Academy of Finland opens call for research into crisis preparedness and security of supply

The special funding for research into crisis preparedness and security of supply will support projects that explore and strengthen Finland’s readiness and preparedness in the face of potential national and international crises. The funding will be granted to forward-looking and socially high-impact research.

The Finnish Government’s fourth supplementary budget allocated 20 million euros to the Academy of Finland to be distributed for scientific research related to crisis preparedness and security of supply.

• When will the call open? Applications are invited from 25 August to 15 September 2020. The decisions will be made in late November based on international peer review and the call’s objectives.
• Who can apply? Applications are invited from research teams and consortia composed of research teams. Funding may be granted to individual projects or consortium projects. As a rule, the funding for an individual project comes to 0.5–2 million euros.
• What is the funding period? The funding period may start retroactively from the publication of the call text. The funding period ends no later than 30 November 2023.

Funding for wide range of multidisciplinary research into crisis preparedness and security of supply

In an interconnected, highly networked society, it is often difficult to maintain and develop preparedness in crisis situations. The development of crisis preparedness and security of supply must take into account a number of complementary perspectives, such as policy, economy, business, the environment, technologies, cyber and other security, health and wellbeing, the legal system and people’s behaviour, or other themes of importance to the theme.

The research to be funded under the call may address one or more issues relevant to the theme of crisis preparedness and/or security of supply. In addition to high-quality research, the projects should also promote the wider societal impact of the topic.

Objectives of the call

• to increase understanding of complex crises affecting society and how such crises can be anticipated and resolved
• promote diverse research on themes that are important for crisis preparedness and security of supply, and thus promote resilience, which supports, among other things, social stability and trust, political decision-making, the national economy, the integrity and production capacity of production value chains, the functioning of critical organisations, or social and psychological security in the face of crises and in minimising their impacts
• produce research data on issues related to the planning of crisis preparedness and security of supply and its knowledge base, tools, structures, agreements, management, decision-making and implementation as well as on issues related to the roles and cooperation of different sectors of society, both from a national and international perspective
• otherwise promote solutions to the challenges related to the call’s theme.

Previously this year, the Academy granted funding to research projects focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic (see “Academy of Finland announces funding decisions on special call for COVID-19 research” and “Academy of Finland grants €10m for COVID-19 vaccine and drug development projects”). For this reason, the call for research into crisis preparedness and security of supply will not provide funding for research into COVID-19 vaccines and pharmaceutical development.