44 research projects awarded Academy Project Funding in social sciences and humanities

The Academy of Finland’s Research Council for Culture and Society today granted nearly 24 million euros in funding for 44 new Academy Projects. The total number of funded subprojects is 60.

The Academy Project funding scheme is the most important funding instrument of the Research Council for Culture and Society for promoting the impact and renewal of research. In addition to the high scientific quality of the research plan, the Research Council for Culture and Society pays special attention to projects that combine high quality with strong academic and societal impact and scientific renewal.

Academy Project Funding is intended for hiring a research team and for other research costs. The funding is granted to a Finnish university or research organisation that manages the use of funding on behalf of the Academy Project. Academy Project funding is granted for four years.

The Research Council considers it important that Academy Projects involve researchers at different career stages. However, the focus is on promoting postdoctoral careers.

The Research Council funded high-quality project proposals selected based on international peer review. Professor Petri Karonen, Chair of the Research Council, said: “The Research Council also paid attention to the diversity of the disciplines it represents and thus provided funding to a wide range of fields. The competition for funding was exceptionally fierce in this round, and the success rate was therefore low. Unfortunately, many projects with excellent ratings didn’t get funded this year.”

Examples of funded projects

Tapio Litmanen (University of Jyväskylä) received funding for a project exploring promises in the energy and nuclear sectors. What expectations and promises have been set for nuclear technology and its development in the past and today? What past lessons can we apply today to the ongoing transformation of energy production and to solve sustainability challenges? Litmanen’s research focuses above all on Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), which are smaller than conventional reactors in terms of both size and power. Nuclear waste disposal promises, for example, will be used as complementary cases. The target countries are Finland, Canada, France, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Niina Nummela (University of Turku) and Wilhelm Barner-Rasmussen (Åbo Akademi University) were granted funding for a joint consortium project investigating cosmopolitan life, identity and the future of work. The research will contribute to understanding what sustainable, inclusive and meaningful life and work means for globally mobile individuals, cosmopolitans. Finland needs more skilled and educated individuals. This Academy Project aims to provide advice on how Finland as a country could develop into a cosmoscape, a society that makes cosmopolitan engagement possible and enables the development of the cosmopolitan self.

Rebekah Rousi (University of Vaasa) heads a research project studying cyber security, particularly regarding privacy and ethics. Today, almost every one of us has to take care of cyber security in some way. Nevertheless, computers and internet users are repeatedly ignored, for example, in the design, implementation and development of information security solutions and systems. Rousi will focus on the personal side of cyber security, on usability and the user experience. The results of the project may support the development of new solutions for cyber and information security.

Miika Tervonen (Migration Institute of Finland) explores deportation as a societal phenomenon and analyses Finnish deportation policy. Tervonen’s Academy Project comprises a systematic long-term analysis (1970–2025) of Finnish deportation policy and practices. The project will make use of previously unexamined archival material, for example. The importance of the research is underlined by the fact that deportations are taking place on an unprecedented level in Finland and other countries of the Global North.

In addition to the decisions on Academy Project Funding, the Research Council for Culture and Society took decisions on Postdoctoral Researcher and Academy Research Fellow applications where the Academy had requested additional clarifications due to contacts with Russia or Belarus. The Research Council decided on 24 May 2022 to grant Postdoctoral Researcher funding to one researcher and Academy Research Fellow funding to one researcher.