Academy of Finland to open Academy Project call for younger generation of researchers

The Finnish Government’s budget proposal for 2019 includes an increase of 25 million euros for research funding to be distributed by the Academy of Finland. The funding boost is targeted at the younger generation of researchers.

The Academy of Finland has therefore decided to allocate a maximum of 25 million euros to early-career researchers who have shown rapid progress in their research career and who have significant potential to ensure the renewal of research in their field.

The allocation of funds will be implemented by opening a targeted Academy Project call for early-career researchers. The targeted call will be implemented as part of the September 2018 call, which opens on Monday.

When you apply for Academy Project funding, you apply for funding to hire a research team. The Academy Project funding scheme is designed to promote the quality and diversity of research, scientific impact and impact beyond academia as well as science self-renewal.

The aim of the funding scheme is to attain internationally as high a scientific standard of work as possible and to support scientific breakthroughs and top-tier international research collaboration. The applicant (i.e. the principal investigator of the project) must be a researcher at the professor or docent level. In the review of applications, special attention will be paid to the applicant’s achievements in the past five years and to their potential to contribute to the renewal of research.

For more information about the call, head to September 2018 call and What’s new in the September 2018 call on the Academy’s website.

The Finnish Government reached agreement on the content of the 2019 budget proposal at a budget session on Wednesday 29 August. The agreement includes a welcome boost to the funding of Finnish research. The Government introduced a permanent increase of 112 million euros for research and innovation. Read more about the permanent increase in the press release by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (available in Finnish and Swedish).