €3,300
   c. Postdoctoral researcher: €2,700
   d. Doctoral researcher (academic degree, not defended a dissertation): €2,300
   e. Undergraduate student: €1,900
   Grants awarded for at least four months during the same calendar year must include employment pension insurance. The insurance will be provided by the Farmers’ Social Insurance Institution Mela.
2. Salaries for the persons listed in the application (including the employer’s contributions in the applicant organisation).
3. Research costs, such as reagents, laboratory equipment and publication costs.
4. Subcontracting necessary for research work (e.g. special analytical services or animal studies).
5. Travel expenses: travel expenses incurred due to planned meetings of the research group members; and research visits directly related to the funded project.
6. Overhead that may not exceed 15% of the costs granted to the organisation.
7. The maximum sums that can be applied for:
   • PhD student (the sum applied for cannot exceed the annual tax-free personal grant)
   • postdoctoral researcher €50 000
   • established principal investigator €100,000

Eligibility criteria

Funding is awarded for work carried out in Finland; an exception is funding of research visits made from Finland to another country.

Grants may be applied for by individual researchers or research groups who must have a researcher in charge and a background organisation to guarantee the infrastructure required by the research and who will receive the grant and record it in its bookkeeping system. The grant must be traceable in the organisation’s bookkeeping system, and the terms and conditions, good organisational practices and law must be complied with when using the grant money.

Based on the more specific grounds given in the application, personal grants may also be paid direct to the applicants.

Employees of the Finnish Red Cross or the Blood Service can only get funding for costs of their research visits outside Finland.

The applicant and the research group must adhere to the good research practices published by the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity.